This is the moral of Sophocles’s Antigone, in which the titular heroine defies the edict of the tyrant Creon (symbolic of state power) in order to bury her brother Polynices, in obedience to the primordial laws of kinship. It is why Cicero, the Roman statesman and philosopher (most famous for his opposition to Caesar’s rise) who was hardly a radical, wrote, “The first bond of society is in marriage itself; the next in children; then a single household with all things in common. And that is the beginning of the city and, as it were, the seedbed of the republic.” And it is why Edmund Burke, the father of modern conservatism, opposed the French Revolution, declaring, “The power of perpetuating our property in our families is one of the most valuable and interesting circumstances belonging to it.”
But this is not the view of men like Ed Setzler. In his statement about Adriana Smith, the state senator said, “Mindful and respectful of the deep pain of this young mother’s family, the wisdom of modern medical science to be able to save the life of her unborn child is something that I am hopeful in future years will lead to great joy.” Of course, he’s not really just talking about the “wisdom” of modern medicine but the opinion of Emory’s doctors and lawyers, not to mention the law he helped create. And he is saying that these opinions—this wisdom, if you would prefer—should be substituted for the family’s authority and wisdom. He is saying that the state decides what kind of medical care your child receives. The state decides whether your brain-dead wife remains hooked to machines.
He’s not alone. Again and again, MAGA authoritarians have been willing to invoke the power of the family when it can be leveraged to their own ends, but are quick to override that power when it cannot.
So on the one hand, Republicans claim in their party platform to “promote a Culture that values the Sanctity of Marriage, the blessings of childhood, the foundational role of families, and supports working parents.” But their actions betray their rhetoric: There is a GOP campaign in statehouses around the country to pass laws requiring schools and teachers to out gay and trans students to their parents, an effort most assuredly aimed at terrorizing queer children with unsupportive families. This is not about a parent’s right to know but an effort to deputize parents in the state’s campaign against their children. Because when the family stands as a barrier to Republicans’ imposing their draconian will, they have proved more than willing to ignore parental authority. For example, what could be more transparent (and frankly silly) an interference with a parent’s right to direct her child’s education than banning drag story hours?
The MAGA movement, it turns out, is essentially anti-family—and not just in the anti-LGBTQ way that the “Free Mom Hugs” crowd worries about. It is important to remember that in many ways the new American authoritarianism has risen out of the collapse of the family within certain parts of society. Across huge tracts of Middle America, poor and working-class Americans have seen the family disintegrate as a stable institution. Poor and working-class people are less likely to marry and more likely to divorce than their middle- and upper-class counterparts. Not only do they have more children outside of marriage, but single mothers among the working class are better off staying that way. (Maybe that’s why single moms will be the hardest hit by the GOP’s planned budget cuts.)
