Abby McCloskey, The Dispatch, April 17, 2025

s a millennial mother and policy researcher, I’ve been waiting a long time for Republicans to take up the mantle of dependable pro-family policies. The traditionally conservative, free-market philosophy of a rising tide lifting all boats by reducing regulation and taxes didn’t always work in the latter part of the last century: Families were breaking apart in historic proportions, wages for low-income workers stalled, nearly half of mothers lacked any type of job protection (let alone pay) after birth, and public schools showed cracks. Reagan-era conservatives such as myself knew we didn’t like what the Democrats offered: massive new entitlements and spending. But our laissez-faire alternative wasn’t working either.

To be sure, Republicans are talking more about family policy these days than I can remember in my lifetime, but what we’re seeing and hearing from the new right in Washington is not what I had in mind. Instead of fiscal responsibility and a focus on family values, we’re seeing fiscal profligacy, policy decisions that could destabilize families, and political figures displaying a disregard for norms and decency in their personal lives. MAGA leaders have lost the vision on what “good” even looks like for families, and operate their lives out of a different value set.