By Don Feder – – Saturday, February 11, 2023 at Washington Times
National Marriage Week is Feb. 7-14. World Marriage Day coincides with Valentine’s Day. While well-intentioned, both are ultimately whistling past the graveyard.
Marriage is on the decline everywhere. The institution seems destined to go the way of the dodo, the little Mariana fruit bat and the pro-life Democrat.
Now, barely 50% of adults live with a spouse — the lowest percentage ever recorded.
In 1960, 45% of adults 18 to 24 (prime childbearing years) were married. By 2016, that figure had fallen to 6%, and with it our fertility rate, which is well below replacement level.
The deceptively named Respect for Marriage Act, which was signed into law by President Biden on Dec. 13, is a full-frontal assault on the institution of marriage.
Terrified that a future Supreme Court would reverse Obergefell v. Hodges (which read same-sex marriage into the Constitution), as it had Roe v. Wade (which legalized abortion nationwide), after the midterm elections, Democrats rushed to legislate same-sex marriage for the nation.
In so doing, they jeopardized the tax status of churches that refused to perform these rituals.
Even more than open borders, the left has a vested interest in the disappearance of marriage and the family.
Consider what’s called the marriage gap. In 2016, 52% of married women voted for then-candidate Donald Trump, while 44% cast their ballots for Hillary Clinton, the first woman to run for president as a major party nominee.
Among unmarried women, 55% voted for Mrs. Clinton, while only 37% favored Mr. Trump. This margin held in 2022 in voting for congressional candidates.
It makes perfect sense. Married couples are more future-oriented. They think about the impact of policies not just on their own lives but those of their children and grandchildren. That makes them naturally more conservative.
The left’s war on marriage and the family started with Karl Marx, who considered marriage legalized prostitution and slavery for women. In 1848, in “The Communist Manifesto,” Marx called for the abolition of the family.
After the 1917 revolution, the Bolsheviks brought easy divorce and abortion on demand to Russia.
Mr. Lenin said marriage was an antiquated institution that would be replaced by “unions of affection and comradeship.”
People’s Commissar for Welfare Alexandra Kollontai called marriage a “bourgeoise convention.” “The family is ceasing to be necessary either to its members or to the nation,” Kollontai insisted.
From Marxism-Leninism to cultural Marxism, the left has always viewed marriage and the family as chief obstacles to the revolution. The bond between husband and wife undercuts loyalty to the collective.
That’s why Mr. Biden railed at what he called threats to “reproductive freedom” in his State of the Union address. Democrats want to keep women unattached, angry and childless. Statistically, this is their core constituency.
