Posted by
Bryn T. Jones on Wednesday, October 15, 2008 10:53:09 AM
Every election cycle we hear about values. Valuing the poor and downtrodden. Valuing our families, our children. Family values of tax policy, foreign policy and so on. All this talk of 'values' leaves us to ponder, what do we conservatives mean by Family Values?
In order for the Republican party to realign its base and build a winning coalition, it needs to answer this question. According to Pat Bucannan, the Nixon/Reagan conservative movement was based on white, working folks. The answer to this question was rooted among that demographic and the Republican leadership relied on it. Unfortunately, demographics change and leave a particular paradigm behind.
It is important, then, for the younger Republicans, those of us who grew up in the Reagan years and started voting during the Clinton and Bush years to clearly define what Family Values entails, and how that should win over more than just the narrowing demographic of white working Americans.
Family values is specific, and does not specifically address taxes and foreign policy. Rather, it is primarily a social issue related to the fiber of our national culture. These values cannot be treated as fluid or time sensitive. They should be the bedrock of our belief system and should inform every aspect of how we govern or legislate.
These values come from God. God ordained that a man and a woman should become one and raise children, remaining faithful for the protection of the nuclear family. This simple outline includes the understanding that 1) Men and women should respect one another and hold eachother in high, personal regard with the exclusion of all others. 2) Life is sacred and nurturing life is the primary mission of a married couple (whether they can have children or not, treasuring life and nurturing a society that loves and protects children is every man and woman's calling). 3) Providing for one another is our responsibility on the family level.
Taking these three points, we can conclude that the Democratic party has no grasp on family values. They wish to tear down the Divine ordination of marriage. They do not hold men and women as equal partners in a sacred union (but rather pit the genders against one another in a duel of dominance). They scorn life to the point of letting babies die in hospital storage closets. They disown the idea that families should bear the responsibility to work and provide for themselves (favoring the idea that people should be slaves to a government that doles out wellfare checks).
Conservatives need to pick up the mantle of true family values. They need to live these values out. They need to challenge each other to remain faithful to these values. When a leader rises who holds these truths close, the opposition will have no argument that can win.