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Coventina

(30,138 posts)
Thu Jul 9, 2026, 03:22 PM Yesterday

The Gap Between the Families We Have and the Ones Conservatives Want

The panic about Americans having fewer babies continues unabated. But we know this: Marriage and fertility rates in this country and across much of the world have been declining for years, with no signs of reversing. Prominent American conservatives keep saying that the problem is that it’s not 1950. That’s when it was typical to get married in one’s late teens or early 20s, to someone only of the opposite sex, and a majority of families had a male breadwinner with more legal rights than his wife.

In a commencement speech to Hillsdale College, a Christian liberal arts school with moral guidelines that state that the only “responsible sexual acts” are “those occurring in marriage and between the sexes,” Erika Kirk told 2026 graduates that if her late husband, Charlie Kirk, had been there, he would have encouraged them to get married young.

Erica Kirk, the chief executive of Turning Point U.S.A., went on, “He’d also say: Have more kids than you can afford.” Americans of many different backgrounds have cited the cost of living as a reason they are delaying or forgoing parenthood. The backlash I have seen to her statement on social media shows that her message is not landing well in the middle of a grocery price emergency. She continued: “To the men, you are called to provide. You are called to lead, to anchor your families in strength and consistency. To the women, you are called to nurture, to build to shape lives with wisdom and endurance.”

Kirk pitches her message as countercultural, and in a sense, it is. A 21-year-old married speaker at Turning Point’s Women’s Leadership Summit in June said she was going against the culture by proclaiming her husband as the head of her household and feminism as a “psyop." But a young marriage isn’t what most Americans want. Only 10 percent of Americans in a survey said that getting married at 20 to 24 years old was ideal, and most people believe it’s better to wait until you’re more established and responsible. (Kirk did not marry until she was in her 30s.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/01/opinion/conservatives-marriage-babies.html?

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Professional widow Erica Kirk can suck my left one!!!!!

To hear a rich, entitled, ****, tell people to have more babies than they can afford?!?!?!?!!?!
Fuck you with a red hot poker!

You (meaning her and all her ilk) have been shaming women of color for decades for just that!!
But you'll preach it to college graduates?!?!?!?

Seriously, FOAD! Just like your loser husband.

9 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
The Gap Between the Families We Have and the Ones Conservatives Want (Original Post) Coventina Yesterday OP
I believe I have seen Delarage Yesterday #1
Plus, she's basically saying "Give your children the substandard upbringing a lack of money results in." Aristus Yesterday #2
God forbid you need help financially MustLoveBeagles Yesterday #4
do they want us to put these families in a two bedroom apt rampartd Yesterday #3
To split hairs, they're preaching it to /white/ college graduates. We all know why. eppur_se_muova Yesterday #5
"Have babies", area51 Yesterday #6
How many babies . . . AverageOldGuy Yesterday #7
Ooh gross Keepthesoulalive Yesterday #8
"Meet our babies, Charisma, Lane, Theodore Alexander, and Broyhill." Efilroft Sul Yesterday #9

Delarage

(2,658 posts)
1. I believe I have seen
Thu Jul 9, 2026, 03:29 PM
Yesterday

thousands of bumper stickers that say "if you can't afford them, don't have them" on cult member cars. so now they are hypocrites on top of thieves and morons

Aristus

(72,818 posts)
2. Plus, she's basically saying "Give your children the substandard upbringing a lack of money results in."
Thu Jul 9, 2026, 03:43 PM
Yesterday

Monsters...

rampartd

(5,849 posts)
3. do they want us to put these families in a two bedroom apt
Thu Jul 9, 2026, 04:04 PM
Yesterday

with our room mates and all of our mothers 'cause the nursing home close?

is ai gonna pay child support cause grpk took daddy;s job?

eppur_se_muova

(42,996 posts)
5. To split hairs, they're preaching it to /white/ college graduates. We all know why.
Thu Jul 9, 2026, 04:26 PM
Yesterday

Besides, when you share costs with the other wives in the compound, it's more affordable than you might expect.

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