Brownback: Family Creator-In-Chief

Rachel Joy Larris

December 08, 2006

The quickest way to get me angry is to read any statement by Senator Brownback. But his early justifications for his run for the presidency are particularly infuriating. It's clear he seems to think the job of the president is to be matchmaker-in-chief.

How else to read his statement  that, "We don't have enough family formation taking place in this country." Brownback, you see, is deeply concerned there aren’t enough solidly married, two-parent families anymore, and as president he vows to make that his priority to fix. I suggest he form a blue-ribbon panel on single life right away, along with a long-term plan to solve this epidemic of marriagelessness for people with kids. We could call it the War On Bachelorhood with mandatory service for everyone.

If Brownback really cares to make sure that every child is born to a pair of married bio-parents, why not propose a Shotgun Wedding Law? I mean, how far does his commitment to this idea really go if he’s not willing to invoke laws of the 19th century?

Of course, in his mind this situation wouldn’t have anything to do with any economic instability that might contribute to a strain on families. Nope it’s only cultural issues that make it tough to raise children.

I’m not even going to give Brownback credit for his convictions though—and he does try to stake out the highest moral peak of cultural conservatism by saying:

I am an economic, a fiscal, a social and a compassionate conservative … I'm the one that has been there, is there and will be there in the future.

No I can’t give Brownback credit because he still weasels on the most recent slap in the face of anti-gay warriors, that the vice president’s lesbian daughter is pregnant and planning on raising the child with her long-term partner. Shouldn’t Mr. Family Values—he of pure-conservative heart—be thundering over the immorality of it all?
Nope. He punts.

Under questioning, Brownback said it's mostly up to states to decide whether single parents or gay couples could adopt children, and he declined to comment on Mary Cheney, the vice president's lesbian daughter whose recently disclosed pregnancy has prompted dismay among conservatives.

Sen. Brownback, if the heterosexual two-parent family is going to be the centerpiece of your desire to serve as president, you shouldn’t let a little thing like the embarrassment of criticizing the progeny of the titular head of your party get in the way of your moral message. It makes your whole message seem, I don’t know, kind of insincere.