David R. Usher -- Replacing Post-ERA Feminist Policy with "Marriage Values"

REPLACING POST-ERA FEMINIST POLICY WITH "MARRIAGE VALUES"

By David R. Usher
February 10, 2009

NewsWithViews.com

Anyone wondering why marriage is passé and illegitimacy is at record levels can find the answer in the recent case of the unmarried California mother with six test-tube children who just launched octuplets with the help of an unethical feminist fertility clinic.

Why would she do this? Because she gets eight times more welfare than women who merely shake down the welfare system one kid at a time. The mother has repeatedly declined marriage, and apparently admitted she did it because she "got paid for it." In addition to a load of welfare the mother is entitled to, the sperm donor will be facing a whacking child support order if his identity is known.

Why does Congress continue expansions of federal policy entitling predatory economic demolition of marriage? Why do pro-life conservatives tacitly support the welfare state – imagining this reduces abortion?

Entitling irresponsible conception only brings on another round of helpless pregnant women who often change their mind and get an abortion anyway. Women interested in marriage are not interested in abortion. Entitling illegitimacy only guarantees the obsolescence of marriage, drives abortion, expands public funding of feminist agenda, and creates more votes for radical liberals.

The final defeat of the ERA June 30,1982 did not mark an end to the pogrom of feminist activism. It just meant feminists had to change their game. Instead of demanding vague equal rights, they began hawking hyper-sexist victim-fear campaigns designed to achieve the same ends targeted in the ERA. The 2008 elections prove this chicanery has been horrendously successful.

Post-ERA Lesbians and gays magically became victims of their genetic proclivities and supposed oppressors. Feminists began to make allegations of sexual improprieties against anyone who disagreed with them -- blackmailing politicians into granting feminists the very economic rights, civil unions, and same-sex marriages that brought the ERA down.

“Trapped” housewives fearfully excommunicated themselves from the safe-haven of marriage, convinced that husbands are unnecessary rapists or abusers. A woman’s right to be supported and cared for by her husband became an ongoing public entitlement burden to be supported by Congress and screaming taxpayers. The mutilated beggar children highlighted in “Slumdog Millionaire” have their American counterparts – leveraged away from one or both parents by feminist policy and then used to beg for more marriage-destructive entitlements.

Post-ERA feminist legal scams such as the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) were marched through Congress by feminist trial lawyers in 1996. The legal trade profits immensely by destroying the marriages and futures of America’s women. VAWA destroys marriage on allegation alone. This is why lawyers in Congress (on both sides of the aisle) automatically pass anything that A.B.A. feminists want.

A very convincing body of evidence proves that the American Bar Association’s approach to domestic violence is founded on feminist agitprop, and directly violates peer-reviewed science.[1] [2] And, an overwhelming body of scientific fact proves that VAWA does not reduce domestic violence.[3]

The official A.B.A. “Standards of Practice For Lawyers Representing Victims of Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking” is a gross violation of ethics and Constitution. It consistently pre-declares the victim as “her.”[4] Imagine, for a moment, what would happen if A.B.A. documents officially named victims “white” and criminals “black”?

$16-billion in TANF seed money is given to states to fertilize illegitimacy and divorce. States are rewarded for seizing it all back by locking up poor or unemployed fathers. Our jails are full of them. The vast majority of America’s 1-million gang members were raised absent marriage.

Why do Conservatives keep losing these battles, many of them fooled into supporting the feminist agenda? It is because post-ERA conservatives forgot how to fight feminism.

Recall that the ERA battle was won against all odds because Phyllis Schlafly constantly talked out how ERA would hurt women, in addition to pointing out the principles. Most women (and politicians who fall over backwards to help women) ended up agreeing with Phyllis. Modern conservatives and libertarians contest the principles only, and never get around to showing everyone how feminist agenda hurts women.

The result of Conservatives' failure to stress the damaging consequences of feminist agenda is a nation of deeply troubled unmarried mothers, fathers, and children, who still think that feminist-liberalism is the answer.

The Republican party won the “family values” landslide in 1994 because of what those words actually meant to voters. Republicans essentially promised to end anti-marriage policies that have left about half of adult men and women and their children in great trouble.

