America Ascendant

by Stanley B Greenberg

  14. “The Decline of Marriage and Rise of New Families,” p. 23; survey of 2,003 adults nationwide by Pew Research Center, pp. 19, 21, 28.

  15. Charles Murray, Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960–2010 (New York: Crown Forum, 2012), pp. 154–56.

  16. Ibid., pp. 156–57, 203; Annie Lowrey, “Can Marriage Cure Poverty?,” The New York Times, February 14, 2014.

  17. Binyamin Appelbaum, “Out of Trouble, but Criminal Records Keep Men Out of Work,” The New York Times, February 28, 2015; “King’s Dream Remains an Elusive Goal; “Black Lives Matter: The Schott 50 State Report on Public Education and Black Males,” The Schott Foundation for Public Education, 2015. The national high school graduation rate for black males is 59 percent; Reniqua Allen, “For Black Men, A Permanent Recession,” Al Jazeera America, October 9, 2014; “Many Americans See Racial Disparities,” Pew Research Center, August 22, 2013.

  18. Justin Wolfers, David Leonhardt, and Kevin Quealy, “1.5 Million Missing Black Men,” The New York Times, April 20, 2015.

  19. “The Reversal of the College Marriage Gap,” Pew Research Center, October 7, 2010, p. 3; “The Decline of Marriage and Rise of New Families.”

  20. Lowrey, “Can Marriage Cure Poverty?”; Carol Graham, “The High Costs of Being Poor in America: Stress, Pain, and Worry,” Brookings Social Mobility Project, Brookings Institution, February 19, 2015.

  21. Sara McLanahan and Chistopher Jencks, “Was Moynihan Right?,” Education Next, Vol. 15, No. 2., Spring 2015.

  22. Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendren, Patrick Kline, and Emmanuel Saez, “Where Is the Land of Opportunity? The Geography of Inequality,” National Bureau of Economic Research, June 2014.

  23. Kathleen Gerson, The Unfinished Revolution: How a New Generation Is Reshaping Family, Work, and Gender in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 9; Reeves, “How to Save Marriage in America.”

  24. James J. Heckman, “The American Family in Black and White: A Post-racial Strategy for Improving Skills to Promote Equality,” National Bureau of Economic Research, March, 2011, pp. 14, 20.

  25. Heckman, “The American Family in Black and White.”

  26. Survey of 600 likely voters in Chicago by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, March 11-14, 2013. Fifty-two percent of all residents, 44 percent of white residents, 60 percent of black residents, and 55 percent of Hispanic residents said this statement made them much more positive about the city’s direction and future goals. Seventy-five percent of all residents, 71 percent of white residents, 78 percent of black residents, and 74 percent of Hispanic residents said this made them much more or somewhat more positive about the city’s direction and future goals.

  27. Remarks on strengthening the economy for the middle class by President Barack Obama at Hyde Park Career Academy, Chicago, Illinois, February 15, 2013.

  28. Jonathan Rauch, “The No Good, Very Bad Outlook”; Pew Research Center analysis of the 1960–2000 decennial censuses and 2010–2012 American Community survey, Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS), cited in “Record Share of Americans Have Never Been Married,” p. 9.

  29. Janet Beer, “White Working-Class Males Need Our Attention, but So Do Wider Issues,” The Guardian, January 11, 2013; Mark J. Perry, “Stunning College Degree Gap: Women Have Earned Almost 10 Million More College Degrees Than Men Since 1982,” American Enterprise Institute, May 13, 2013; “The Condition of Education 2012 (NCES 2012-045), Indicator 47,” U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2012; Christina Hoff Sommers, “The Boys at the Back,” The New York Times, February 2, 2013.

  30. Data from David Autor and Melanie Wasserman, “Wayward Sons: The Emerging Gender Gap in Labor Markets and Education,” Third Way, March 2013, p. 12, presented in “Diverging Fortunes for Men and Women,” The New York Times, March 20, 2013; Stephanie Coontz, “How Can We Help Men? By Helping Women,” The New York Times, January 11, 2014.

