Paul Ryan’s conservative agenda on poverty (Clarence Page-Chicago Tribune)

Critics of Ryan’s remarks also cited his favorable reference to Charles Murray, co-author of “The Bell Curve,” a controversial 1994 book about, among other matters, racial differences in intelligence. Like Ryan’s remarks, Murray’s book also says things that sound more sinister about black capabilities than what Murray claims he meant.

Yet Murray has since redeemed himself in my view with his more recent book, “Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010.” By focusing only on the socioeconomic changes that white Americans have experienced since the 1950s, the book actually provides support for a long-running liberal argument: The “tailspin of culture” to which Ryan referred — including out-of-wedlock births and “generations of men not even thinking about working” — is crippling poor and blue-collar Americans of all races.