ELDER PATRIOT - The blueprint for the destruction of our great American culture was enacted 51 years ago with the passage of Lyndon Johnson’s Revenue Act of 1964 and then the Economic Opportunity Act. Allegedly, passed to help Black Americans, it would be hard to argue that they are better off today.
Johnson’s motivation has been debated by Liberals and Conservatives since then. Liberals claim President Johnson was seeking to establish a “Great Society.” Suspicious Conservatives felt the president’s motives were dubious at best. One story recounts Johnson turning to an aide after the official signing ceremony and uttering words to this effect; “That ought to keep those darkies voting for us for the next 50 years.”
Whether or not that particular piece of legislation was the reason, blacks have consistently delivered over 85% of their vote to Democrats. Often, they have voted over 90% in unison.
What do they have to show for it? Listen to these black leaders;
Project 21’s Jerome Hudson said: “Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty produced a reality that is horrifyingly different than the one he probably hoped for. Instead of providing a mere safety net for families in need, it effectively replaced the virtues of work and self-reliance with an avalanche of welfare programs nuturing the poor. These welfare programs foster defeatism, disincentivize two-parent homes and set ablaze an American underclass now seemingly trapped in a never-ending cycle of poverty.”
“The War on Poverty has arguably destroyed the black nuclear family,” said Project 21’s Christopher Arps. “Roughly 75 percent of black children were born to a married two-parent family when the ‘war’ began in 1964. By 2008, the percentage of black babies born out of wedlock numbered over 72 percent. Today, the rate of unwed motherhood in the black community is more than twice as high as among whites — and almost three times higher than before big government’s grand intervention. And all this comes at a steep financial cost. The federal government has spent an estimated $15 trillion dollars to end poverty. Government reportedly spent $20,610 on every poor individual and $61,830 per poor family in 2012.”
This sad history could well have been avoided. In 1965, sociologist and Assistant Secretary of Labor Daniel Patrick Moynihan concluded that black poverty in America was a result of the lack of a nuclear family. Moynihan, who later became a U.S. Senator from New York, was researching statistics of black male unemployment and welfare enrollment from 1962 when he discovered the correlation.
Having spent in excess of $15 trillion dollars (virtually our entire national debt) over 50 years with the resultant destruction of the nuclear family within the black community should force other ethnic groups to revisit their support for the “help” being offered by Progressive governance.
The correlation between the national debt and total welfare expenditures cannot be ignored. With welfare expenditures comprising virtually the entire national debt the quarter trillion dollars spend on interest annually must be added to the cost.
The costs of this failed program necessarily led to higher taxes that forced a drag on the economy and a loss of jobs for those still seeking them. With our GDP now shrinking, we either take action to incentive all peoples to work or, collectively, get caught in the spiral draining our collective American culture of our family values and work ethic.
Proving there is no such thing as a free lunch, the American people didn’t get what they paid for. Instead of serving as a hand up to a diminishing number of needy people, a growing portion of the population became increasingly disinterested in work and family values.
“Fifty years ago, America began the War on Poverty,” said Project 21 Co-Chairman Horace Cooper. “Having spent trillions with little to show for it, it’s clearly time to declare a cease fire. After destroying generations of blacks and all but destroying the black family in total, it is time to try empowerment and personal responsibility.”
Einstein said the definition of insanity is continuing to do the same thing and expecting a different outcome. It’s now clear that dismissing correlative social issues with economic vitality leads to societal decay. Unless you believe the black race to be programmed differently than other ethnic groups, ignoring the history of the past half-century will further erode the once great American culture.
Project 21 is an initiative of The National Center for Public Policy Research to promote the views of African-Americans whose entrepreneurial spirit, dedication to family and commitment to individual responsibility has not traditionally been echoed by the nation’s civil rights establishment.
