At a 1992 debate, an audience member hit incumbent US president George H.W. Bush, as well as candidates Bill Clinton and Ross Perot, with an interesting question. I personally recall the moment, and found it somewhat odd at the time, but I’m trusting AI on the exact quote, so don’t ask for my oath on its accuracy:
“I ask the three of you to look into the camera and talk to us about how you would be as a president, as a father of the country. Why should we entrust you with our future, our hopes, and our children?”
At the time, I remember thinking to myself “What? The president as our national parent? How could anyone fall for that kind of nonsense?”
But the three candidates actually took the audience member’s question seriously instead of pushing back, and the 33 years between then and now answer my own follow-up question dispositively. The answer is “the vast majority of voters.”
How did we arrive at the near-complete abdication of real parental responsibility, in favor of government proxy, that we see around us today? It’s tempting to just blame opportunistic politicians, but in this case it definitely took two to tango.
The late right-wing pundit Andrew Breitbart confidently asserted that “politics is downstream from culture.” The interplay seems more complex than that to me — politicians both curry, and respond to, moral panic — but he had a point.
Government has increasingly taken charge of all our lives — almost always yelling that it’s “for the children” — because we’ve not just allowed it to, but demanded that it do so.
That’s neither a “left-wing” nor a “right-wing” phenomenon. It’s everywhere.
Three incidents over the last decade:
During the 2016 presidential election cycle, I recall students at a university complaining to the school administration that some sidewalk chalk — “Trump 2016” — made them feel “unsafe,” and asking for SOMETHING TO BE DONE, because their feelz were more important than freedom of speech in the public square.
Post-COVID, parents on the other side of the political fence demanded legislation to “protect their parental rights” by requiring tax-paid teachers at tax-funded schools to invade students’ privacy and report anything indicating a child might be LGBTQ-curious, because their “parental rights” entitled them to free private investigator services at taxpayer expense.
On August 15, online game platform Roblox prostrated itself before, among other politicians, Louisiana attorney general Liz Murill, announcing new content controls to “protect” the “safety” of minors on the platform, lest they be exposed to imaginary alcohol consumption, fantasy sex, etc., and, just possibly, real predators seeking offline molestation opportunities.
As a parent, it’s YOUR job to explain to your kids that free speech doesn’t harm them, to discus sexual orientation/gender identity (and your values) with them, and to monitor their online activity for hazards, not the government’s job to control everyone else so you can ignore your kids and watch football.
When you fob your parental responsibilities off ON the government, you’re giving your kids (and everyone else’s) TO the government.
Thomas L. Knapp (X: @thomaslknapp | Bluesky: @knappster.bsky.social | Mastodon: @knappster) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.
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