“Look,” you can imagine her saying. “We have deep, profound differences across a lot of issues—abortion, same-sex marriage, the role of the federal government. If I run for president, the only votes I’ll be likely to get in this room are from the waiters and the custodial staff.
“But those differences are about policy—they are not about the importance of family to the health of a nation. Like many of you, I believe the family is under assault from the culture, which makes the job of parents harder. When I called a book I wrote It Takes a Village, some of my detractors thought this was a plea for government-controlled child-rearing. It was, to the contrary, a recognition that the work of a parent is made much less difficult when the community at large is embracing values like honesty, diligence, responsibility.
“You and I might—make that do—disagree about what will make families stronger. In a society where two working parents is the norm, and where single-parent households are all too common, I don’t see child care as a threat to parental rights—I see it as a way to ease the daily stress of a working parent. But okay, we disagree.
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