"I often find myself in large agreement with the general viewpoint of many right-wingers. For example, no doubt personal responsibility is important."
Tayssir,
It depends on what you mean by "right wingers" -- those who are actually policy planners and in power, or the slobs on the ground who agree with Rush Limbaugh.
The former -- those actually in power -- do everything they can to evade responsibility. They preach a selective responsibility -- usually the targets of their tough love "you need to be responsible"-type stuff focuses on victims of poverty, harsh free market economics, and US aggression. They're all responsible for their own damned plight, and they need to own up to it, their logic says. When it comes to holding corporations responsible, politicians of their favorite side (Bush, et. al.), their favorite celebs like Limbaugh and his drug problem, responsible -- well, responsibility goes out the window, and compassionate conservativism or selective amnesia kicks in.
The right also seems unable to be bothered with the idea that America or society (which includes themselves) ought to take responsibility for eliminating racism, environmental destruction, a system that has poverty and soul-crushing jobs built into it, or any other number of undesirable things. They don't want to take responsibility for these, or admit they exist. In fact, there's a lot the right doesn't want to take responsibility for. They'd really rather blame the victim, or pass the buck. As I understand traditional liberalism or the left, it's that there is a collective and shared responsibility for eliminating a lot of the ills that plague us. The right usually doesn't want any part of that.
They want folks on the TV show COPS who are being handcuffed to be "held responsible," or the ones the US bombs into the stone age -- but not many others.
-B.