CPAC Panel on Family: ‘Father’s Day Will Be Hate Speech’

National Harbor, MD — A panel of scholars at CPAC believe single motherhood is one of the crucial issues facing America and that there are strong libertarians reasons to support traditional marriage.

Heather McDonald of the Manhattan Institute told a standing-room only crowd in some inner-city neighborhoods, like the Bronx in New York, children born out of wedlock constitute 80 to 90 percent of all births. She says this contributes to a spiraling disfuction and that social science, even among liberals, is unanimous that the handicaps of single motherhood are enormous.

“Raising your own child is the most important thing a young man can learn,” she said. “Without it, we see anarchy.”

McDonald, along with Jennifer Marshall of the Heritage Foundation and former Bush administration official Wade Horn, said single motherhood is the primary driver of poverty and the growth of social spending. McDonald said, “Single mothers are the frequent fliers of welfare programs.”

Each panelist was quick to insist they were not denigrating single mothers, that many single mothers are heroic in the raising of their kids and that kids from single mothers can and do turn out just fine. But on average, single motherhood is a disaster for the moms, the kids, and society.

McDonald was concerned that GOP leaders seem to have bought into the notion that “single motherhood is an ontological category.” So eager are conservative politicians not to offend, they tend to accept and even approve of single motherhood. She specifically mentioned Marco Rubio.

The panelists said children born out of wedlock are almost a guarantee of “income inequality” but that children born and raised in a home with their biological parents would inevitably tighten the gap.

Delayed marriage was one of the issues the panelists were worried about. Wade Horn said “very early marriage is a high predictor for divorce” but that “delayed marriage can lead to a child born out of wedlock and cohabitation” which he said is also a great predictor of divorce. “We don’t want 17 year-olds marrying, but neither do we want them to wait till 30.”

Each panelist blamed feminism for a playing a major part in the current breakdown of marriage and family. McDonald said “Boys are being disappeared” and she linked this to feminists who have taught generations of girls that men are inconsequential.

McDonald said, “One day Father’s Day will be considered hate speech.” She described speaking the importance of biological families at a panel at an Ivy League school and how the audience of academics grew visibly and audibly uncomfortable. The moderator then said, “we have to respect the diversity” of family forms. McDonald said “diversity talk” is part of the silencing agenda.

Wade Horn said, “Remember that Gloria Steinham said ‘women need men like a fish needs a bicycle.’ But what we have found is that ‘women need men like a fish needs water.”