Bait and Switch

I did a double-take (or more accurately a double-read) today after stumbling upon neoconservative columnist (National Review Online) Mona Charen’s The Good Obama Can Do. I couldn’t quite nail it, but I immediately knew something was off in this article, which ostensibly touts the potential positive impact from Michelle and Barack Obama “modeling good parenting” in the White House. On second glance though, Charen’s true motive popped out at me like a priest in the schoolyard with pockets full-o-lollipops.

It’s yet another defense of so-called traditional marriage. But this one is far more sinister. Charen goes out of her way not to include the standard giveaway phrases: traditional marriage, same-sex couple(s), any Biblical text, San Francisco-values, Prop 8, Ellen, etc. Instead, she simply bashes every family who does not fit into her arbitrary mold—a married man and a woman who are “college-educated,” and “upper middle and upper class,” did not have a child out of wedlock, and have never been divorced.

Apparently, anything else “plays havoc with children’s security.” My personal favorite, of Charen’s many vague and melodramatic statements is: “Stepfamilies, as medieval fables suggested, are not as safe or secure for children as the nuclear family of two married parents.” Cinderella aside, most of her quotes are decidedly less amusing. Charen’s third paragraph is palpably creepy:

More than one-third of American children are born out of wedlock (two-thirds for black kids)...They have higher rates of school failure, drug use, depression, teen pregnancy, trouble with the law, violence, and poor health...poor women are having more and more children without husbands and they are also divorcing at much higher rates.

And then, after cataloging the supposed problems that stem from raising children outside a traditional marriage, she proposes that the child dependant tax credit be increased “limited to married parents.”

So, Mona, let me get this straight, according to you, the people that need the most help raising well-adjusted children will get nothing while married couples will receive more cash simply for procreating? Here is how I would summarize your views: If you are single, divorced, homosexual, or in particular a poor minority, the government should enact policy to discourage you from raising a child.

It’s a good thing that Barack Obama’s grandmother wasn’t a fan of your column.