On the recordJuly 11, 2024
I want to address some issues that I have addressed from this podium in the past, but I think the American press corps has still not picked up on them. They are issues that ought to be debated in the upcoming elections because I think over time, they have a profound effect on America. When I talk to people my age and up, they are almost uniformly concerned about where America is going, and they feel America is not particularly as great a country to raise children in as the America that they grew up in in the seventies or sixties or fifties. When I ask them why, they sometimes have a hard time placing it, but they list different things. One of the things they all talk about is the breakdown of the family. You have to wonder why this has happened or why they feel the family is not as strong as they used to be, but they are right if you look at the statistics. If you look at the number of children born without both a mother and a father in the home, around 1960, that was only 5 percent; it was rare. Then the Lyndon Johnson-led Federal Government began a so-called war on poverty. I call it a war on marriage. Between 1960 and the mid 1990s, that 5-percent figure went up to 40 percent. Now, you may ask, was this just a coincidence? Did people believe in God less? Was getting married first as important? How did it happen? The American public should be aware that there are some people who always did want it to happen.…
