To rebuild the middle class, restore marriage
The United States is becoming an increasingly class-stratified society. The few at the top enjoy unprecedented affluence. The many in the middle and at the bottom face narrowing opportunities and declining standards of living. The dwindling of marriage is both cause and consequence of America’s evolution away from a society of equal chances. The restoration of marriage is crucial to reviving the middle class and offering hope to the poor.
Marriage means two incomes at a time when most Americans find two incomes essential to earning a middle-class livelihood.
Marriage secures the active presence of fathers in children’s lives.
Marriage means more asset accumulation: Married families save more at every income level.
Marriage means fewer accidents and illnesses, less stress, and more happiness and personal fulfillment.
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Wait….do I agree with David Frum? That….can’t be right…
vegconservative on February 4, 2013 at 3:32 PM
Gee Dave….You figure that out all on your own…?
NeoKong on February 4, 2013 at 3:32 PM
Am I crazy or is Frum arguing in favor of social conservatism?
nobar on February 4, 2013 at 3:36 PM
Dunno. Let me look
Yup. Furm.
apostic on February 4, 2013 at 3:36 PM
David Frum: radical so con. Who knew?
He’s right, but I don’t know how we are to restore it.
changer1701 on February 4, 2013 at 3:38 PM
To strengthen marriage means that we have to take on this culture of responsibility free hedonism that has evolved since the 60s. Its ironic that the “traditional values” mocked as stodgy and old fashioned are the ones that ensure success in life and a stable society. Its also funny how the “elites” champion hedonism, but engage in traditional values.
Its also interesting to note that while Frum did cite examples of the poor outcomes from single parent families, he ignored poor outcomes from same sex families. Children need parents of both genders for success.
Iblis on February 4, 2013 at 3:39 PM
The only way to take it on, is to recapture the levers of the culture from the left. We can do that by buying media companies, and replacing their boards with boards who share our values. It’d be a long never ending struggle, but we can stem the tide. We’ve done it before.
People just need a reminder every so often.
Iblis on February 4, 2013 at 3:42 PM
Frum is clueless as usual–not in the fact that he recognizes the importance of marriage, but in that he hasn’t even done any decent thinking about what marriage is. Most of the article is a paean of propaganda of gay marriage and its inevitability. He doesn’t even begin to ask himself what marriage is nor does he discuss the fact that he want to support this redefinition of marriage.
He doesn’t even grasp the nature and purpose of the institution he wants to see restored.
INC on February 4, 2013 at 3:42 PM
Iblis,
Yes.
INC on February 4, 2013 at 3:44 PM
To restore marriage, get rid of Social Security, the single largest contributor to our declining valuation of children.
As a society Social Security creates a requirement for many more children to pay for ever older and larger populations of freeloading scum sucking low life people aged 62 and over. As individuals, people figure out they are financially better off not having children and becoming the new age slave drivers by relying on the labors of other people’s children to support them in old age and using their ever increasing numbers to overwhelm the votes of the younger generation that they aborted into political exile.
astonerii on February 4, 2013 at 3:45 PM
Dave is leading from behind on the Gay marriage charge.
Well it’s not so much a charge. More like skipping down the road in Mom jeans with a shotgun loaded with blanks.
CorporatePiggy on February 4, 2013 at 3:45 PM
Agreed. There is the marriage penalty. There are all sorts of benefits for single mothers, in fact, so many benefits that it does not pay for a woman to get married in many cases. The US locks up a huge portion of the minority male population, that doesn’t help either.
Men also need to socially ostracize other men who get women pregnant and then bail on their family. We can do a lot of this through social pressure just among men.
But it also means that the liberals were wrong and this isn’t going to sit well with them.
crosspatch on February 4, 2013 at 3:45 PM
LOWER TAXES! Promote growth.
Oil Can on February 4, 2013 at 3:46 PM
To rebuild David Frum’s career….nah, some things are beyond repair.
Doughboy on February 4, 2013 at 3:48 PM
Its funny how Rick Santorum was right about this issue all along.
Well the good news for so-cons is that once the economy collapses, hedonism will be replaced by survivalism. As history has shown time and again.
Iblis on February 4, 2013 at 3:52 PM
Radical so-con prog.
aryeung on February 4, 2013 at 3:57 PM
The bad news is that preventing abortions and gay marriage is not going to be on the “survivalism” agenda. So basically, no matter what happens, social “conservatives” can look forward to being totally irrelevant.
