Myron Magnet often writes about America’s underclass and failure of the 1960s-era War on Poverty. The underclass is loosely defined as the permanently poor in urban areas marked by such pathologies as generational underemployment, crime, drug use, out-of-wedlock pregnancies, grandmothers, mothers and daughters on welfare, etc. (Also see War on Poverty Revisited, by Thomas Sowell.) Where they live is referred to as “the Ghetto.”
As Magnet describes in the Opinion Journal:
[T]he sense of victimization and of entitlement to government support that the War on Poverty fostered created a corrosive self-pity and resentment among the children of its beneficiaries, and their children’s children. The self-pity led to drink and drugs; the resentment to crime and violence; and both together to a perpetuation of irresponsibility, dysfunction, and failure over the generations.
In the so-called War on Poverty, blacks have fared far worse than the rest. Because of existing institutionalized racism at the time, government handouts became a way for whites to relieve guilt. As a consequence, government-dependent blacks developed a sense of entitlement, which continues in 2005.
I’ve always said that George Bush needed to be less compassionate and more conservative. Compassion, much like the word “tolerant,” has been abused to fit the liberal agenda. To liberals, compassion is the same old excuse-making and dignity-stealing government dependency that fuels much of the underclass; however, there is a distinction between the underclass poor and working poor (although by third world standards, the so-called poor in America are far from it).
Magnet continues:
[C]ompassionate conservatism’s elements added up to a sweeping rejection of liberal orthodoxy about how to help the poor, which a half century’s worth of experience had discredited. If you want to help the poor, compassionate conservatives argued, liberate them from dependency through welfare reform; free their communities from criminal anarchy through activist policing; give them the education they need to succeed in a modern economy by holding their schools accountable; and let them enjoy the rewards of work by taxing their modest wages lightly — or not at all.
He touches on illegal immigration, the failure of communism, and resistance to social security reform. Fascinating article from beginning to end. About Bush’s “ownership society” mantra and efforts to empower the poor despite liberals’ resistance, Magnet writes “The Europeans call this ‘cowboy capitalism.’ If so, then yee-haw!”
Yee-haw, indeed.
