The hyper-politicization of the American family

Driving the news: A growing chorus of conservative pundits, influencers and politicians are promoting a specific, traditional image of family life — and criticizing people who don't live that way.

Sen. JD Vance, the Republican nominee for vice president, has given the pro-natalist movement its biggest platform yet.

• Most recently, he made headlines with a resurfaced 2021 comment calling Vice President Harris and other Democrats "childless cat ladies" who "don't really have a direct stake" in America's future. Vance's team says the remark was taken out of context and referred to America's leadership class, not adults without children.
• On a conservative podcast in 2020, Vance said of adults without children: "I worry that it makes people more sociopathic and ultimately our whole country a little bit less, less mentally stable."

By the numbers: 47% of adults under 50 who don't have kids say they're unlikely to have them — up 10 points from 2018, according to a recent Pew survey.

• Among their reasons: They can't afford it, they want to focus on different things, or they just don't want to.

That trend has very real implications for America's future and economic growth, especially if immigration is limited.

• But experts say simply telling women to have more kids — irrespective of whether they want to, whether they're able to, or whether they can afford to — is missing the point.
• "It's legitimately tapping into frustration of what it takes to support a family, but for some reason, it's directing that anger toward professional women," says Laura Lovett, a University of Pittsburgh historian.

The other side: Even though it contends with a real problem, "no matter how you frame the issue, pro-natalism often comes across as extremely strange," New York Times conservative columnist Ross Douthat writes.

• "The idea of freedom from procreation as a hard-won feminist liberty ... means that any talk about increasing birthrates instantly evokes 'Handmaid's Tale' anxieties about patriarchal coercion."

Between the lines: It's not just about more kids. The push for childbearing often promotes a narrow view of the ideal family.

• "The focus is on middle class and above, native-born, Christian, white women," says Elizabeth Ananat, an economist at Barnard. "It's like a fantasy of a 1950s TV show."
• Popular podcasters Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson spend a lot of time telling young men to "double down on traditional masculinity," New York Times columnist David French writes.
• On Instagram and TikTok, "trad wife" influencers go viral with videos extolling the virtues of being a stay-at-home wife and mother. Critics say the trend often presents an incomplete picture of housework and child care.

The latest: Democrats have fought against GOP attempts to rebrand as the "pro-family" party, pointing, for example, to Senate Republicans' rejection of a bipartisan bill last week that would have expanded the child tax credit.

• "It's sort of unbelievable how judgmental the Republican Party has become," Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said in a video last week. "Republicans have just decided that they're going to tell you how to run your life."

The bottom line: Discussions about family and the birthrate are louder than they've been in decades. Look for this issue to take center stage in the run-up to the election.