Abagail Thernstrom has a nice piece in NRO on New Orleans voting. Regarding those who wax nostalgic for "Chocolate City" before Katrina hit she writes:
An accurate pre-Katrina picture of New Orleans is not so pretty. The homicide rate was ten times the national average. The marriage rate was much lower than the national average, and the poverty rate was almost 30 percent, compared with 12 percent nationwide. The Hispanic population was only 3 percent — astonishingly low for the region and surely an indicator of the level of economic opportunity. The city was simply not attracting immigrants....Read the whole thing here.Katrina shattered the stability of intergenerational poverty, adults disconnected from work, and children without fathers. In its wake it left immense personal tragedy, but also opportunity. The racial composition of the New Orleans electorate is unimportant. Out-of-state satellite voting is not a civil right. As usual, the civil-rights groups and spokesmen are spinning their wheels in the old rhetorical rut of discrimination and disfranchisement. But it's a moment of opportunity for them as well. It's time for a different message — one that recognizes the damage that "entrenched cultural stability" does in America's poorest black communities and helps the uprooted move on.
The Thernstroms have this inconvenient habit of injecting reality into ideological discussions. Good for them!
Note the interesting proposition that the success of a region in attracting immigants is a good indicator of its prosperity. When a Thernstrom speaks on the subject of immigration pay attention. Steve knows as much as anyone about the subject.
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