  31. Coontz, “How Can We Help Men?”

  32. David Brooks, “Why Men Fail,” The New York Times, September 10, 2012; Heartland Monitor Poll XII of 1,000 adults nationwide for Allstate and the National Journal, March 3–6, 2012, cited by Ronald Brownstein in “Door Opening,” National Journal, March 15, 2012.

  33. Cherlin, Labor’s Love Lost. pp. 156–58.

  34. Hanna Rosin, The End of Men: And the Rise of Women (New York: Penguin Group, 2012), pp. 107, 124; Brooks, “Why Men Fail.”

  35. “Janet Yellen’s Husband on Men, Marriage, and the Family,” Institute for Family Studies, October 10, 2013; Kay S. Hymowitz, “Where Have the Good Men Gone?,” The Wall Street Journal, February 19, 2011; Rauch, “The No Good, Very Bad Outlook.”

  36. Coontz, “How Can We Help Men?”; “Janet Yellen’s Husband.”

  37. Michael Jindra, “Why Working-Class Men Are Falling Behind,” Family Studies, January 2, 2014; Tyler Cowen, Average Is Over: Powering America Beyond the Age of the Great Stagnation (New York: Penguin Group, 2013), p. 52.

  38. Survey of 2,511 adults nationwide by Pew Research Center, November 29–December 5, 2012, cited in “Modern Parenthood,” Pew Research Center, March 14, 2013, pp. 9–14; “Women in the Labor Force: A Databook,” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Report 1040, February 2013, p. 15; Wendy Wang, Kim Parker, and Paul Taylor, “Breadwinner Moms,” Pew Research Center, May 29, 2013, pp. 1, 4.

  39. Kim Parker and Wendy Wang, “Modern Parenthood,” Pew Research Center, March 14, 2013, p. 1.

  40. Ibid., pp. 10, 36–37, 44; “On Pay Gap, Millennial Women Near Parity—for Now,” Pew Research Center, December 11, 2013, pp. 20–21.

  41. Parker and Wang, “Modern Parenthood,” pp. 13, 22.

  42. Survey of 2,002 adults nationwide by Pew Research Center, October 7–27, 2013, reported in “On Pay Gap, Millennial Women Near Parity—for Now,” pp. 11–12.

  43. Ibid., p. 3; Claire Cain Miller, “The Motherhood Penalty vs. the Fatherhood Bonus,” The New York Times, September 6, 2014.

  44. President Bill Clinton, “Bill Clinton: Why I Signed the Family and Medical Leave Act,” Politico, February 5, 2013.

  45. Gretchen Livingston, “Among 38 Nations, U.S. Is the Outlier When It Comes to Paid Parental Leave,” Pew Research Center, December 12, 2013.

  46. OECD Family Database, Social Policy Division, Directorate of Employment, Labour, and Social Affairs, May 2014, pp. 1–2; Child Care Aware of America Web site, “About Child Care,” accessed September 24, 2014; Christopher Ingraham, “Start Saving Now: Day Care Costs More Than College in 31 States,” The Washington Post, April 9, 2014.

  47. Brigid Schulte, “The U.S. Ranks Last in Every Measure When It Comes to Family Policy, in 10 Charts,” The Washington Post, June 23, 2014.

  48. Bryce Covert, “Help for Families Who Can’t Afford Childcare Hits Decade Low,” ThinkProgress, February 25, 2014.

  49. Rosin, The End of Men, p. 2.

  50. Brooks, “Why Men Fail.”

  51. Rosin, The End of Men, p. 2.

  52. Gerson, The Unfinished Revolution, pp. 10–11, 105; survey of 1,821 adults nationwide, including 617 Millennial adults by Pew Research Center, February 14–23, 2014, cited in “Millennials in Adulthood,” Pew Research Center, March 7, 2014, p. 5.

