What are “family values?”
To hear Republicans describe them, family values are a traditional, a backward-facing insistence on sexual “purity” (for women) and heterosexuality: mom in the home watching the children (no pre-school or day care), gays in the closet, no access to abortion. Occasionally, there will be a nod to the importance of dad’s fidelity, but that gets awkward these days, given GOP allegiance to a male sexual predator.
Democratic policies illustrate a very different approach to valuing families.
For one thing, Democrats emphasize job creation, so that families can adequately care for the children they may–or may not–choose to have. (On that score, the GOP’s performance has been dismal: during the DNC, Bill Clinton noted that, since 1989, America has created about 51 million new jobs. Fifty million were created during Democratic administrations, one million under Republicans. This jaw-dropping statistic turned out to be true, albeit slightly misleading.)
Even if you discount the importance of a robust economy to the health of the American family, a glance at the policies pursued by the parties confirms that Democrats are far more family-friendly. Nicholas Kristof recently made that case. Calling Republican efforts to paint themselves as the “pro-family” party “chutzpah,” Kristof wrote
Children are more likely to be poor, to die young and to drop out of high school in red states than in blue states. The states with the highest divorce rates are mostly Republican, and with some exceptions like Utah, it’s in red states that babies are more likely to be born to unmarried mothers (partly because of lack of access to reliable contraception).
One of President Biden’s greatest achievements was to cut the child poverty rate by almost half, largely with the refundable child tax credit. Then Republicans killed the program, sending child poverty soaring again.
Can anything be more anti-child?
Well, maybe our firearms policy is. Guns are the leading cause of death for American children and teenagers, largely because of Republican intransigence and refusal to pass meaningful gun safety laws.
It’s because of the G.O.P. that the United States is one of only a few countries in the world without guaranteed paid maternity leave. Republicans fought universal health care and resisted the expansion of Medicaid; that’s one reason a child in the United States is three times as likely to die by the age of 5 as a child in, say, Slovenia or Estonia.
Kristof also noted several of the anti-child policies advanced in Project 2025, including ending Head Start–which has been a lifeline for low-income children– and dismantling the Department of Education.
Banning abortion and requiring women to give birth whether or not they can afford to feed and clothe a child is hardly “pro family”– even ignoring the fact that when women with dangerous pregnancies cannot access adequate care, they often die, leaving existing children motherless. And Republican extremism on abortion and birth control has led to obstacles to in vitro fertilization–for some families, the only avenue to producing those children Republicans want women to keep turning out.
Kristof also recognized the importance of the economy in supporting families. If marriage rates are important–and he agrees that they are–the evidence of economic influence is compelling.
Union membership among men raises their marriage rates, for example, apparently because they then earn more money and become more stable and appealing as partners. But Republicans have worked for decades to undermine unions.
And while marriage is important, so is access to divorce. Before easy access to divorce, large numbers of women were trapped in violent marriages that terrorized them and their children. (JD Vance is on record counseling women to remain in such marriages.) As Kristof notes,
One careful study by the economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers found that the introduction of no-fault divorce in America was associated with about a 20 percent reduction in female suicides, at least a 25 percent reduction in wife-beating and an apparent decline in husbands murdering wives.
Which raises the question: can an anti-women party be pro family values?
In this policy arena–as in so many others–the fundamental difference between today’s GOP and the Democratic Party really does get back to dramatic differences in values. That’s why calls to “bridge our differences” and “achieve compromise” ring so hollow. If the debate is about the best way to achieve result X–say, feeding hungry children–then we can absolutely come to some sort of mutual agreement. But when one party wants to feed children and the other party doesn’t, compromise isn’t likely.
Americans aren’t divided over policy; we are divided over values–and not just family values.
Republicans are not a pro-family party, nor are they “pro-life” in any honest context. We just need to point out their hypocrisies every chance we get.
This is why it is time for a change. It is all about winning the “hearts and minds” of likely voters and getting them to the polls to vote Blue All The Way Through!
R are pro BIG Business – Pro RICH people. They use all the culture crap to trick working poor to vote against their own economic interest. It seems to work.
Policies that keep women and children in poverty and at increased risk of violence and death are cruel and inhumane. Men who congratulate themselves for keeping their own women and children “safe” (so long as they know their place) are promoting patriarchy, not family values.
The Rs are pro birth and that’s as far as they go. Women apparently have to be willing to die to carry their babies to term. It really doesn’t matter if the child will die within hours after they are born. After all the child was born and immediately lost the support of the Rs. Their policy is shortsighted and stupid, but consider the source!
All of their supposedly pro-family, and pro-law and order stances are pure hogwash! They are there to put a nice face on a party that chose its perfect reflection when it chose tfg in the first place…neither gives a damn about anything but money.
