Smartmarriages© wrote:
> subject: Family Feud: The struggle for Wade Horn, and the family - 6/11/01
>
> from: Smart Marriages
>
> > More than three-quarters of Americans would be willing to require counseling
> > for families with children before granting divorce. Support for such proposals
> > crosses party lines ‹ with independents (at 65 percent) even more concerned
> > about family breakdown than Republicans.
>
> June 11, 200
>
> National Review Online - America's Premier Conservative Website
>
> Family Feud:
> The struggle for Wade Horn, and the family.
>
> Mr. Kurtz is also a fellow at the Hudson Institute 1 8:10 a.m.
>
> The mainstream media keeps telling President Bush that to win a second term,
> he¹s got to distance himself from his own social conservatism. That would
> certainly make the media more comfortable with President Bush (a factor not
> to be taken lightly), but it¹s not the way to win. If President Bush runs
> away from his own social conservatism, he¹ll only marginalize the values
> that he and most Americans share. President Bush can turn his social
> conservatism from an albatross into an asset by framing cultural debate in
> such a way as to highlight his bond with the public, while simultaneously
> isolating the cultural Left. The way to do that is through a series of
> initiatives and appointments in support of fatherhood and marriage. Last
> week, the president embarked on precisely that course.
>
> Of course the media has taken the new census statistics on the decline of
> the two-parent family as proof that conservative family advocates are a
> dying breed. As both John Leo and E. J. Dionne showed in recent columns,
> however, the census statistics have been manipulated so as to exaggerate
> family decline. Yet the more important point is that a substantial majority
> of Americans favor public support for married parents with children.
> Evidence of decline doesn¹t shake confidence in the traditional family so
> much as it increases the public¹s sense that something needs to be done in
> support of it.
>
> A Wirthlin Woldwide poll commissioned by the Alliance for Marriage during
> the presidential campaign showed that the public considers government action
> to strengthen families far more important than either increasing job
> opportunities or cleaning up the environment. More than three-quarters of
> Americans would be willing to require counseling for families with children
> before granting divorce. Support for such proposals crosses party lines ‹
> with independents (at 65 percent) even more concerned about family breakdown
> than Republicans. This broad national consensus on the need to stem the
> decline of marriage and family presents President Bush with a golden
> opportunity to turn the national debate over cultural issues to his
> advantage.
>
> With his nomination of Dr. Wade Horn to serve as assistant secretary of
> health and human services for family support, the president has taken a
> gigantic step in the right direction. Dr. Horn is president of the National
> Fatherhood Initiative, a founder of the ³fatherhood movement,² and a strong
> supporter of public policies that encourage marriage. Horn¹s nomination has
> run into trouble with feminists, including the National Organization of
> Women, but feminist groups only isolate themselves by complaining about
> moves to strengthen marriage.
>
> NOW President Patricia Ireland¹s appearance on Hardball last week was a case
> in point. Ireland was there to voice her doubts about the Horn nomination,
> but she was continually put on the defensive by Chris Matthews. Matthews
> kept trying to get Ireland to openly avow her clearly implied view that
> father¹s aren¹t essential ‹ that the government has no more interest in
> supporting fathering than in encouraging gay adoption or single mothering.
> Because Ireland understood the dangers of frankly stating such views, she
> was left virtually tongue-tied. NOW¹s isolation on this issue is reflected
> in the support of many Senate Democrats, including some liberals, for both
> Horn, and for initiatives in support of fatherhood and marriage.
>
> And pro-marriage programs will do more than isolate the cultural Left. By
> focusing on pro-family initiatives, President Bush can diffuse some of the
> controversy over his Office Of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Up to
> now, every time the question of the Faith-Based initiative comes up, debate
> turns on questions of church and state. But much of what the president¹s
> Faith-Based initiative will actually do involves supporting organizations
> dedicated to strengthening marriage and parenting. In fact, Don E. Eberly,
> who founded the National Fatherhood Initiative, is deputy director of the
> White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Once the actual
> work of the faith-based office in support of marriage and fathering becomes
> the focus of public attention, support for the faith-based initiative itself
> is likely to increase.
>
> President Bush¹s remarks last Thursday at the National Summit on Fatherhood
> were the beginning of what could be both an important cultural legacy, and a
> winning political strategy for his administration. In those remarks, the
> president struck just the right tone ‹ emphasizing the critical importance
> of fathers, while still underscoring the need to respect and support the
> many single mothers determined to do right by their kids under difficult
> circumstances. That is the key to success with this issue ‹ finding a way to
> offer special support and encouragement to traditional marriage, without
> abandoning others.
>
> When the Democrats portray President Bush¹s cultural conservatism, whether
> directly or indirectly, they paint it in the same lurid tones that were used
> to besmirch John Ashcroft. Racism, sexism, homophobia, and religious
> fanaticism are the lingering accusations with which his foes hope to
> associate the president. All of this will be accentuated in the coming
> months, as the battle over Mr. Bush¹s judicial nominees becomes the
> flashpoint of conflict with the Congress.
>
> But a cultural policy framed through appointments and initiatives in support
> of fatherhood and marriage will be difficult to dismiss as the product of
> bigoted fanaticism. Those who attempt to do so will only marginalize
> themselves in the eyes of the public. The president needn¹t run away from
> his own social conservatism. On the big issues, the public is with him. A
> tempered traditionalism, framed as support for marriage, rather than as
> opposition to marriage¹s foes, is both the right thing to do ‹ and the way
> to win.
>
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