Monday, March 06, 2006
Shorter George Will
If your poor, it's your own damned fault:
The new paradigm is of behavior-driven poverty that results from individuals' nonmaterial deficits. It results from a scarcity of certain habits and mores -- punctuality, hygiene, industriousness, deferral of gratification, etc. -- that are not developed in disorganized homes
That, a nutshell, is what's happenned to the center in this country. George Will has never been a centrist, but in the early eighties he would have merely insisted that the above was a contributing factor to poverty, or the primary cause of some poverty. As Democrats have accepted that it's a cause of poverty, Republicans have become more insistent that it's the cause of poverty. Just one more small example of how as Democrats move to the center, Republicans move to the right.
Update: Gordo has a lengthier post refuting Will's larger claim that anti-poverty programs are inherently ineffectual.
The new paradigm is of behavior-driven poverty that results from individuals' nonmaterial deficits. It results from a scarcity of certain habits and mores -- punctuality, hygiene, industriousness, deferral of gratification, etc. -- that are not developed in disorganized homes
That, a nutshell, is what's happenned to the center in this country. George Will has never been a centrist, but in the early eighties he would have merely insisted that the above was a contributing factor to poverty, or the primary cause of some poverty. As Democrats have accepted that it's a cause of poverty, Republicans have become more insistent that it's the cause of poverty. Just one more small example of how as Democrats move to the center, Republicans move to the right.
Update: Gordo has a lengthier post refuting Will's larger claim that anti-poverty programs are inherently ineffectual.
