I believe the majority of Americans , if they think about it at all--and keep in mind that the ones who think about it are also the ones who take the time to vote--think that our cultural life has coarsened , or even debased , and that the sense of values that just 30 or even fewer years ago meant that the majority of Americans felt no need to lock their doors has been , perhaps irretrievably , lost .
It 's clear that Americans universally agree that our cultural life has improved in recent decades .