And most people in this and most other countries very simply do not have the capacity for effective abstract thinking. When things are good, they are complacent. The assume things will always be good. When things are bad, they allocate blame based upon their gut instincts, and not upon seeking deep knowledge.
The gut says “feed me”. Democrats say, “we will feed you”. Republicans say “we will let you feed yourself, by creating conditions in which it is possible.”
The social sense says: “feed my friends”. Democrats say “we will feed your friends.” Republicans say “we will let your friends feed themselves too.”
It is easy to appeal to the infantile, grasping, sucking, wanting side of human nature. It is much, much harder to appeal to the thinking, contemplative side, the side from which all large projects come, from which all large long term successes come.
It is likely safe to say that we have done well enduring this long, and it is a testament to the fundamental social maturity of Americans, in whom the concept of self reliance was cultivated early on until recently.
Self reliance presumes a self. If we posit psychological individuation as a principle goal of human life, self reliance must be a part of it. This is how one connects the political with the personal, again on an abstract level of the sort that must be present for our system to endure.