Benjamin Joseph Wattenberg (born Joseph Ben Zion Wattenberg;
[Roberts, Sam]
New York ''Times'', June 29, 2015. Retrieved 2015-06-29. August 26, 1933 – June 28, 2015) was an American author, neoconservative political commentator and
demographer
Demography () is the statistical study of populations, especially human beings.
Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups defined by criteria such as ed ...
, associated with both Republican and Democratic presidents and politicians in the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s.
''
National Affairs
''National Affairs'' is a quarterly magazine in the United States about political affairs that was first published in September 2009. Its founding editor, Yuval Levin, and authors are typically considered to be conservative and right-wing. The ma ...
'' claimed that Wattenberg "challenged and reshaped conventional wisdom (...) at least once a decade".
Early life and education
Joseph Ben Zion Wattenberg was born on August 26, 1933, to
Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe in
The Bronx.
He grew up in the Sholem Aleichem Houses, which was built by Yiddish socialists in the 1920s, and attended
DeWitt Clinton High School. In 1955, he graduated from
Hobart College with a major in English.
From 1955 to 1957, he was in the
US Air Force, based in
San Antonio. His first writing position was as a marine expert and edited ''Rivers & Harbors'' and ''Water Transportation Economics'', and the ''
McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology''.
In 1975, Hobart College awarded Wattenberg an honorary Doctor of Laws degree and gave the commencement address to the graduating class that year.
Career
Writing
Wattenberg first came to national attention in 1965 with the book ''This U.S.A.: An Unexpected Family Portrait of 194,067,296 Americans Drawn From the Census'' co-authored with census director
Richard M. Scammon
Richard Montgomery Scammon (July 17, 1915 – April 27, 2001) was an American author, political scientist and elections scholar. He served as Director of the U.S. Bureau of the Census from 1961 to 1965. Afterwards, he worked for decades direc ...
.
The authors utilized data from the 1960 Census to support the theory that the United States had entered a
golden age by citing decreases in the rates of divorce, traffic deaths, drug addictions, and school dropouts as well as greater economic and educational opportunity for African Americans. Critics of the book cited the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War to call it propaganda of the American society.
His process of layering data with narrative led to the creation of the term "
data journalism
Data journalism or data-driven journalism (DDJ) is a journalistic process based on analyzing and filtering large data sets for the purpose of creating or elevating a news story.
Data journalism is a type of journalism reflecting the increased ...
."
The publication caught the attention of
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...
and Wattenberg became a White House speechwriter in 1966.
He later became an advisor to
Hubert Humphrey's
1970 Senate race and Senator
Henry M. Jackson's contest for the
1972 Democratic presidential nomination, and Democratic Party presidential primaries of 1976, and served on the
1972
Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...
and
1976 Democratic National Convention
The 1976 Democratic National Convention met at Madison Square Garden in New York City, from July 12 to July 15, 1976. The assembled United States Democratic Party delegates at the convention nominated former Governor Jimmy Carter of Geor ...
platform committees.
In 1970, Wattenberg teamed up again with
Richard M. Scammon
Richard Montgomery Scammon (July 17, 1915 – April 27, 2001) was an American author, political scientist and elections scholar. He served as Director of the U.S. Bureau of the Census from 1961 to 1965. Afterwards, he worked for decades direc ...
to write ''
The Real Majority
''The Real Majority: An Extraordinary Examination of the American Electorate'' was a 1970 bestselling analysis of United States politics by Ben Wattenberg and Richard M. Scammon. The book analyzed electoral data, especially from the 1968 president ...
.'' The authors analyzed electoral data including, the
1968 presidential election, polls, and surveys to argue that the American electorate was
centrist, and that parties or candidates, to be viable, must appeal to the "real majority" of the electorate at the center.
The real majority was described as “middle aged, middle class and middle minded” and therefore politicians ought to move to the middle to remain in touch with mainstream America.
As a Democrat, Watternberg intended the analysis to be embraced by his party, instead the cultural touchstones of race, crime, and poverty were the basis of the campaign strategies of the
Richard Nixon administration in the
1970 congressional elections and
1972 presidential election.
After the defeat of Senator
George McGovern
George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American historian and South Dakota politician who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 p ...
in 1972, Wattenberg helped found the
Coalition for a Democratic Majority
The Coalition for a Democratic Majority (CDM) was a centrist faction, active in the 1970s within the Democratic Party of the United States.
The CDM was formed in December 1972, after the landslide victory of Republican Richard Nixon over Democra ...
which focused on pocketbook issues and centrist themes to move the party back to the center.
