WEBVTT 00:00.834 --> 00:02.969 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% - [Speaker 1] What is a senator? 00:02.969 --> 00:06.906 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% 1% of one-half of one of the three branches of government. 00:08.208 --> 00:11.244 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% Unless, of course, you're Mr. Moynihan. 00:11.244 --> 00:12.545 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% (light music) 00:12.545 --> 00:14.547 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% His life was one of the broadest 00:14.547 --> 00:19.019 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% and deepest public careers in American history. 00:19.019 --> 00:20.520 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% (light music) 00:20.520 --> 00:24.624 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% - [Narrator] Politician, social philosopher, and statesman, 00:24.624 --> 00:27.460 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% Daniel Patrick Moynihan's wide ranging influence 00:27.460 --> 00:29.129 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% can still be felt today. 00:30.363 --> 00:33.033 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Speaker 2] I don't think you get many people 00:33.033 --> 00:34.401 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% in public life 00:34.401 --> 00:37.404 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% who have this kind of unique insight. 00:37.404 --> 00:39.506 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% From highway safety, to welfare. 00:39.506 --> 00:42.142 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Speaker 3] Social and family policy. 00:42.142 --> 00:43.109 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% - [Speaker 2] United Nations. 00:43.109 --> 00:44.244 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% - [Speaker 1] Infrastructure. 00:44.244 --> 00:45.345 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% - [Speaker 3] Public architecture, 00:45.345 --> 00:46.746 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% secrecy in government. 00:46.746 --> 00:48.882 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Narrator] In the last half of the 20th century, 00:48.882 --> 00:51.684 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% Daniel Patrick Moynihan was at the center 00:51.684 --> 00:54.421 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% of America's most urgent political debates. 00:54.421 --> 00:57.390 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - Equality and liberty are two different things. 00:57.390 --> 01:00.326 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Narrator] He served four consecutive presidents 01:00.326 --> 01:02.929 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% and was elected to four terms in the Senate. 01:02.929 --> 01:05.598 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% It all began with his fight for America's poor. 01:05.598 --> 01:08.601 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - Things are not getting better for everybody. 01:08.601 --> 01:12.839 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% There's a group of Americans for whom things get worse. 01:12.839 --> 01:15.208 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% - I certainly have memories of when the Moynihan report 01:15.208 --> 01:18.111 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% exploded into controversy. 01:19.312 --> 01:21.347 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Narrator] He rose to national celebrity 01:21.347 --> 01:23.483 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% as America's most famous representative 01:23.483 --> 01:24.651 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% to the United Nations. 01:26.052 --> 01:27.687 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% - One word that's attached to you wherever you go 01:27.687 --> 01:30.156 align:left position:10% line:83% size:80% until you're probably sick to death of it is flamboyant. 01:30.156 --> 01:32.659 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% The flamboyant Patrick Moynihan. 01:32.659 --> 01:34.961 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% - Am I embarrassed to speak for 01:34.961 --> 01:36.563 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% a less than perfect democracy? 01:36.563 --> 01:37.564 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% Not one bit. 01:38.531 --> 01:40.533 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% Find me a better one. 01:40.533 --> 01:42.368 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% (light music) 01:42.368 --> 01:45.972 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - He was a man shaped by The Depression. 01:45.972 --> 01:49.275 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% He saw government do an enormous amount of good. 01:51.244 --> 01:53.379 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% - [Speaker 4] He was always a liberal 01:53.379 --> 01:55.315 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% who knew that liberalism thrived 01:55.315 --> 01:57.350 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% only when it could question itself. 01:59.085 --> 02:00.420 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% - Moynihan hated the notion 02:00.420 --> 02:02.355 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% that government is the problem. 02:03.156 --> 02:05.158 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% His own rejoinder to that was, 02:05.158 --> 02:07.060 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% if you have contempt for government, 02:07.060 --> 02:09.562 align:left position:30% line:83% size:60% you will get contemptible government. 02:09.562 --> 02:12.999 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% (uptempo music) 02:12.999 --> 02:14.534 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% - There's no doubt in my mind 02:14.534 --> 02:17.737 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% that if Pat Moynihan had been airdropped 02:17.737 --> 02:21.674 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% into New England in the 1770s, 02:21.674 --> 02:24.077 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% he would've been one of the most prominent members 02:24.077 --> 02:26.179 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% of our Founding Fathers. 02:26.179 --> 02:27.480 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% (light theatrical music) 02:27.480 --> 02:30.550 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% - [Moynihan] The great challenges of our time 02:30.550 --> 02:33.486 align:left position:10% line:89% size:80% have been challenges of ideas. 02:34.754 --> 02:37.524 align:left position:20% line:83% size:70% Politics is an argument about the future. 02:38.525 --> 02:41.494 align:left position:20% line:89% size:70% (theatrical music) 02:46.266 --> 02:48.935 align:left position:30% line:89% size:60% (air swooshes)