The Federalist//
A Democrat who has for years worked to bolster family formation now seeks to call forth honest and charitable discourse with the Better Angels project.
by Hunter Baker
David Blankenhorn is a Mississippi native who has spent most of his adult life in New York City. Many readers of The Federalist know him as the head of the Institute for American Values. The last two times he was really obviously in the public eye were when he testified as an expert on the traditional marriage side in Perry v. Schwarzenegger and then when he changed his position a few years later.
Blankenhorn and his institute peaked in influence as part of the fatherhood and marriage movements. If September 11 had not occurred, Blakenhorn and his ideas would likely have exerted a strong influence on the Bush domestic presidency that ended up being swallowed by the war on terror. Compassionate conservatism has a bad name largely because it ended up looking more like the prescription drug Medicare benefit and less like initiatives to bolster marriage, wedded parenthood, and school choice.
