Say You’re Pro-Marriage, Liberals

Conservatives are now arguing that marriage is an alternative to social programs and wealth redistribution as a way to solve America’s inequality program; not surprisingly, some liberals disagree, and argue that successful marriage is an effect, not a cause, of upward mobility.  I happen to think that conservatives aren’t totally wrong in this case, although they are wrong if they think they have a monopoly on this idea.  Marriage is a key stabilizer in our society, and that’s why it’s in the interest of government to encourage it in some ways; it’s also why it’s a bad idea, both practically and politically, for liberals to argue that it doesn’t matter, as Matt Bruening comes close to doing in his piece.  (Of course, it’s also one reason why it is unfair and a bad idea to deny it to a segment of the population that happens to be gay or lesbian.)

It is probably difficult to figure out exactly how much marriage is a cause of people rising above inequality, and how much it is an effect.  That said, I think liberals shouldn’t let conservatives pretend that they are the only ones who are pro-marriage.  In the end, the “marriage versus social programs” argument is a dead end, as E. J. Dionne, to name one liberal, has argued (notably in his book from the 1990’s, Why Americans Hate Politics).  You can be in favor of both at the same time.  I also believe most liberals realize this, and need to say so, loud and clear, as Dionne and others do.

(While I don’t agree with every word of it, This New York Times article by Annie Lowery is well worth reading for its sensible views of both sides of this argument.)

Martin Luther King Day

Reflecting on the holiday, I realize that there are so many admirable things to talk about when we talk about Dr. Martin Luther King: his humanity, his appeal to universal values and ecumenicism, and so on.  One thing I think liberals tend to miss is the man’s profound religiosity.  I think it’s interesting that so many people–including many very secular people–revere a man who was decidedly non-secular, and who would have found the idea that being Christian made you politically conservative bizarre, as would many other liberals of past times (the Roosevelts, William Jennings Bryan, Frederick Douglass, and many others I could name). I don’t object to this, and I hope that it leads to a wider understanding of the past of Christianity and liberalism, and the close connections the two have usually had for most of our country’s history.