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mainstream media keeps telling President Bush that to win a second
term, he’s 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 it’s not the way to
win. If President Bush runs away from his own social conservatism,
he’ll 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 doesn’t shake
confidence in the traditional family so much as it increases the
public’s 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 “fatherhood movement,” and
a strong supporter of public policies that encourage marriage. Horn’s
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 Ireland’s 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 father’s aren’t 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. NOW’s 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 president’s 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
Bush’s 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 the 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 Bush’s 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. Bush’s 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 needn’t 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 marriage’s foes, is both the right
thing to do — and the way to win.
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