Marriage does not make poor couples middle class. Marriage does not impart education on people ill-prepared for today’s job market. Marriage does not create stable, loving relationships where they do not already exist. And if conservatives are so damn worried about marriage, they should be asking why people aren’t getting married. Because—frankly—that’s what social scientists actually do. Republicans, though? Republicans engage in magical wishful thinking. Apparently. And you know what? Magical wishful thinking is a terrible thing to base policy on.
Effective public policy, predicated as it should be in addressing actual problems and issues in the real world, isn’t something generated by focusing on a narrow moral/theological/ideological framework. It’s simply not possible to make the world a better place by focusing a “one moral size fits all” template based on a narrow definition of family, marriage, faith, and morality. Real world problems- hunger, poverty, lack of education and/or health care, etc.- don’t get fixed by people who believe that only one way- THEIR way- is the right and proper solution.
Republicans have a disturbing tendency to elevate what they view as moral problems over actual, real, significant problems with tangible consequences…and guess what? Turns out that magical, wishful thinking does NOTHING to solve ANY of those problems…though I suspect they leave those holding forth on the importance of moral rectitude feeling MUCH better about themselves.
We’re hearing a lot this week about what Republican perceive to be problems (Hillary Clinton, Benghazi, “Emailgate”) and what they believe will “fix” those problems- a return to traditional American values and Republicans in statehouses, Congress, and the White House.
Here’s the thing about what Republicans believe, though- “natural marriage” fixes nothing. Treating the LGBT community as “less than” fixes nothing. And a pathological devotion to Amerika über alles fixes nothing. If Republicans have demonstrated anything thus far during their week-long circle jerk, it’s that they excel at affixing blame…but fall far short when it comes to offering effective solutions.
I’ll bet they’re AWESOME when it comes to unicorns and magic ponies, though.