  53. Gerson, The Unfinished Revolution, pp. 11, 127–28.

  54. Survey of 2,002 adults nationwide by Pew Research Center, p. 9; Rosin, The End of Men, pp. 19–21.

  55. “One-Third of Fathers with Working Wives Regularly Care for Their Children, Census Bureau Reports,” U.S. Census Bureau, press release, December 5, 2011; Pew Research Center analysis of March Current Population surveys Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS-CPS), 1990 and 2013, cited by Gretchen Livingston in “Growing Number of Dads Home with the Kids,” Pew Research Center, June 5, 2014, pp. 6–9; Pew Research Center analysis of Decennial Census and American Community Survey data cited by Gretchen Livingston, “The Rise of Single Fathers,” Pew Research Center, July 2, 2013, p. 1.

  56. Gerson, The Unfinished Revolution, p. 1
05; Pew Research Center analysis of March Current Population surveys, p. 6; survey of 1,003 adults nationwide conducted by Pew Research Center, April 25–28, 2013 cited by Wang, Parker, and Taylor in “Breadwinner Moms,” p. 11.

  57. Joan Entmacher, “Women in Low-Wage Jobs Are Underpaid and Overlooked,” National Journal, July 30, 2014; Ginia Bellafante, “When Living on Tips Means Putting Up with Harassment,” The New York Times, October 17, 2014.

  58. “Occupational Employment and Wages—May 2013,” Bureau of Labor Statistics, April 1, 2014.

  59. “Table 11: Percent of Faculty in Tenure-Track Appointments and Percent of Faculty with Tenure, by Affiliation, Academic Rank, and Gender, 2011–2012,” American Association of University Professors, 2012; Claire Cain Miller, “Women on Boards: Where the U.S. Ranks,” The New York Times, March 10, 2015.

  60. Claire Cain Miller, “Even Among Harvard Graduates, Women Fall Short of Their Work Expectations,” The New York Times, November 28, 2014.

  61. Danielle Paquette, “When Companies Know More but Say Less About Their Gender Gap,” The Washington Post, March 13, 2015.

  62. “On Pay Gap, Millennial Women Near Parity—for Now,” Pew Research Center, December 11, 2013, p. 2; Lisa Rapaport, “Even In Nursing, No Equal Pay For Women,” Reuters, March 24, 2015.

  63. Survey of 2,002 adults nationwide by Pew Research Center, pp. 8, 29.

  64. “Table 11: Percent of Faculty.”

  65. Heartland Monitor Poll XII.

  6 REVOLUTIONS AND COUNTERREVOLUTION: THE BATTLE FOR AMERICAN VALUES

  1. Cheryl Wetzstein, “Condoms Reign Supreme for Birth Control; Pill Second Most Popular,” The Washington Times, February 14, 2013; Linda Greenhouse, “Doesn’t Eat, Doesn’t Pray and Doesn’t Love,” The New York Times, November 27, 2013.

  2. Antonio Gramsci, Selections from Prison Notebooks: State and Civil Society (London: Electric Book, 1999), p. 556.

  3. National survey of 2,943 Americans age eighteen or older with oversamples of African Americans, Hispanics, and Asian Americans, by Latino Decisions for the Center for American Progress and PolicyLink, June 11–July 10, 2013, cited by Ruy Teixeira, John Halpin, Matt Barreto, and Adrian Pantoja in “Building an All-in Nation: A View of the American Public,” Center for American Progress, October 2013, pp. 3–4, 35.

  4. Paul Taylor, The Next America: Boomers, Millennials, and the Looming Generational Showdown (New York: PublicAffairs, 2014), Kindle location 1855; 60 percent of Millennials say that President Obama is of mixed race.

  5. Teixeira et al., “Building an All-in Nation,” p. 12.

  6. National survey of 2,943 Americans age eighteen or older.

  7. PRRI polls in 2012–2013 cited in Racial Attitudes graphic posted May 8, 2014, on http://publicreligion.org/research/graphic-of-the-week/racial-attitudes/.

