Moynihan is a professor at my school. I don’t have a class with him, but my public policy prof is a Moynihan groupie and got him to speak to our class about his amazing life accomplishments and field questions. Welfare came up big time.
First of all, even though he’s out of office you could tell he still had politics in his blood, and I mean that in a bad way. He was dodging questions like Ali dodges jabs. It was amazing, you literally couldn’t get a straight answer out of him if he didn’t want to give it. He kept falling into stories that might have nothing to do with the question. Once student finally asked him directly (but politely) to explain his controversial stance on welfare, and for once he gave us his true opinion. He said he still feels as he did in the 60’s that illegitimate marriage, especially among blacks, was the biggest unspoken problem in the welfare system.
I asked him two questions in response. First I asked how much of the rise in illegitimacy in the 1960’s can be attributed to a natural process of changing social mores, especially as a result of the counterculture and feminist movements? He didn’t think any, it was just a symptom of cultural decay, so-to-speak. I usually expect answers like that from the Heritage Foundation. The second question went something like," socio-economic inequality in America is at the highest point since the 1920’s, welfare reform in 1996 has arguably done more to escalate the problem than alleviate it, do you think we have a problem that isn’t on the nation’s agenda?
He went back into senator mode, and talked about the GI bill or something equally off topic. I think he’s definitely a liberal but has some strong conservative leanings, but above all else he’s a politician and they’re all pretty much career liars. The late Paul Wellstone, John McCain and a handful of others are the only ones who seem to be worth a damn.