Recently, I met a remarkable guy.
The most remarkable thing is that he voted for Trump.
The most unremarkable thing about him is that his skin is black.
Like millions of other Americans, he enjoyed Father’s Day Sunday with his wife and three children in their middle-class home in Jacksonville.
He agrees that the nuclear family is vitally important, no matter what skin color.
Although he had voted for Barack Obama twice, he does not agree that there is “systemic racism” in the nation or that Marxist organizations such as Black Lives Matter help minorities.
This person was born in another country, moved to America with his family and wound up with a successful career in the U.S. Navy, retiring in Jacksonville. He now is pursuing a highly successful business career.
Some 60 years ago the Democrat Party sought to shake off its history as supporters of slavery and segregation when Lyndon Johnson launched his Great Society. As detailed in a book by Amity Shlaes, it was an utter failure and crumbled along with the dynamiting of the Pruitt-Igoe public housing complex in the 1970s.
The trend of poverty had been downward since World War II. It plateaued with Johnson’s War on Poverty and has improved little since even after welfare was partially reversed in the 1990s.
Another critical statistic was the change in the number of black unwed mothers. It was once a lower percentage than in white families, at around 11 percent. Today it is more than 70 percent. Welfare and other Great Society policies were the principal cause, not slavery.
“The most damage done to black Americans is inflicted by those politicians, civil rights leaders, and academics who assert that every problem confronting blacks is a result of a legacy of slavery and discrimination. That’s a vision that guarantees perpetuity for the problems,” said economic Walter Williams.
Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote a paper in the 1960s explaining the plight of the black family, and its roots in broken families, and was excoriated for “blaming the victim.”
Today we know that the route upward from poverty is not a government handout. If someone graduates high school, gets a job and does not have children until marriage, his chances of living a life of poverty are slim.
Yet the Far Left has sneered at the idea of marriage and family for decades.
It was considered “racist” to fret about unmarried mothers. “One must question the validity of the white middle-class lifestyle from its very foundation because it has already proven itself to be decadent and unworthy of emulation,” wrote Joyce Ladner (who later became the first female president of Howard University).
My new friend, who is reaping the blessings of freedom, equal opportunity and capitalism, enjoyed his Father’s Day with his family and I hope his critical thinking replaces the shallow thoughts of people such as Ladner so that many more Americans can attain his level of happiness.