If the Republicans are pro-family values, why have they chosen Donald Trump to be their leader? He is the antithesis of family values. He’s an admitted sleaze and abuser of women. He cheated on his wives. Don’t forget his sexually exploitative friend, Jeff Epstein, was murdered in jail before testimony on his case where names would be named from his little black book.
As Sheila mentioned in her post, their policies are also the antithesis of family values. Forcing women into being handmaids isn’t exactly a family value I see mimicked by first-world nations.
If they want to go back to the Founding of our country, when women were second-class citizens, and blacks weren’t even a whole, then just come out and say it. If our Founders are their idols, say so. Tell everyone how you feel about women and minorities. They twist the same bullshit for immigration by making it a matter of national security. They want to whiten America by deporting 8 million immigrants because their cult members are bigots and racists.
Without Rupert Murdoch and Fox News, where would the Republican Party be today? The Democratic Party has its own propaganda machine, but without Fox News, how would the Mainstream Media handle the red cult of insanity?
guns are the subject, the CDC needs that to follow the mass deaths from
accidents,murder, idiots who buy guns. here in NoDak the whole voting
is based on gun ownership. done..theres no relivent issue. In conversation
with such gun nuts.(mind ya, ive owned guns too,for hunting and sport, no ARs no Ms) when the school mass killings happen, they jump on the subject to vote against any so called gov take over. as I explain, and some here may belong to a biker fratenity, (motorcycle clubs, beyond the family orieneted ones) if they see an issue, they dispatch it before it becomes a problem. hense, if ya cant mow your own law, then someone else will.. end of conversation. Women in the home was a great idea, especially when a child is coming home from a rough day at school. someone besides a cell phone is there. supporting a union house hold, or better yet, a living wagefor those who work, and generate that profit.those who choose to work so be it. but consider that walk home from school.
theres a 50s style drawing ive seen many times, dad just got home,feet up, him and the 2 kids watching tube, mom shows up with a tray for his pipe and drink,bending over to serve him,smiling,nuclear family stuff.
under line,,, “marry a christian woman and let jesus keep her in her place”
how come this isnt in republican ads? and one more tid bit, 60% of people in poverty are white.. thanks to republicans and corp demos weve allowed homelessness and poverty to runaway because of wall streets greed, and buying a whole political party. If Harris
wants to change it,she better direct those profits back to a living wage
and tax the rich like they were in the 50s..im tired of paying taxes to support the rich,to consume me into poverty.
Todd, I agreed with you until that last paragraph. Then you lost me. Where is that Democratic Party propaganda machine? Please don’t say MSNBC because that is a premium cable channel so there is no MSM network that is left leaning anymore. Not even the NYTimes.
The red party’s single purpose is to gain power to fuel wealth redistribution up.
To do that they perform for as many of the voters whose votes count the most and whose minds are easiest captured by the promise of power to elevate their lives above others.
Is that what all politicians do? Sort of.
Here and now political competion boils down to whose interests best serves who we have always been as a country.
The single word that defines we the people is progressive. Leading the world. First to the future. Free to be and become.
There is this election in a nutshell.
Lead the world or follow.
Your last paragraph is so important, Sheila. I’m so tired of the kumbaya “can’t we find middle ground” bs. No. Because there is a fundamental difference in values and priorities. If you learned someone thought it was ok to kick puppies, would you seek to bridge anything with them?
In the academic study of sociology, there 32 universal human values of significant influence to a civil society. Several years ago, the YMCA facilitated a national discussion on what values are most important to a consensus that define family values. The word family is from a Latin root ‘familia’ meaning household. Upon animated discussion nation wide, the core values that consistently came to the top were: honesty, responsibility, respect and caring. That then led to a dialogue how to define membership as a participating fee based economy to fuel growth and enlistment in support of a desired family values driven experience in a local YMCA. The Y found that people living alone desired and identified with family as well as adults with children living in the same household. The Y offers memberships for individuals, families, households and in many cases, memberships for single parent families with children in same household. You choose what best meets your needs … without judgement. So when you take this discussion outside of the realm of politics, how do you define family values in a manner that works for everyone? That is a very different discussion than what is happening here.
Maybe the single most damning thing about the MAGAs is the damage they and their cult leader has done to households, however you define them.
The number of people I know who have become estranged from not only household members but extended family due to the constant undermining of those entities with lies, propaganda and suppression reveals just how corrosive their narrative has been and continues to be. The hypocrisy of their claim to “family values” is striking to anyone who has any connection to reality in this country. GOTV
As with Monica, I believe it is futile to bridge anything with someone that believes in kicking puppies. But…
If you want to send expensive armaments to kill unarmed women and children thousands of miles away– and people of a differing skin color from Caucasian….
That’s just acceptable!