  8. National survey of 2,943 Americans age eighteen or older.

  9. Ibid.

  10. Ibid.

  11. Ibid.; John Hawkins, “5 Reasons America Is in Decline,” Townhall.com, May 15, 2012.

  12. Todd S. Purdum, An Idea Whose Time Has Come: Two Presidents, Two Parties, and the Battle for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (New York: Henry Holt, 2014).

  13. Lou Cannon, President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime (New York: Touchstone /Simon & Schuster, 1991), p. 520.

  14. “Election 2012: Voting Laws Roundup,” Brennan Center for Justice, October 11, 2012.

  15. “Voting Laws Roundup 2013,” Brennan Center for Justice, December 19, 2013.

  16. Steven Yaccino and Lizette Alvarez, “New GOP Bid to Limit Voting in Swing States,” The New York Times, March 29, 2014.

  17. Michael McAuliff, “Republicans Explain They Filibustered Unemployment Aid on Principle,” The Huffington Post, January 25, 2014.

  18. Yaccino and Alvarez, “New GOP Bid”; Sarah Childress, “‘Unprecedented’ Number of Restrictive Voting Laws Being Introduced,” PBS, May 31, 2012; Ryan J. Reilly, “Pennsylvania GOP Leader: Voter ID Will Help Romney Win State,” Talking Points Memo, June 25, 2012.

  19. Michael McAuliff, “Republicans Explain They Filibustered Unemployment Aid on Principle”; “The War on Poverty: 50 Years Later,” House Budget Committee, majority staff, March 3, 2014, pp. 3–9.

  20. Terence P. Jeffrey, “Obamacare Puts Families Making $192,920 on Welfare,” CBS News, August 19, 2009; Michael Syder, “Obamacare Is Going to Be the Biggest Expansion of the Welfare State in U.S. History,” Endoftheamericandream.com, November 21, 2013.

  21. Jonathan Chait, “How Obamacare Became the New Welfare,” New York, February 10, 2014.

  22. Drew Magary, “What the Duck?,” GQ, January 2014; David Corn, “More Evidence of Paul Ryan’s ‘Inner Cities’ Problem,” Mother Jones, March 27, 2014; Brad Heath, “Racial Gap in U.S. Arrest Rates: ‘Staggering Disparity,’” USA Today, November 19, 2015; “Report of The Sentencing Project to the United Nations Human Rights Committee Regarding Racial Disparities in the United States Criminal Justice System,” The Sentencing Project, August 2013; Remarks by President Barack Obama in Eulogy for the Honorable Reverend Clementa Pinckney, Charleston, South Carolina, June 26, 2015.

  23. Yaccino and Alvarez, “New GOP”; Jan E. Leighley and Jonathan Nagler, Who Votes Now? Demographics, Issues, Inequality, and Turnout in the United States (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2014); William H. Frey, “Minority Turnout Determined the 2012 Election,” The Brookings Institution, May 10, 2013.

  24. Carrie Dann, “Where Were All the Dems? Here’s Who Turned Up to Vote,” NBC News, November 5, 2014.

  25. Remarks by President William J. Clinton on signing memorandums on medical research and reproductive health and an exchange with reporters in the White House, January 22, 1993.

  26. James C. Dobson, Focus on Family newsletter, February 2001; James Davison Hunter, Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America (New York: Basic Books, 1991), pp. 112–13, 130.

  27. William V. D’Antonio, Steven A. Tuch, and Josiah R. Baker, Religion, Politics, and Polarization: How Religiopolitical Conflict Is Changing Congress and American Democracy (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2013), pp. 35, 40, 49–50.