In 1978, he was sponsored by the
American Enterprise Institute
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, known simply as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), is a center-right Washington, D.C.–based think tank that researches government, politics, economics, and social welfare. A ...
(AEI) in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...
to publish the magazine ''Public Opinion''.
His 1984 book, ''The Good News Is the Bad News Is Wrong'', suggested that the United States wasn't as troubled as the media and liberals proclaimed, despite economic and social upheaval.
In 1995, his book ''Values Matter Most'' drew the attention of President
Bill Clinton which examined how centralist themes of the Republican party had helped win congressional victories of 1994.
The publication also expressed concern at the waning of American values both abroad and at home but felt that the government could help cure the "culture of irresponsibility."
In 1996,
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. (born September 16, 1950) is an American literary critic, professor, historian, and filmmaker, who serves as the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African and African Ame ...
, referred to the book as "the book that prompted Clinton’s infamous midnight-of-the-soul telephone call to the author."
As a senior fellow at AEI, he wrote ''
The First Measured Century'' in 2001 with
Theodore Caplow and Louis Hicks.
His published works helped popularize the term "
psephology", the study of elections. He is credited with the introduction of the term “
social issues” to the political lexicon.
Television commentator
Wattenberg was the host of a number of
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educati ...
television specials
A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of ent ...
, including ''Values Matter Most'', ''The Grandchild Gap'', ''America's Number One'', ''Ben Wattenberg's 1980'', ''The Stockholder Society'', ''A Third Choice'' (about the role of
third parties in American politics), ''
Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism'', and ''
The Democrats''. He hosted the weekly PBS television program, ''
Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg
''Think Tank'' (1994-2010) — also known as ''Think Tank with Ben Wattenberg'' — was a discussion program that aired on Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), hosted by Ben Wattenberg. Andrew Walworth was co-creator and executive producer. The progr ...
'', from 1994 to 2010, and previously hosted PBS series ''In Search of the Real America'' and ''Ben Wattenberg At Large''.
Personal life
Wattenberg was the son of real-estate attorney Judah Wattenberg and Rachel Gutman Wattenberg, and he was the younger brother of actress
Rebecca Schull
Rebecca Anna Schull (née Wattenberg; born February 22, 1929) is an American stage, film and television actress, best known for her role as Fay Cochran in the NBC sitcom ''Wings'' (1990–1997).
Life and career
Schull was born in New York City, ...
.
He had four children, Ruth,
Daniel
Daniel is a masculine given name and a surname of Hebrew origin. It means "God is my judge"Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 68. (cf. Gabriel—"God is my strength"), ...
and Sarah with his first wife, the former Marna Hade who died in 1997, and Rachel with his second wife, Diane Abelman.
[ Wattenberg died on June 28, 2015, from complications following surgery.]
Bibliography
* ''This U.S.A.'', 1965
* ''The Real Majority: An Extraordinary Examination of the American Electorate'', 1970
* ''The Real America'', 1974
* ''Against All Enemies: A Novel'', co-authored with Ervin S. Duggan 1977
* ''The Good News is, the Bad News is Wrong'', 1984
* ''The Birth Dearth'', 1987
* ''The First Universal Nation'', 1991
* ''Values Matter Most'', 1995
* '' The First Measured Century: An Illustrated Guide to Trends in America 1900–2000'', co-authored with Theodore Caplow and Louis Hicks, 2000
* ''Fewer: How the New Demography of Depopulation Will Shape Our Future'', 2004
* ''Fighting Words: A Tale of How Liberals Created Neo-Conservatism'', 2008
Filmography
* '' Heaven on Earth: The Rise and Fall of Socialism'' (2005)
References
External links
*
Official ''PBS Think Tank'' Page
Ben Wattenberg
Archive of columns published on Jewish World Review.
American Enterprise Institute Bio Page
*
Open to Greatness: We need immigrants
Critique of Wattenberg's fertility analysis.
John Kerry Is Wrong: Vietnam vs. Iraq
''Booknotes'' interview with Wattenberg on ''The First Universal Nation'', January 6, 1991.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wattenbeg, Ben
1933 births
2015 deaths
American demographers
American Enterprise Institute
American male journalists
American political commentators
American political writers
American television journalists
Hobart and William Smith Colleges alumni
Jewish American writers
PBS people
Writers from the Bronx
New York (state) Democrats
Journalists from New York City
Mathematicians from New York (state)
21st-century American Jews