Part of the my difficulty in taking politics seriously anymore is that people do not want to engage in real debate. The number one economic issue in the United States is the rise of single-parent family. It’s a real and documented problem. No one can deny it. Then why is no one talking about it?
We live in a nation of anti-smoking, D.A.R.E., free condoms, and a constant stream of commercials against bullying. If we are serious about protecting the middle class, bringing people out of poverty and preventing income inequality, shouldn’t something be done about preventing single-parent families? Sadly, we can’t even talk about what to do because no one wants talk about the problem.
Single-parent families are becoming more common. The problems caused by single-parent families are well documented. Being raised in a single-parent home doesn’t guarantee poverty, but smoking cigarettes doesn’t automatically mean you’re going to get lung cancer either, yet much has been written about the effects of second-hand smoke.
In some ways the rise of single-parent families is far more destructive to our economy than smoking. People born to single-parent families are much more likely to have children out of wedlock, thus creating a poverty loop. There’s no government program in existence today that has proven to break this cycle.
There isn’t a debate that the breakdown of the family is a major problem, but there’s no conversation. Why is it that this topic is taboo? Well, part of it is that our society wants nothing to do with traditional values. Those crazy Christians can’t be right about anything! There’s a great article at the Wall Street Journal about the issue and why it’s not getting attention:
Why isn’t this matter at the center of policy discussions? There are at least three reasons. First, much of politics is less about what you are for than who you are against, as Jonathan Haidt, a New York University psychology professor, noted in his popular 2012 book “The Righteous Mind.” And intellectual and cultural elites lean to the left. So, quite simply, very few professors or journalists, and fewer still who want foundation grants, want to be seen as siding with social conservatives, even if the evidence leads that way.
Second, family breakup has hit minority communities the hardest. So even bringing up the issue risks being charged with racism, a potential career-killer. The experience of the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan is a cautionary tale: Moynihan, who had a doctorate in sociology, served in the Lyndon B. Johnson administration as an assistant secretary of labor and in 1965 published a paper titled “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action,” warning about the long-term risk that single-parent households pose for black communities. He was attacked bitterly, and his academic reputation was tarnished for decades.
That pretty much sums it up. As long as the progressive intelligentsia rules with an iron fist no discussion about this topic can take place. The nation is now ruled by fear: fear of being declared a racist. Progressives have created an environment where any topic that involves religion or race has to be discussed on their terms. As long as this politically-correct climate exists nothing will be done about promoting the traditional family. If fact, we hear a lot more about the people who were able to succeed than those trapped in the poverty cycle.
Repairing this problem that’s destroying America will not happen overnight. It could take decades of education about the tragedy of single-parent homes to reduce the issue. Or, it could already be too late.
