IS DIVORCE AN ARGUMENT FOR SSM?: David Blankenhorn replies to George Will and William Safire

First, though [Safire] does manage to state that "the primary purpose of society's bedrock institution is to conceive and rear children in a home of male and female role models known as caring parents," he goes on almost casually to dismiss this concern. Why? For the same reason that George Will dismisses it--because the U.S. has a high divorce rate.

I'm sorry, this is too easy. This argument has become a trope, used reflexively by people who ought to think about it a bit before trotting it out. Let's review. Among other things, divorce is a failure to achieve the norm--no couple walks down the aisle planning to divorce--whereas SSM, from the perspective of giving a child a mother and a father, changes the norm itself, such that what was once "failure" is now ... normative. Surely people who use the "high divorce" argument in the way that Will and Safire do should demonstrate to us that they have wrestled with this fairly important distinction.

More generally, since when do we--since when do William Safire and George Will--endorse a negative trend on the grounds that the trend is gaining momentum? What other trends in the past 50 years have they, or we, endorsed according to this criterion? Gotta think a little harder on this one, guys.

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posted by Eve at 4:43 PM | link

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