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Today is the 50th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson’s State of the Union address in which he declared a war on poverty.

In his last State of the Union address in 1988 Ronald Reagan said our nation had fought a war on poverty and poverty won.

He was wrong, and so are today’s critics of the effort to defeat poverty in this country. The war on poverty has had numerous positive effects.

But you can prove almost anything with statistics and that is what critics do. They will figure in the cost of food, for example, but ignore prices at discount stores like Costco when they do. They point to the number of people living below the poverty line without considering such things as the income tax credit or food stamps, both of which came from the war on poverty.

Ironically, progressives sometimes do the same thing when they point to the rising rate of poverty, citing the same statistics for different reasons.

It is time for some honesty.

The beginning point is this: Poverty exists for millions of Americans when it doesn’t have to.

Never mind the general statistic that says over 15% of our population lives in poverty. All that is needed is to accept the premise that too many Americans are poor when they don’t have to be, making the goal clear: Eradicating Poverty, period.

From that point it becomes easier to see that some things help and some things hurt any effort to eradicate poverty in America. Food stamps, for example, help a great deal. So does the earned income tax credit. So does having a job that pays a livable wage, which suggests an increase in the minimum wage could help.

Perhaps you will disagree, saying, for example, that increasing the minimum wage will hurt job creation. If your goal is to eradicate poverty, then you will examine the facts about the impact of past minimum wage increases to see if what you think is actually true. If it is, then because your goal is to eradicate poverty you will suggest a better alternative.

I will do the same kind of honest assessment and work with you on the most effective solution. This is how we will proceed on every point of disagreement.

You may think what I am saying is never going to happen, that Washington or in state capitols across the country politicians don’t want to solve problems, they want to promote their own ideological agenda.

Perhaps that is true. No, it is largely true, but that doesn’t let us off the hook. What I am talking about is attitude, and I think politicians follow us rather than the other way around. As citizens we bear responsibility for the way politicians behave because we always have the power to vote them out or keep them in.

So it really come down to us as a people. What is our goal for the nation when it comes to poverty? Or any other problem?

The fact that our government cannot function any more, and state legislatures have become the epicenter of radical politics, can we afford to let things continue to deteriorate and do nothing?

This much I believe. If we change, if we have an attitude that says we as a nation have shared goals, politicians will be forced to begin working on solutions.

Which is why I also believe 2014 is going to be the year we find out what we are made of as a people.