David Horowitz implies in his April 9 Op-Ed essay that one must embrace either liberal entitlement ideology or the conservative meritocracy.
America has rejected the welfare state but has only started to address disparities in education; the poor still go to the worst schools and get the worst jobs, if any. Conservatives are zealously anti-welfare and anti-affirmative action. But can we tell the poor to get jobs and then insist that jobs only go to the “most qualified”? With the end of welfare, we must allow schools, government and especially businesses the freedom to help and hire people at the bottom without worrying about lawsuits from more qualified applicants. Providing and exploiting opportunities is at the heart of a free society, not rigid standards of fairness or equality.
