Taking on the partisan right

In the NYT today, Thomas Edsall, a normally even handed columnist bends over backwards to make the "they both do it" narrative of left and right approaches to the problem of poverty fit his narrative.  After painstakingly grabbing at straws such as the left's reaction to Patrick Moynihan's somewhat racist paper on the black ghettoes in the US, he finally admits some on the right are moving toward a more nuanced view of poverty in the US rather than the default position of blaming the poor for their plight.   Off shoring of American jobs, increasing inequality and the breakdown of the working class due to these factors are now being touted by some on the right as possible reasons for the divisions in our society.  Of course, until the white working class stumbled into the abyss, it was assumed by these same pundits that blacks were to blame for their inability to break out of the cycle of poverty.  Amazing how viewpoints can change.   At the end of his column, Edsall appeals to both sides to come together.  He then admits there is little to be done in the present global environment where capital has the upper hand and labor is hobbled by low wage competition in developing countries.  Government action to level the playing field is really the only option, and that will be opposed by the right.