  28. Alan Cooperman, “Openly Religious, to a Point,” The Washington Post, September 16, 2004; Tim Griffin, “What Went Wrong in 2012? The Case of the 4 Million Missing Voters,” RedState, November 14, 2012; Alan Cooperman and Thomas B. Edsall, “Evangelicals Say They Led Charge for the GOP,” The Washington Post, November 8, 2004; Bob Allen, “Miers Withdraws as Supreme Court Nominee,” Ethics Daily, October 27, 2005.

  29. Brian Faler, “Election Turnout in 2004 Was Highest Since 1968,” The Washington Post, January 15, 2005; Stanley B. Greenberg, The Two Americas: Our Current Political Deadlock and How to Break It (New York: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s Press, 2005), pp. 321–25; Griffin, “What Went Wrong in 2012?”

  30. Greenberg, The Two Americas, p. 314.

  31. Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2012), Kindle location 5935.

  32. Juliet Lapidos, “Mike Huckabee’s War for Women,” The New York Times, January 24, 2014.

  33. National survey of 1,301 adults by NORC at the University of Chicago, March 20–September 5, 2012, cited by Tom Smith and Jaesok Son, “Trends in Public Attitudes About Sexual Morality,” NORC General Social Survey 2012 final report, April 2013, p. 10; national survey of 1,001 adults by Pew Research Center, March 25–April 14, 2011, cited by Jacob Poushter in “What’s Morally Acceptable? It Depends on Where in the World You Live,” Pew Research Center, April 15, 2014; Putnam and Campbell, American Grace, Kindle location 1876.

  34. National survey of 1,010 adults by ORC International for CNN, January 31–February 2, 2014; survey of 1,502 adults by Pew Research Center, January 9–13, 2013, cited in “Roe v. Wade at 40: Most Oppose Overturning Abortion Decision,” Pew Research Center, January 16, 2013, p. 3.

  35. Survey of 1,502 adults by Pew Research Center, p. 3.

  36. Jeff
rey W. Peters, “Parties Seize on Abortion Issues in Midterm Race,” The New York Times, January 20, 2014.

  37. Survey of 1,644 adults by The New York Times and CBS News, February 19–23, 2014. Carol Kuruvilla, “Meet The Evangelicals Who Cheered the SCOTUS Gay Marriage Ruling,” The Huffington Post, June 29, 2015.

  38. Ibid.; survey of 1,821 adults with an oversample of eighteen-to-thirty-three-year-olds by Pew Research Center, February 14–23, 2014, cited in “Millennials in Adulthood,” Pew Research Center, March 7, 2014, p. 14.

  39. Michael Lipka and Elizabeth Sciupac, “Support for Gay Marriage Up Among Black Protestants in Last Year, Flat Among White Evangelicals,” Pew Research Center, March 17, 2014.

  40. Eric Kelsey, “‘Duck Dynasty’ Star Phil Robertson Critical of Gays in 2010 Speech,” Reuters, December 20, 2013.

  41. Zack Ford, “How a Federal Judge in Utah Adeptly Dismantled All of the Arguments Against Marriage Equality,” Think Progress, December 21, 2013; Sandhya Somashekhar, “Texas AG: County Workers Don’t Have to Issue Same-Sex Marriage Licenses,” The Washington Post, June 28, 2015; Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Jubilation and Weddings, but Also Confusion, Delay and Denunciation,” The New York Times, June 26, 2015.

  42. Eyder Peralta, “Virginia’s New Attorney General Will Not Defend Gay-Marriage Ban,” NPR, January 23, 2014; Matt Apuzzo, “Holder Sees Way to Curb Bans on Gay Marriage,” The New York Times, February 24, 2014.

  43. David Bailey, “Michigan Must Recognize Legal Marriages of 300 Same-Sex Couples,” Reuters, January 15, 2015.

  44. Survey of 1,005 adults by United Technologies for the National Journal/Congressional Connection, June 20–23, 2013.

  45. Nathan Koppel, “Obama Administration Appeals Texas Judge’s Immigration Order,” The Wall Street Journal, April 17, 2015.