“Family Values” resonated wildly with a wide majority of voters. Today’s voters still know that their biggest problems -- poverty, lack of health care coverage, child care problems, burgeoning gang-violence, crime, illegitimacy, home loan defaults, bankruptcy, and high taxes -- are all somehow a consequence of marriage-absence.

Continuing Republican congressional losses cannot be reversed absent an aggressive focus on structural marriage and family issues. This focus must emphasize how feminist policies will continue harming men, women, and children, and continue customary education on the principles, and offer attractive pro-marriage policies.

The optimal keywords to use in today's politics are "Marriage Values." The issues registering at the top of political polls are all, truly, “Marriage Values” items. Legislative history proves that these problems cannot be resolved unless we address them at the causal source: marriage-absence:

Marriage-absence is the greatest social and economic problem America faces. Every one of our leading contemporary national problems arises substantially as a direct consequence of marriage-absence.

“Marriage Values” is the major and necessary component for restoration of our economy and banking system. The political game of ‘hot potato’ -- passing the costs of marriage-absence onto to somebody else or sweeping it under the carpet -- is over.

Economic conservatives must realize that applying trickle-down economics to social policy is a necessary prerequisite to stabilizing financial markets and balancing both state and federal budgets.
Marriage-absence must be tracked just like we measure frictional unemployment -- and social policies reshaped to reward marital responsibility. Entitled irresponsibility must be replaced with temporary help, just like we do with unemployment, via woman-friendly “Welfare to Marriage” policy changes.

“Marriage Values” policies Conservatives had not imagined in 1994 are now available. Policies that provide spouses necessary legal and support tools to improve their marriages will render feminist policies obsolete-in-place.

For example, proposed Missouri Family Violence Order (FIO) legislation will provide spouses with a powerful legal tool to make a substance-abusing partner choose between recovery or being ejected. 86% of serious domestic violence involves a spouse abusing drugs or alcohol. The vast majority of domestic violence and family conflict will disappear by addressing the problem at its source, and many marriages saved by spouses.

According to Phyllis Schlafly (who stopped the ERA), FIO’s are a “wonderful idea.” She is right.

Another example of Marriage Values policy: Evidence strongly suggests that the A.B.A. has been behaving corruptly in family and financial law for many years. Large numbers of lawyers have been profitably planning and directing scams involving the financial industry, tax havens, oil trading, and family law. These scams have collectively brought America to its knees, while corporate Presidents, citizens and taxpayers bear the consequences. Unethical attorneys should not practice long enough to ruin America. The Bar is the only trade association in America with sole license to discipline itself. Lawyers must be disciplined by independent state commissions.

Politics have changed in the post-ERA era. To restore America's ethical, economic and social dynamism to a level worthy of world leadership, two things must be done:

First: Feminism has controlled America for over forty years. During this time period, every social indicator measuring the well-being of women and children has declined substantially. Marriage remains the most likely safe haven for living the American dream. We must constantly remind women of this truth.

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Second: Conservatives must formulate and aggressively socialize attractive pro-family “Marriage Values” policies, get them passed in the states, and later in Congress.

The National Organization for Women has a freight train of radical legislation set for passage. With über-feminists Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and the National Organization of Women running the White House, Congress fearfully passing anything feminists want, and 2010 another impending Waterloo, the RNC must make "Marriage Values" its top priority yesterday.

Footnotes:

1. “The gender paradigm in domestic violence research and practice part II: The information website of the American Bar Association,” Donald G. Dutton, Kenneth N. Corvo, and Mark Hamel; Aggression and Violent Behavior, Vol. 14 Issue 1, January-February 2009, pp 30-38.
2. Myths of the ABA Commission on Domestic Violence: Detailed Findings, Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting.
3. Media Radar Website
4. American Bar Association, “Standards of Practice For Lawyers Representing Victims of Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, and Stalking in Civil Protection Order Cases";

David R. Usher is Legislative Analyst for the American Coalition for Fathers and Children, Missouri Coalition and is a co-founder and past Secretary of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children.