OPINION:
Despite some of them first airing when television was broadcast in black and white, Americans still flock to comedy programs depicting traditional family life.
Among the favorite shows enjoying enduring appreciation on networks such as TV Land, Cozy and Antenna are “The Cosby Show,” “The Brady Bunch,” “Full House,” “Boy Meets World” and even “The Addams Family.”
Each of these shows shares a common theme. Episodes present a problem the family had to come together to solve. Through a comedic tackling of that pressing problem, the family would collectively put their heads together and find a solution and happy ending. Although these picture-perfect families don’t always represent our own family situations, they make us feel good and serve as a diction of the ideal family approach to navigating life.
Each of these shows shared another common theme: The government never showed up or inserted itself in the search for the family’s solution. Herein lies the divergence of family situation comedies from the reality of today’s approach to family life.
America’s 40th and possibly most effective president, Ronald Reagan, once said that “the top nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’” Mr. Reagan’s words ring truer each day as liberal policies aim to replace intra-family support with government intervention.
In addressing human sexuality, liberal politicians seemingly want to replace the “birds and the bees” talk that parents have had with their children for ages with legislation mandating blind acceptance over healthy edification and parental guidance.
Consider the recent bill championed by “progressive” Virginia Delegate Elizabeth Guzman that would jail parents who disagree with their child’s desire to change his or her natural gender. Ms. Guzman’s proposal would label disagreeable parents as abusive – allowing for felony child abuse charges and potential imprisonment. With the unwelcome intervention of government and liberal policies, an already complex conversation about sexuality for families could land genuinely caring parents behind bars. These types of liberal policies are not only irresponsible and anti-parent, but they also set a dangerous precedent that pits loving parents against their children. It’s a proposal that transcends partisanship and is something that all parents should reject no matter what they think about gender politics.
Unfortunately, these types of destructive, anti-family forms of government intervention aren’t new. In the early 1960s, the government single-handedly destroyed the Black family with welfare programs – many of which drove Black fathers out of their homes. Without two-parent households, many of these families entered a pipeline to poverty and reliance on the government for survival. It undermined their parental intuition and personal drive to provide and protect. There is a stark parallel drawn between those racist and overreaching welfare polices of yesterday and the “gender-affirming” policies being forced on parents by liberal politicians like Ms. Guzman today.
The way forward is clear. We must reposition the government to exclusively focus on its core tasks as laid out in the Constitution. This absolutely does not include co-parenting with the government or attempting to replace America’s moms and dads. We do that by supporting a more conservative agenda led by those who believe in a parent’s right to be fundamentally involved in the upbringing, education, and care of their children.
In 2021, the nation observed how Virginians embraced candidate Glenn Youngkin as he led this charge while campaigning for governor. Some experts point to that for his successful upset of the liberal establishment in his gubernatorial race.
Mr. Youngkin is now joined by other conservative candidates, including Yesli Vega in VA-7 and Jenn Kiggans in VA-2, who are now campaigning in that same vein under the mantra, “parents matter.”
These are two powerful words that convey both the natural necessity for parents’ involvement in their children’s lives and development and the need for their guidance in our dynamic world. This is the sort of thing that must be advanced by conservative leaders to upset the feckless liberal agenda.
• Tim Parrish is a Virginia resident and a member of the Black leadership network, Proj. 21
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