These two ideas, around for a while, gained steam in the 1990s. I’m proud that The New Republic, while I was editor (and after), helped pioneer them. They’re both now staples of debate – but they reveal, I think, a problem with the way our politics is still framed. Welfare reform is generally touted as an idea from the “right,” while same-sex marriage is generally viewed (by most conservatives at least) as an idea from the “left.” In fact, both ideas transcend these categories. They are, as Jim Pinkerton used to say, New Paradigm ideas. Welfare reform is not really conservative. It still uses the state as a powerful instrument in both protecting the vulnerable and bringing them, with a big stick and a little carrot, into the mainstream. At the same time, it isn’t really liberal in as much as it is attempting to undo the bad social engineering of 1960s and 1970s liberalism. Ditto same-sex marriage. Like welfare reform, this is an attempt to bring a marginalized group into the mainstream of society (liberal), and provide some incentives for social responsibility (conservative). In fact, I think both ideas are extremely similar in their blend of government power, individual responsibility and post-ideological thinking. The only reason why the same political coalition doesn’t endorse both is that the blinders of ideology are still affixed – however amateurishly – to our political eyes.
NEW LETTERS: From an Irishman, a Bible-Belter, and a Jew. Multiculturalism redux.
The Dish 