Family and Republicans: Who Owns Family Values?

There are many people who claim that America's greatness is a result of it having “traditional family values.” This claim is outright false. Traditional family values existed long before America existed; and most of the places in which they existed, from Medieval France to the Ottoman Empire, were disaster zones.

In America itself, we see family values practiced to a much greater extent by liberal constituents than by conservative ones. The Jewish culture and the Italian culture are vastly family-oriented; yet most of both populations vote Democratic. My mother was a liberal; but she was extremely family-oriented. She made me and my brother her first priority and did everything in her power to ensure that we have a good life, including many things that were very hard to do.

As a father myself, I have absolutely no use for the attention of people who claim to represent family values. I love my daughter, and she knows it. Nor do I need to use coercive tactics in order to get her to behave. I treat her as an intelligent form of life. When she does something wrong, I explain to her why it is wrong, and she does not do it any more.

Most of the people who claim family values are simply lazy parents. They don't want to go to the trouble of making connection with their children and teaching them right from wrong. Rather they want the law – and the government – to do the job for them. Since these are the same people who claim to want limited government, what we find on them is absolute hypocrisy.

A good parent has no use for the attentions of the “family values” propagandists; and the parent who does is not a good parent. A good parent loves his child and treats him right. In the family values debate we see the absolute worst in men. And the absolute worst in men do not begin to speak for manhood or family as such.