Obama’s “Daring” Solution to Fatherhood Crisis
June 22nd, 2009 by Peter
Yesterday’s Parade magazine ran an article by President Obama, touting the importance of fatherhood. Media reports pushing the article described it as part of his wider strategy of not alienating social conservatives–a strategy noticeably absent during a high profile visit to Hartford.
In fairness, the new president has given more attention to the topic of fatherhood than most politicians. And it is easy to see why:
But I observe this Father’s Day not just as a father grateful to be present in my daughters’ lives but also as a son who grew up without a father in my own life. My father left my family when I was 2 years old, and I knew him mainly from the letters he wrote and the stories my family told. And while I was lucky to have two wonderful grandparents who poured everything they had into helping my mother raise my sister and me, I still felt the weight of his absence throughout my childhood…I came to understand that the hole a man leaves when he abandons his responsibility to his children is one that no government can fill.
In other words, no substitute–be it a person or a government–can make up for the absence of a father in a child’s life. It is a point FIC–indeed, the entire pro-family movemement–has made repeatedly in our fight against the redefinition of marriage, the scourge of divorce and so forth. Is the president about to join us in the fight to restore a marriage-based culture for the sake of our children and of society?
Not quite. The only solution offered by the president to the crisis he rightly laments is that fathers be…”involved.”
As fathers, we need to be involved in our children’s lives not just when it’s convenient or easy, and not just when they’re doing well—but when it’s difficult and thankless, and they’re struggling. That is when they need us most.
Not a single word about marriage–the best guarantor of fatherly involvement–in an article on how “we need fathers to step up.” Thanks for the profile in courage, Mr. President.
One would think a man like Obama who had to grow up without a father would recognize the importance of a father. But Obama, schooled so long in the thug politics of Chicago is so deeply immersed in the liberal Democrat politics of socialist welfare, that he is more attuned to following the Democrat Ideal of the Big Government Daddy Welfare State, than in supporting marriage, parenting and fatherhood.
The poorest of women, usually single, unmarried mothers, raising children who they could not afford to abort, survive only as dependants of the welfare state. Big Daddy Government takes on the roll of the father, but as a provider only and that of the negative absent father roll. It is fatherhood without a father, parenting without a parent, and it is cold and loveless support provided by big government which is no parenting at all.
It assures that more and more children born into this endless trap and nightmare are raised without a daddy, without fathering and it is no wonder they do not know how to be men, let alone how to be fathers. It also ensures that this class of persons will keep voting in the Democrats who keep footing the bill, with confiscated dollars taken from the working providers to give to the non working consumers.
So to Obama, marriage is unessential between a man and woman trying to raise a family, it is only a political tool for the left, to make marriage essential for same sex couples as a symbol of social acceptance. You will only find Obama talking about marriage, when he tells about how he will strive to make efforts to make same sex marriage a legal recourse to all homosexual couples.