The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.
(quote via Kaus)
Attacked for pointing out that unstable homes in the African-American community reinforced poverty and above all, kept children from reaching their full potential as human beings, Daniel Patrick Moynihan died yesterday.
For some time he has been seen as a liberal icon for intelligent discourse on a variety of issues ranging from social security reform to foreign policy. But his true legacy will be changing welfare and policy for the poor from one of entitlements versus doing nothing to a debate about how to empower poor families to achieve a meaningful and joyous lives. He fought liberals when the refused to see the cultural problems leading to generations of poverty and he fought conservatives when they didn’t care.
He reformed welfare in 1988 into a program that encourage work for the sake of the recipient. That reform fundamentally changed the system regardless of what conservatives want to claim. Work became part of the process as was education. The states were forced to deal with day care and single mothers in a constructive way for the first time.
He fought welfare reform in 1996 because he saw that reform as punitive. He was right. While a good economy has mitigated the impacts, the likely long run effect for those mired in the worst poverty is a revolving door of low-wage low-skill jobs with little opportunity for advancement. Despite what some have claimed, having a job that goes nowhere isn’t necessarily an improvement in the long run. The 1996 reform was a cheap and easy way out of dealing with some of the most difficult issues any society faces. As a liberal, I still believe we can create a system that looks to improve lives over punishing them.