This Thanksgiving, Let’s Be Thankful That the Family Still Matters

This Thanksgiving, Americans across the country will spend a wonderful day at home filled with good food and family.  I myself am looking forward to spending some joyful time with my wife, Susan, along with our son Nick and his wife, Rachael.  Regardless of the usual differences over whether or not to serve cranberry sauce, how to make the perfect gravy, or the many other unique traditions found in households across America, the constant in each home will be this: family. That is why, as we celebrate Thanksgiving this year, we must remember how much the sacred institution of the family matters to our country and to our way of life. 

Family is essential to education.  The instruction of our children does not begin in school; it begins with parents, who have the moral and God-given authority to ensure they are brought up properly.  Neither activists, teachers' unions, nor government – be it local, state, or federal – should be given that awesome responsibility.  When other actors try to supersede the family, all of us must stand up and push back.

We saw this happen during the pandemic.  Ridiculous lockdown policies kept children from returning to the classroom long after such policies could be defended.  The reason? The largest teacher’s union in the country, led by Randi Weingarten, was calling the shots, not parents.  When radical ideologies like Critical Race Theory and the 1619 Project began to replace American history, it was because advancing the progressive agenda was given priority over the wishes of parents (and most teachers, who are committed to teaching the truth).  The results of these damaging policies, made evident in the Nation’s Report Card, proved beyond any doubt that parents were right.  We should be thankful that in America, parents across the country can push back by electing new officials and demanding change, as they did during the midterms.  The family still matters in American education – let’s keep it that way. 

Family forms the foundation of our economic success as well.  Far from the narrative we often hear from progressives – that selfish greed is the driver of capitalism – the truth is that economic growth is very much driven by a strong culture of healthy families.  It’s common sense: parents work hard to provide for their children, while stable, two-parent households reliably predict far better economic outcomes for children than any other factor.  I saw this firsthand when I ran a business in Kansas.  So many of the good men and women who worked for me worked hard not for themselves, but rather to give their families the best life they could, just as I was driven to provide for mine.  When I first ran for Congress and went across the district speaking to Kansans, I wasn’t just talking to voters; I was talking to grandparents, fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters.  They weren’t interested in policies that would make themselves rich or more powerful, they were interested in policies that would make it easier for them to provide for their loved ones.  Strong families are what give us a strong economy.

Finally, aside from education or the economy, the family provides the most powerful and lasting safeguard against the coercive power of the state.  Look back throughout history at totalitarian governments – fascist, communist, or otherwise – and you will find that central to their governing philosophy was the destruction of the family.  That’s because, as Russell Kirk once wrote, “The traditional family…gives us those roots without which we all would be just so many lonely little atoms of humanity, unprincipled and at the mercy of some iron political domination.”  Our cherished freedoms are worth celebrating and being thankful for, but we should also give thanks for the things that secure them: our families and our faith.

In 1778, John Adams wrote, “the foundations of national morality must be laid in private families.”  For more than two centuries, we have understood and defended this common-sense belief.  The persistence and strength of the American family has always been a necessary part of the American miracle. This week, as we spend time with our loved ones, let’s be thankful that we live in a country where this continues to be true.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and may God bless you and your families!