Family and pro-life values?

July 2, 2018 by Fred Allebach

I see that conservative evangelicals are swallowing any pretense of pro-family, pro-life morality by supporting Trump. This is a group of people already scared of cultural modernity and humanism. This is a group that has made enemies of the non-“traditional”, through a rigid adherence to purity in family values.

How can people be so adamant about the sanctity of life’s conception, but then ignore all the injustices that happen during the course of that life? So much for really valuing life and for “family values.”

Let’s explore the definition of morality and how people might arrive at such exclusive over inclusive views. In Western civilization, this spilt comes explicitly from the internal contradiction of a fire and brimstone Jesus vs. a compassionate Jesus. This is the basis for George Lakoff’s strict father family vs. nurturing family metaphor. Conservative have family values, it’s just the tough love, beat the kid kind of values.

It all really gets down to how people manifest five fundamental moral capacities: loyalty, respect for authority, purity, harm and fairness. The conservative evangelicals, a big part of Trump’s base, key into a fire and brimstone respect for authority first of all. This is why they can accept Trump and his incongruence (grab them by the pussy and sleep with a porn star while your wife just had a baby) with actual family values.

Liberals hew primarily to compassion, to harm and fairness morals. They are inclusive to a fault, at least in this binary theory.

Liberals have liberated themselves from the primitive tribalism and literal Biblical content that evangelicals have, but they are still subject to basic human in-group-out group tribal fighting dynamics. Conservative have a primitive view and primitive dynamics; liberals have a modern view and primitive dynamics.

The Trump conservatives want to take away all social programs and safety nets, to not welcome any stranger. Small government is seen as way to purge the system of any compassion to the unworthy. And so, if God came to their house and looked Latino, they would turn God away. Family values only apply to a severely restricted in-group. This is the conservative hubris, a lack of fundamental humanity while claiming to be pro-family and pro-life. No thou art that for conservatives.

From a modern standpoint, this doesn’t make any sense; it’s cruel, divisive and exclusive, yet we see the exact same thing with liberal Bay Area NIMBYs, and with any defenders of the status quo and business as usual. Primitive dynamics. Conservatives are simply manifesting a basic human capacity for hypocrisy, say one thing, do another, and layering this over proscribed literal interpretation of primitive biblical content.

Why not say tough luck to all those white meth heads and opiate addicts, and all poor whites with no health care? Is this not about loyalty to race? No, that’s just a foil and a distraction wherein the rich further consolidate power by playing conservatives out on family values and pro-life hot button issues, and blame the fallout on Nativism and government overreach.

They are going to pack the Supreme Court to be pro-life and pro-family? My God, what kind of cruel joke is this?

Why would the Koch Bros et al want a smaller government with no social services, no pollution controls and no mass transit etc.? It cuts into their bottom line is why. Greed and lack of compassion of the top dogs is the problem here. This much is crystal clear. It’s OK to have people drink contaminated water and destroy the common environment, because there are no messy scientists now to say otherwise. It’s OK to bring as many unwanted children in to the world as possible, and the  abandon them from the moment of birth.

A selfish complacency rules the day. But this won’t last long. This is the last gasp of an outdated, primitive way of being human, one that we may not survive. I never thought ignorance would rule the day.

By whatever measure, that we are here on earth, conscious, intelligent, and able to plan ahead, is a miracle. Unfortunately for us all, this miracle of intelligent self-consciousness may be squandered with petty fighting and hubris, a tragedy brought on by the very people who claim to value life and the family.  Unreal but true.