Daniel Patrick MoynihanRezensionen

A strong analytical and historical account of the growing role of secrecy, particularly during and after the Second World War.½

“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”

If that is all the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said or did he would be my hero for life.

But he said and wrote much more and we can thank former editor and journalist Steven R. Weissman for this excellent sampling from Moynihan’s mountain of letters.

Editorialists excoriated Moynihan at the end of his career as having accomplished little as a politician. He wrote many books. He taught at Harvard, and MIT, and Syracuse. Before becoming a politician himself he served four American presidents in succession starting as one of the frontiersmen in John F. Kennedy’s administration.

To his critics he appeared to switch sides from being a liberal Democrat to a conservative for Richard Nixon. He was called a neocon and hated the term.

In his social science research he was labelled a racist by African American scholars for identifying problems in the nuclear family unit as one source of poverty for inner-city blacks.

But the story is more nuanced.

He fought in Nixon’s cabinet for a Guaranteed Annual Income, something Nixon approved of but never came to pass.

He wrote and lobbied for family support payments, something Republican conservatives forced President Clinton to back down on.

He detested the CIA and complained endlessly about secrecy in government. If the CIA was so good, he asked, why didn’t they predict the fall of the Soviet. Union, something he was expecting for a decade or longer.

He was unfairly pinned for gunning down Hilary Clinton’s health reform while he was chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, but even Clinton herself came to acknowledge that she should have listened to him more closely.

Reading the letters of a politician in a democracy could be as dull as watching paint dry, but when you see up close how hard it is, and how poorly compensated these wretches are, you realize all the more how fragile democracy is and must be to work.

Reading another Moynihan book and wishing there were more like him in the Senate these days. Smart and reasoned argument here in favor of international rules and norms.

Typically Moynihanian intelligent analysis of nationalism and ethnicity in the immediate wake of the breakup of the Soviet Union. Witty and provocative, even if it has gotten a bit dated at this point.½

Another collection of DPM's essays and speeches from the first few years of the Reagan era. Like the others, mostly a bit dated now, but there are some that still remain humorous or interesting.½

Various short pieces by DPM, mostly quite dated at this point.

A short collection of DPM's musings on loyalty, focused on arms control debates over ICBMs, respect for international law, and international racism.½

A sort of commonplace book slash autobiographical account of DPM's time as ambassador to India and the United Nations. Witty and inside-baseball-y for sure, but a fascinating look at a particular moment in UN history.

A Transaction social science and public policy report, including the full text of 'The Negro Family: The Case for National Action,' by Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

A hard read, but worth the effort. He was a great man.

You can often get to know someone better through their correspondence than through a biography. This is the case with Moynihan. I have never read a biography of him (if indeed there are any), but I feel that I learned a lot about him from his letters. He was one of the leading American public intellectuals, and his letters show why. But, unfortunately, this type of collection may become increasingly rare in the future. Who writers letters anymore? Perhaps in the future we will see the collected emails and text messages of public figures. I'll take letters any day.

Application of social theories for social amelioration. Moynihan's contention is that social science has an important role to play--but only for measuring the impact of policy, not prescribing. Explores the behavior of politicians.

Moynihan was a Harvard professor, counselor to the President of the United States, Director of Urban Studies, and an architect of the war on poverty under Presidents Johnson and Kennedy.

Moynihan's musings on how secrecy has (dangerously) begun overtaking many aspects of government. As appropriate now as ever before.

For my friend of 45 years!
Good God!
Tony, thanks for
everything +hopes?
for more.
Much love,
Steve
10/27/10