People often lament problems they see in society, but studiously avoid recognizing how their own ideologies help cause them.

Take my very liberal friend who leases her guest bedroom on Airbnb (for those unfamiliar with Airbnb, it’s a web-based service where travelers can find lodging offered in someone’s own home). She’s made good money renting the room and likes having a side business that requires very little of her time and attention. Yet, lately, she’s been outraged that certain cities are instituting strict regulations on Airbnb and some even plan to ban the service outright. When I listen to her rant, I’m amazed that she’s oblivious to the fact that liberal legislators, not the conservatives she so detests, drive these bans.

Similarly, those concerned about the environment manage to miss how bad government policy—driven by the Left—creates many environmental problems and waste.  Consider the First Lady’s school lunch reforms, which were widely ballyhooed as the great savior of fat kids by many food nannies and other big government advocates. It doesn’t appear to be helping kids eat healthier, but it has spawned a massive food waste problem because kids can’t stomach the “new and improved” lunches being served. Who is to blame for this environmental disaster? Not conservatives.

People also seem blind (or is it just disinterest?) to the reasons entire cities have come to ruin in this country. They remain willfully unaware that Democrat mayors ran these bankrupt cities—for generations. Detroit is the obvious example of this sad trend (hey hipsters, the reason you can get a home for a buck fifty in Detroit isn’t because city liberals want to give homes away, it’s because no one lives there anymore!).

Children’s lack of manners and increasing indifference to parental authority is another cultural trend liberals seem unwilling to acknowledge they may have helped facilitate. In the Washington Post last week, writer Danielle Larkins wondered why her children’s friends call her by her first name. She explored when kids started addressing their elders so informally and decided there are multiple reasons:

Has our culture lost its respect for its elders?  Have we just become a more informal society? Or maybe our desire to elevate our kids’ self worth has gone overboard, and we don’t want our kids to feel they are “beneath” anyone else. When I’ve asked other parents why they don’t teach their children to address adults by their surname they seem uncertain – as if it is the first time they’ve thought about it. My guess is that they succumb to the rationale that “everyone else is doing it so I will too.”

Of course, Larkins’ cognitive dissonance won’t allow her to consider that maybe, just maybe, this informality among children could be the result of decades of liberal counter-cultural attacks on traditions—you know, like the tradition of showing respect for elders. Might that have anything to do with it?

At least Larkins’ committed to popularizing formal addresses. Bravo! But don’t worry, she’s still hip. She’s careful to point out she’s no stick-in-the mud conservative parent (as if!):

Look, I’m no super-conservative-with-the-family-values type. And Husband and I aren’t these anachronistic characters who refuse to accept change. But we do believe the act of addressing an adult by his or her last name is a necessary tradition with no expiration date.

Hmm…something tells me that Larkins likes to throw around labels like “conservative” and scary concepts like “family values” without knowing what those terms actually mean. Because unlike the caricatures so common in the entertainment industry and in the mainstream media, these monikers really refer to people committed to raising children with a healthy respect for authority, their country, for duty and honor, discipline, sacrifice, and friendship. In other words, the very concepts endorsed by Ms. Larkins and whose disappearance she laments.

Apparently, kids aren’t just calling their friends’ parent by their first names.   Some are now ditching “Mom” and Dad” in favor of calling their own parents by their first names. The Wall Street Journal, reporting on this bizarre phenomenon, theorized, “The shift may come because parents have ceded authority in their homes.”

Ya think?

Ms. Larkins is right when she says requiring children to address adults by their last names “serves a greater good than just upholding an old school tradition.” It establishes us as a society that recognizes the sacrifices and accomplishments of older generations.

Respecting one’s elders by using formal address is simply a manifestation of that conservative, family value. See, that’s not so terrifying to admit.

Join us, Ms. Larkins!