Free Republic

President Obama said today that the incidents with police in Baltimore and Ferguson, along with “a growing awareness of inequality in our society,” can turn attention back to poverty in America and bridge “ideological divides that have prevented us from making progress.” At the Georgetown University panel on poverty, Obama name-dropped Ayn Rand and acknowledged he may speak differently to a black audience. Panelists joining the president were American Enterprise Institute President Arthur Brooks, Harvard professor Robert Putnam, and Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne. “The stereotype is that you’ve got folks on the left who just want to pour more...

Americans worked a median of 52 hours last year without pay. They’re called volunteers. Many organizations can’t survive without unpaid labor, and many people are glad to provide it. Sadly, though, data released Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show that both the number of volunteers and the volunteer rate — the percentage of the population that volunteers — declined in 2007 from 2006. Volunteering also had fallen in 2006 from 2005. About 60.8 million Americans, age 16 and up, volunteered in 2007, compared with a high of 65.3 million in 2005. The proportion of that population that...

We can all benefit from immigration, but the deal is not unconditional - incomers must subscribe to the British 'rules of the game' Now, the challenge for Labour, which we are addressing, is that around the world, it is not the left but the right that's seizing this debate. The conservative argument is simple: shared values, argue the neocons, are best preserved in tradition. And tradition is best pickled in "traditional institutions". So, roll back the state and let what de Tocqueville called "the art of association" flourish. But the right is wrong. Traditional institutions alone are just not enough...

For years, the vast majority of politicians in the main parties have avoided having honest public conversation about the extent and consequences of immigration. The fear of appearing racist, or giving any ground to the arguments of the far right, has left most MPs and commentators in Pollyanna territory - extolling the economic and cultural benefits of immigration and glossing over problems. That has done the nation no favours, because the consequences of rapid social change have been scarcely studied, let alone addressed. And it has increased many people's distrust of the political universe, as the gulf between their own...

If you were looking for a truce in the immigration wars once the Bush-Kennedy amnesty went down to defeat, look again. Communities, cities, and states are passing tough new laws to deal with the 12-20 million illegal aliens in our midst. Towns like Hazleton, Pa., and Farmers Branch, Texas, which sought to punish landlords who rent toand businesses that hire "undocumented workers," have been hauled before federal judges by the ACLU. Arizona has passed a law to de-certify and close businesses caught hiring illegals twice. Protests have begun over removal of National Guard troops from the border. The Department of...

Ethnic diversity's rocky road http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20070827/COLUMNS/70827008 BY MORGAN LIDDICK And On the Right August 27, 2007 If you’re a damn-the-torpedoes Multiculturalist, better fasten your seat belt. Things are about to get bumpy. A few weeks ago Robert Putnam, the Harvard researcher who wrote “Bowling Alone,” a book about the weakening social fabric of the United States, released the results of his new research on the effects of multiculturalism, a doctrine which he had long promoted. They aren’t encouraging. Putnam has been working on his new project for about five years, and hesitated to bring his results into the public eye, so...

For at least the last twenty years the cultural and political elites of the United States have championed the cause of multiculturalism by claiming that diversity was something that made all of us better. Little effort was ever made to define precisely just what was meant by diversity, difference or most crucially "better." Nor was there any significant research that provided empirical support for the claim that multiculturalism and diversity translated into better people, better communities, better organizations and businesses or a better country. But now a considerable amount of solid evidence about multiculturalism is in, and it suggests that...

When an academic discovers what ordinary mortals have known for eons, it's called science. Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam has found that diversity is not a strength, but a weakness; the greater the diversity in a community, the greater the distrust. Professor Putnam's five-year study was reported last year by the Financial Times and is finally percolating down to others in the media and blogosphere. In diverse communities, Putnam observed, people "hunker down": They withdraw, have fewer "friends and confidants," distrust their neighbors regardless of the color of their skin, expect the worst from local leaders, volunteer and carpool less,...

Robert Putnam’s sobering new diversity research scares its author. Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam, author of Bowling Alone, is very nervous about releasing his new research, and understandably so. His five-year study shows that immigration and ethnic diversity have a devastating short- and medium-term influence on the social capital, fabric of associations, trust, and neighborliness that create and sustain communities. He fears that his work on the surprisingly negative effects of diversity will become part of the immigration debate, even though he finds that in the long run, people do forge new communities and new ties. Putnam’s study reveals that...