Thanks for supporting family values, but what about the family?

If strong, intact, loving families are so important, why don’t politicians have them, too? Of all the issues facing the two American presidential candidates -- Iraq, the economy, health care, climate change, immigration -- the one that is most crucial to the future of the United States doesn’t even rate a mention on the Washington Post’s Issues Tracker for election coverage, namely, the family.

There is no doubt at all that both Barack Obama and John McCain talk about families in their speeches -- social security for families, health care for families, employment, education and many other things families need -- but do they talk about “the family”? Do they think about it? Do they realise how important it is for the health and prosperity of America to support the domestic unit founded on marriage and open to the generation of children? Not so as you’d notice, unfortunately. 

The United States is doing better than most Western nations when it comes to producing children, but the birth rate masks a disintegrating marriage culture that makes the future much less certain. By the time the last state has signed gay marriage into law, the troubles of the Iraq war may seem light by comparison with those of a generation who have no idea what marriage actually means.

The final phase of the presidential election presents us with two apparently happily married candidates -- Barack Obama for the first time and John McCain for the second. In this respect Mr Obama, whose website says he is “especially proud of being a husband and father of two daughters”, has more credibility, but it seems unlikely he would use it to promote the family as such. He speaks of his “fight for working families” in the form of tax cuts and early childhood education, but he supports civil unions, opposes a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman, and defends the abortion regime ushered in by Roe v Wade.

Among the other original candidates there was some potential. But having good values is not enough to get you into the White House or the prime minister’s office. Whatever it takes, the world needs more of it.