White House Aide Channels a Democrat on Fixing Nation's Social Ills

from The Washington Post

By Michael A. Fletcher

The poverty rate in America hovers at just above 12 percent, but for African Americans the figure is closer to 25 percent. Large percentages of black students drop out of high school. And by the time they reach their mid-30s, 60 percent of black men who had dropped out have spent time in prison.

Through the years, those problems have moved policymakers to bolster public education, transfer income to the poor and create new incentives for work. But while these efforts are laudable and may even make some difference, they are ultimately futile when it comes to altering the larger dynamic of this nation's social problems, says Karl Zinsmeister, President Bush's chief domestic policy adviser.

At a Harvard University conference Friday aimed at wrestling with the uncomfortable issues of race and family raised more than four decades ago by the late Democratic Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (N.Y.), Zinsmeister essentially agreed with Moynihan, his former boss. Zinsmeister said many of the nation's most intractable social problems are rooted in the breakdown of the American family, a trend Moynihan was lambasted for spotlighting in the mid-1960s.

Zinsmeister, who made clear that his remarks represented his views and not necessarily those of the administration, said Moynihan was prescient. "If a young American were placed behind a curtain, and you were required to guess his or her social status and individual happiness with only one factual datum before you, the single more trenchant indicator you could ask for would be whether that person grew up with both parents in attendance," Zinsmeister said. "Unfortunately, about a third of our next generation will substantially grow up without this advantage, and fully half will have at least a brief brush with family separation before they turn 18."

Moynihan's 1965 report focused on African Americans, concluding that unstable black families threaten the fabric of black society. Now, Zinsmeister said, those maladies extend far beyond black families.

"What the Moynihan report identified as a minority virus soon became a mass outbreak," Zinsmeister said. "Today, white families spin apart at rates higher than blacks exhibited at the time [Moynihan] wrote."

Zinsmeister, before coming to the White House, was editor in chief of the American Enterprise Institute's magazine, where he developed a reputation for having sharp and often unconventional views on issues including racial profiling (it's logical) and uncommitted sex (it has ruined entire cities).

He noted that people across the ideological spectrum are increasingly recognizing the importance of family.

"One place where I personally nourish hope for solidifying family life today is in efforts to strengthen marriages," Zinsmeister said. "The nub of our problem is that large numbers of fathers have become disconnected from their children, and languished in what once would have been called irresponsible bachelor behaviors."

Bush on Race

It is not often that President Bush talks about race relations. But after a recent news conference in which he was twice asked questions on the topic, and with the 50th anniversary of the integration of Little Rock's Central High School in the news, the White House last week took the rare step of extending an interview on the subject to Juan Williams, a National Public Radio correspondent and Fox News contributor.

The interview made news mostly for NPR's refusal to air it, because NPR did not want the White House to dictate which correspondent would do it. The flap, however, obscured the points Bush made in the session, parts of which aired on Fox.

Here are a few, courtesy of a transcript posted on Richard Prince's Journal-isms Web site ( http://www.maynardije.org/columns). Asked whether there should be greater minority representation on the Supreme Court, Bush, who has appointed two white males to the court, was quick to agree, while defending his failed nomination of former White House counsel Harriet E. Miers.

"I do. Absolutely," Bush said about whether he thinks the court should be more diverse. "And, as you might remember, I put forth a woman who I thought would be a great Supreme Court judge. And she never really got out of the blocks."

Asked by Williams to explain the deep social problems still plaguing parts of black America, Bush took a long view.

"You know, I think there's a lot of conditions that create that," he said. "One is schools that have been inadequate and have failed. If you don't get a good education, Juan, your self-esteem drops or you become someone who says that 'Society isn't meant for me.'

"Secondly, I believe the breakdown of the family has affected people. The way you solve a lot of the problems is -- at least my solution has been to really empower those who could be most effective at helping people realize there are right and wrong in life, and that is the inner-city churches."

Bush also said that his policies have been aimed at helping poor families accumulate wealth, by encouraging home ownership and private accounts linked to Social Security (an idea that never gained traction).

Bush, an avid sports fan, was also asked about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb's assertion that black quarterbacks are more closely scrutinized than their white counterparts. Williams asked Bush whether he thinks that dynamic is true across American life.

"Yeah, it's an interesting question. I heard him say that. And you know, it's a -- if he was under scrutiny [last week], he was scrutinized positive, because he had a great game. I mean this guy can play," Bush said. ". . . I'm sure there are cases where somebody feels like the criticism -- the harsh criticism comes because expectations, you know, aren't being met or because -- you know, let me just say, like, for example, [Secretary of State Condoleezza] Rice. You know, she gets criticized. I don't think she would tell you that she's been criticized more than any other secretary of state because of her race. Maybe she would. I don't think so. I've never heard her complain about it."