It's Time to Restore Fading Families

Terence P. Jeffrey on Apr 3, 2024

In our nation's capital, according to the Census Bureau, 1.2% of the households were headed by unmarried same-sex couples, and 1.4% were headed by married same-sex couples.

No state had even 1% in either of these categories. Fourteen states -- including California, New York and Massachusetts -- led the other states with 0.5% of their households headed by unmarried same-sex couples. Four states -- including Hawaii, Massachusetts, Delaware and Vermont -- led the other states with 0.8% of their households headed by married same-sex couples.

The decline in the traditional family -- headed by a married mother and father -- is a decline for America.

As this column has noted before, traditional family life correlates with financial well-being. In 2022, according to the Census Bureau, married-couple households had the highest median incomes and lowest poverty rate.

The median household income for a married-couple family that year was $110,800 -- compared to $51,930 for a male householder living in a nonfamily household and $40,200 for a female householder living in a nonfamily household.

That same year, 6.9% of married-couple families with children under 18 lived in poverty, according to the Census Bureau, while 37.2% of female householders with children under 18 and no spouse present lived in poverty, and 18.3% of male householders with children under 18 and no spouse present lived in poverty.

In 1798, President John Adams sent a message to a Massachusetts militia. "[W]we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion," he said.

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people," he said. "It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

John Adams was right.

Terence P. Jeffrey is the investigative editor of the Daily Caller News Foundation. To find out more about Terence P. Jeffrey and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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