Dysfunctional Family Values

R. Keith Roark (former Democratic Candidate for Attorney General) had a Reader’s View in today’s Statesman in which he responded to David Ripley’s charge that the Democrats are losing because they are out of touch with Idaho family values because of their radical pro-abortion views.

Writes Roark:

As sorely tempting as it is to focus my comments on Mr. Ripley’s lamentable record in his personal life and “values,” it is more important to challenge his major contention that Idaho Democrats don’t “respect” the values and sensibilities of Idaho families.

Apparently, rather than focusing on Mr. Ripley’s personal life and debating it in a fair fashion, he’d rather just throw out an innuendo with no explanation. It’s part of Democratic family values.

Every abortion represents a failure at some level or other. In an ideal society, every child would be welcomed into the world with a guarantee of two loving parents, adequate food, shelter, clothing, health care and a first-class education. Most Idaho Democrats I know believe that when we can provide such guarantees, abortions will be rare indeed. I don’t purport to speak for the Idaho Democratic Party, but all Idaho Democrats I know are working and hoping for a time when our social structure is such that, except in cases of rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother, no woman will need or want to choose abortion.

In the meantime, it is hard to understand how forcing an unwilling, unprepared and unsupported woman to have an unwanted child will strengthen the institutions of marriage and family in Idaho.

–Okay, first of all how does the government “guarantee” children two parents? Secondly, it’s easy to see where the Democrats make their mistake politically. Their view is that a child should be had if the world is perfect or ideal, versus a true pro-life viewpoint. Mr. Roark is ignoring the number of adoptive parents. Secondly, he seems to believe that only those children of well-off parents deserve an inalienable right to live. Apparently, they only stand up for the downtrooden to a certain degree.

Democrats have always valued the family — that’s why we passed laws to take children out of the coal mines and women out of the sweat shops. We passed a minimum wage and gave workers the right to organize and fight for better working conditions and better pay to support their families.

First of all, since he’s talking about historical achievements, when he is going to claim slavery and segregation? Second of all, most of these reforms were bipartisan (the Progressive era Child Labor law had many Republican backers).

We created the Social Security system so that families didn’t have to take food out of their children’s mouths in order to provide food for those too old to work anymore. We created Social Security and Medicare so that the oldest members of our families didn’t have to face their twilight years penniless, sick and helpless.

Wow, the Democrats think highly of themselves? Shouldn’t we all thank them for giving us a Social Security System that guarantees a Seniors a pittance for a retirement and medicare system that has to be saved every ten years? Good job on that.

The attitude of Mr. Roark is a key problem the Democrats face. The expectation from the article is that we should all love the Democrats and be grateful for what they’ve done for us. It was a disturbing idea that was spoken clearly by a much more honest Democrat decades back who gave it straight up that people owed the Democrats and better deliver. Harry Truman is his acceptance speech at the 1948 Democratic Convention observed:

Never in the world were the farmers of any republic or any kingdom or any other country as prosperous as the farmers of the United States; and if they don’t do their duty by the Democratic Party, they are the most ungrateful people in the world!…And I say to labor what I have said to the farmers; they are the most ungrateful people in the world if they pass the Democratic Party by this year.

The rise of wages and the strength and resurgance of the farm sector was all the doing of the Democratic Party. The American people did nothing according to Truman. My friends Mr. Roark thinks we should be grateful to the Democrats and see them as defenders fo the family because they’ve created deeply flawed programs that are running our nation into debt while keeping people in poverty.

Mr. Roarke goes on:

Idaho Democrats see many challenges to the strength of Idaho families: the number of good-paying jobs that have left the state since the so-called “Right to Work” law took effect, a tax structure that places a disproportionate burden on the middle class, the rising number of parents who work two and three jobs to support their families, the increasing number of children being raised in single-parent households, the number of deadbeat dads who refuse to pay their court-ordered child support and the number of families without any health insurance.

I wouldn’t disagree with most of these. First of all, the tax burden is very high for middle class families, but the Democrats have not brought forward any solid reform measure. I was the only one talking about tax reform in the last campaign. The big thing the Democrats due is they lie to people and confuse them about right-to-work. Right-to-work is a huge bad guy that has caused all of our economic problems. Of course, the idea that because union membership isn’t requires that business eliminate jobs in the state is a bit far fetched to begin with. It doesn’t work as a reasonable explanation. National Right to Work has a map of all the states who have right to work laws:

So, if Right to Work is the cause of our state’s problems then similar states without Right to Work should be prospering. Not really. Infoplease has a chart that shows the Per Capita Income of each state. Montana, which is completely surrounded by Right to Work States does not have a Right to Work law. So how much more does the average Montanan earn than the Average Idahoan. According to the chart, nine whole dollars ($25,911 for Idaho and $25,920 for Montana). In addition our mutal neighbors in Wyoming earn $32,808 or 27% more than the Average Idahoan. Floridians, Texans, North Dakotans, Virginians, Nevadans, etc. all earn more than Idahoans. This all goes to prove that Right to Work is a Democratic bogeyman.

He gets to the end and writes:

At present, there can be no dispute that a majority of Idaho voters identify themselves with the Republican label, and that is not likely to change in the immediate future. Idaho Democrats have lost many elections in recent years…

One thing he gets right the whole article.

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