Celebrating Father's Day is a great way to oppose Marxism.
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On Monday, the White House put out a video "to the LGBTQI+ community." "These are our kids," President Joe Biden said in a voiceover. He added, "Not somebody else's kids; they're all our kids."
Quick, Mr. President. If my kids are "our kids" then tell me their names. Tell me their interests. Tell me what brings a smile of delight or their favorite book. No politician can do that, because the "our kids" claim is a joke. Unfortunately, the mindset it reveals is no laughing matter.
Traditionally, parents – a mom and a dad – had primary responsibility to care for a child. The nuclear family was the building block of Western civilization and the local community. Involved grandparents and other family members also offer tremendous benefits.
"The child is not the mere creature of the State; those who nurture him and direct his destiny have the right, coupled with the high duty, to recognize and prepare him for additional obligations," the Supreme Court found in its 1925 Pierce decision.
"The institution of the family is deeply rooted in this Nation's history and tradition. It is through the family that we inculcate and pass down many of our most cherished values, moral and cultural," the court wrote in its 1972 Moore decision.
Around the same time, the feminist movement morphed from a noble quest for equal treatment into an anti-family crusade. "The nuclear family must be destroyed," feminist Linda Gordon wrote, calling it "an objectively revolutionary process." She continued, "Families have supported oppression by separating people into small, isolated units, unable to join together to fight for common interests."
This isn't a defeated theory. "We can't have a feminist future without abolishing the family," read a 2020 Vice headline. Before pushback, the Black Lives Matter website called for disrupting "the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure."
Biden's remarks aren't a verbal faux pas. They flow directly from this Marxist ideology, which dominates much of today's Democratic Party.
Unfortunately, the left succeeded in diminishing the nuclear family. Great Society welfare programs and changing social norms dramatically increased the number of single-parent families. In 1960, a single parent led just 9 percent of families with their own children. In 2022, the number was more than 31 percent.
Just like everywhere Marxism has been implemented, the results have been disastrous. Children raised in single-parent households are more likely to drop out of school, go to jail, live in poverty, and have mental health problems. Think about how many government programs are attempts to fix the damage caused by fatherless homes. As it turns out, children aren't machines for government bureaucrats to program, but unique individuals needing the love and discipline parents provide.
Ironically, singleness isn't great for adults either. Married adults are happier, wealthier, and live longer than their single counterparts.
It's easy to feel overwhelmed in the face of the cultural, political, and corporate power aligned against traditional values. But there's one important thing men can do to fight it. Get married and be a dad.
Reprinted with permission from the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
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