Armin Tamzarian on February 4, 2013 at 4:04 PM
MelonCollie on February 4, 2013 at 4:06 PM
In survivalism, survivors kill those who don’t help the group. I think that includes you.
nobar on February 4, 2013 at 4:08 PM
Good luck getting this Administration or the Democratic Party to help promote marriage, except for same-sex couples. They just won an election based on blatant appeals to unmarried people. Marriage divides us politically now as much as it does economically. It’s clear that Democrats would rather have the polticial rewards of promoting singlehood than the societal rewards of promoting marriage.
rockmom on February 4, 2013 at 4:09 PM
Blankenhorn has been doing this forever… and has got no results.
ninjapirate on February 4, 2013 at 4:17 PM
I pretty much agree with all of this (weird since it’s from Frum), which is why my pending divorce is so sad.
Armin Tamzarian, your gibberish makes you irrelevant.
Jackalope on February 4, 2013 at 4:20 PM
It’s time to think inside the box for a change.
Undo then governor Reagan’s error of so-called ‘no fault divorce.’
Repeal the various and sundry redefinings of marriage since that early misstep.
Correct the tax disincentives to being and remaining married.
Set Oprah, Phil Donahue, and all their ilk afloat somewhere just south of Iceland. If they whine, make it just north of Iceland.
Scribbler on February 4, 2013 at 4:50 PM
Really restoring marriage and the family would require the left to abandon way too many things it prizes: it’s hold on the media and culture, it’s libertine message of consequence-free choices, and an entitlement state which supports and subsidizes this.
gwelf on February 4, 2013 at 4:56 PM
Ignore Amanda Tamarcotte–he/she/it has a perpetual yeast infection when it comes to social conservatives and is trying to medicate it with what hesheit imagines to be witty insight.
A very, very active imagination, as those who have learned to skip past its comments have discovered.
DRPrice on February 4, 2013 at 4:59 PM
Yes Frum, we need to restore marriage and have it so that a child is raised by his or her creators. I congratulate you on getting that right. But…
Guess what? When you push for gay marriage, you simultaneously undermine this goal. Duh!
Stoic Patriot on February 4, 2013 at 5:02 PM
And to restore marriage, weaken and destroy the culture of anti-male feminism and consequence-free sexual promiscuity that permeates the left. It’s no coincidence that both were central to the reelection effort last year.
The fewer marriages and families that succeed or never get started, the more lonely dependent individuals with no regard for traditionalism or morality who have only the government to look toward.
Gingotts on February 4, 2013 at 5:05 PM
Rick Santorum made marriage and the American family unit a key issue of his presidential campaign – he spoke about this extensively. Santorum argued that strengthening marriage and families was the first, most important step toward restoring our economy, putting people back to work, reinvigorating the American education system, reducing welfare and “entitlement” spending, and making the “American Dream” a reality once more. Santorum was 100% correct, but, he was mocked endlessly by the Republican Party and liberals alike for speaking the truth.
Without first restoring those things which made America great in the past, America we will never be great again.
Pork-Chop on February 4, 2013 at 5:17 PM
It all depends on how attached you are to having more things. We get by on one income, and we’re not starving, even with three kids. We own our home and we eat okay. We don’t have a 4,000 square foot house, two new cars, and take fancy vacations, but then, 50 years ago, almost no one did that.
Ward Cleaver on February 4, 2013 at 5:26 PM
Frum is a dope.
Ward Cleaver on February 4, 2013 at 5:27 PM
While true, society is quickly moving away from marriage. Every since the 60s, sexual freedom has brought many consequences, much more divorce, abortion, much more illegitimacy, homosexuality being mainstreamed and now the rapid death of heterosexual marriage. All these results are tied together. If you want marriage, you need to change the sexual dynamics, but that won’t happen.
As a note, almost half of all kids born nowadays are illegitimate. Within a couple generations, marriage won’t be the sole de facto social norm.
IR-MN on February 4, 2013 at 5:35 PM
Freeloading scum sucking low life people aged 62 and over? Really? You’re a piece of work. LOL!
cam2 on February 4, 2013 at 5:45 PM
You should have seen the thread where I schooled him that this is no longer the days of having 8 kids on a farm and thus the old model of retirement is no longer universal.
MelonCollie on February 4, 2013 at 7:46 PM
No kidding, you’d have people fighting for the chance.
MelonCollie on February 4, 2013 at 7:46 PM