Home
In this issue
Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Dec. 10, 2007 / 1 Teves 5768

Sensible family values endangered

By Kathryn Lopez


Printer Friendly Version
Email this article

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | To watch some media liberals react to fundamental issues involving family life is to be glad that conservatives exist. I think everyone but dyed-in-the-wool liberal ideologues would agree with this — and nothing better illustrates it than a recent day in my life of TV-news watching.


For my first example, I rewind to a segment of the "Today" show. Co-host Meredith Vieira was interviewing two 20-somethings and one 30-year-old who took pledges to remain abstinent until married. They made these promises because they want to respect themselves and they want others to respect them.


Appearing after a canned reporting piece featuring "virginity vans," these three young people expressed themselves in a logical, sensible way, eloquently talking not about wearing their virginity on their sleeves, but about expecting the best from themselves and others. However, Vieira approached them as if they were aliens — completely unheard of.


Now, be honest: If your child told you, "I'm not having sex until I'm married," wouldn't you be relieved? Our morning TV guide apparently wouldn't be. Vieira, a mother, seemed anything but welcoming to the idea. She appeared to channel a Planned Parenthood screed. Oppose those backward conservatives who hate sex!


I saw the same kind of illogical left-wing reflex later that day, when the GOP candidates for president participated in a CNN/YouTube debate. One of the questioners appeared with his father and asked about black-on-black crime. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney responded by praising the father for supporting his son and focusing on the need to turn around urban societal breakdown.


Romney continued: "It's time ... that we go back to the kind of values that allow kids to have moms and dads. In the African-American community today, 68 percent of kids born are born out of wedlock. And so we're going to try and once again reinculcate in this country the ... values that have made us so strong: family values."


The host, Anderson Cooper, quickly interrupted: "The question is, what are you going to do about the war in the inner city?" he asked Romney.


Romney is going to emphasize the importance of marriage and fatherhood, Anderson! Romney stuck to his sensible guns. "Well, one, about the war in the inner city — number one is to get more moms and dads. That's number one. And thank heavens Bill Cosby said it like it was. That's where the root of crime starts." He then went on to talk about education reform and policing policies.


Analyzing the debate, one liberal commentator on the same network went on a similar rant — in short, that Republicans do not care about the downtrodden if they are not backing big-government solutions. But Romney knows that personal responsibility changes things. He knows that welfare reform kickstarted a change in urban culture, getting moms working, and getting teen-pregnancy rates down. He knows that, as Kay Hymowitz put it, "the grim fact is that bringing a reliable dad into the home of the 80 percent or so of inner-city children growing up with a single mother is a task of such psychological and sociological complexity as to rival democracy-building in Iraq." That is why Romney has said, "Some of the most important work being done in our country today is the work going on within the four walls of the American home," and praised Cosby during that same debate. After Cosby appeared on "Meet the Press" this fall, talking about the importance of paternal responsibility, Romney said: "America's inner strength, the strength of our families and communities, is just as important as our economic strength and military strength. Strong families form our heart and our culture, and that's what makes America special."


Cosby, who is no conservative Republican activist, reminds us that there are exceptions to mass generalizations about politics. Many sensible Americans lean left, and many nonsensible people are right-wing. However, as Vieira and Cooper reminded me that day in late November, there is something about the left-leaning establishment that absolutely cringes at the idea of good sense, echoing knee-jerk liberal arguments — and that's not good for anyone, most especially their desire to keep sensible Americans watching.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

Comment by clicking here.

Archives

© 2007, Newspaper Enterprise Assn.

Insight (Our Columnists)

 Arnold Ahlert
 Mitch Albom
 Michael Barone
  Dave Barry
 Tony Blankley
 Andy Borowitz
 David Broder
 Stratfor Briefing
 Mona Charen
 Linda Chavez
 Ann Coulter
 Greg Crosby
 Larry Elder
 Suzanne Fields
 John Fund
 Frank J. Gaffney
 Lloyd Garver
 Jonah Goldberg
 Julia Gorin
 Jonathan Gurwitz
 Paul Greenberg
 Lewis Grossberger
 Victor Davis Hanson
 Betsy Hart
 Nat Hentoff
 David Horowitz
 Laura Ingraham
 Cheri Jacobus
Jeff Jacoby
 Paul Johnson
 Jack Kelly
 Ed Koch
 Ch. Krauthammer
 Michael Ledeen
 John Leo
 David Limbaugh
 Kathryn Lopez
 Rich Lowry
 Michelle Malkin
 Jackie Mason
 Dick Morris
 Bill O'Reilly
 Jim Mullen
 Clarence Page
 Kathleen Parker
 Dennis Prager
 Wesley Pruden
 Tom Purcell
 Jonathan Rauch
 Celia Rivenbark
 Robert Robb
 Cokie & Steve Roberts
 Pat Sajak
 Debra J. Saunders
 Culture Shlock
 Roger Simon
 Michael Smerconish
 Thomas Sowell
 Mark Steyn
 John Stossel
 Cal Thomas
 Bob Tyrrell
 Diana West
 Dave Weinbaum
 George Will
 Walter Williams
 Byron York
 Mort Zuckerman

'Toons
 Robert Arial
 Chuck Asay
 Baloo
 Chip Bok
 Dry Bones
  Lisa Benson
 John Branch
 Gary Brookins
 John Cole
 J. D. Crowe
 John Deering
 Brian Duffy
 Everything's Relative
 Mallard Fillmore
 Jake Fuller
 Bob Gorrel
 Joe Heller
 David Hitch
 Jerry Holber
 Steve Kelley
 Jeff Koterba
 Dick Locher
 Chan Lowe
 Ranan R. Lurie
 Jimmy Margulies
 Rick McKee
 Michael Ramirez
 Kevin Siers
 Jeff Stahler
 Ed Stein
 Danna Summers
 John Trever
 Gary Varvel
 Kirk Walters

Lifestyles
 How 2
 Lori Borgman
 The Savvy Consumer
 Elder matters
 Fixit
 Dr. Peter Gott
 GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko
 Richard Lederer
 Tech Maven
 Every Monday Matters
 Nutrition Myths
 Bookmark These
 Bruce Williams
 How Stuff Works