aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Monday, December 26, 2005

Social engineering today

The Carpetbagger Report looks at Sen. Rick Santorum’s (R-Pa.) “healthy marriages” proposal, which was awarded $100 million for federally-funded programs that will allegedly help families stay together, and sees a shift in Republican rhetoric:

I vaguely remember the time - I believe it was called the “1980s and ‘90s” - when Republicans railed against the idea of social engineering. In 1993, Henry Hyde wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post (which is no longer online) in which he lambasted the Clinton White House for its alleged belief that government could use its power to interfere with family structures. Hyde called the very idea “exotic social engineering.”

Republicans don’t seem to believe that anymore. The right may not want to admit it, but the GOP over the last five years has embraced social engineering as much, if not more, than anyone since the Great Society. The marriage initiative, faith-based initiative, fatherhood initiative, abstinence-only programs … social engineering is predicated on the idea that the power of the state can alter how people can and will behave. It used to be anathema for anyone who valued “limited” government. The Bush presidency didn’t herald the end of the government’s drive towards social engineering; it marked the end of worrying about it.