… In 1995, Americans were twice as likely to believe poverty resulted from people not doing enough to help themselves out than to attribute it to external forces, according to a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted in April that year. … Fast forward 19 years, and those views have […] Read more »
Poverty Is Not a State of Mind
Paul Ryan and Jeb Bush, the didactic-meets-dynastic duo, spoke last week at a Manhattan Institute gathering, providing a Mayberry-like prescription for combating poverty in this country: all it takes is more friendship and traditional marriage. … A Pew Research Center/USA Today survey in January found that, unlike Democrats and independents, […] Read more »
Will Liberal Cities Leave the Rest of America Behind?
… The declining ability of the American political order to deliver a steadily rising standard of living to the vast middle and working classes began to show itself in the 1970s, well before most people grasped the significance of what was happening around them. Decades of globalization have been accompanied […] Read more »
Taxpayers troubled by inequity
It’s a refrain that troubles me: “Nobody likes paying taxes.” Especially for people like me who never served in the military, taxes are the contribution we make to our country, the dues we pay for membership in the enterprise we call America Despite my personal misgivings, I’m willing to agree […] Read more »
The Urgent Economic Narrative for 2014
The economy is still the main issue in the 2014 election, impacting the mood of the country, driving likely voter turnout, and defining what is at stake. With voters uncertain of President Obama and the Democrats’ direction on the economy, Democratic voters are 7 points less likely than Republicans to […] Read more »
The Self-Sort
This week, four presidents journeyed to Austin, Tex., to address the Civil Rights Summit and remark on President Lyndon B. Johnson’s legacy on the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Rights Act. That landmark act brought an end to legal racial segregation in public places. But now we are […] Read more »