{"id":29945,"date":"2016-09-06T05:00:46","date_gmt":"2016-09-06T09:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=29945"},"modified":"2016-08-31T17:43:55","modified_gmt":"2016-08-31T21:43:55","slug":"the-party-of-family-values-my-foot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/09\/the-party-of-family-values-my-foot.html","title":{"rendered":"The Party of Family Values, My Foot!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

If I learned anything about the Republican Party growing up in a conservative evangelical family, it was that the GOP was the party of family values<\/em>.\u00a0At the time, I believed the rhetoric. Why shouldn\u2019t I? I was a homeschooled child who had never been exposed to anything that might challenge this claim. I\u2019d never met a gay person, but I knew\u00a0that they led miserable, godless, sex-obsessed, dangerous, anti-family lifestyles, because that\u2019s what my parents and church taught me. I didn\u2019t realize that GOP rhetoric about welfare recipients ignored the various alternative kinds\u00a0of families people form. I thought the definition of the word \u201cfamily\u201d was a married man and woman and their biological\u00a0or adopted children.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve long since realized that much of what I was taught, as a homeschooled evangelical conservative Republican girl, was highly selective, very\u00a0biased, and even\u00a0flat-out false.\u00a0But that\u2019s not why I\u2019m angry today. Oh no, I\u2019m angry for a completely different reason.\u00a0I\u2019m angry because even on their own terms, Republicans\u2019 claim to be the party of \u201cfamily values\u201d is spurious and hollow. I\u2019m angry because the GOP holds double standards to beat all other double standards. I\u2019m angry at the deception.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t get much more \u201cfamily man\u201d than Barack Obama. He\u2019s a loving husband and a dedicated father. His relationship with his wife, Michelle, and with their daughters, Malia and Sasha, is wonderful to behold. He has never been accused of infidelity. He has never been on the cover of Playboy. He has never left a wife for another woman. He speaks of Michelle with respect, honor, and admiration. Pictures of him with his daughters are a sight to behold. And yet, evangelicals accused this family man of being the antichrist, and worse. They have spent the past eight years vilifying him up and down. The hatred has been palpable.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I realize that a pretty picture does not a happy family make, but anyone who has followed the Obamas can see that the president is a dedicated, loving father who lives for his children<\/a>, who values and loves his wife. I\u2019ve never seen a hint of an affair.<\/p>\n

Contrast this with Donald Trump. Trump cheated on his first wife with another woman, and then divorced his first wife to marry the woman.\u00a0He later divorced his second\u00a0wife and remarried a third time. He was on the cover of Playboy<\/em> for gracious sakes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

And look at\u00a0how Trump talks about his most recent wife,<\/a>\u00a0Melania:<\/p>\n

\n

Stern once asked Trump what he would do if Melania were in a terrible car accident, God forbid, and lost the use of her left arm, developed an oozing red splotch near her eye, and mangled her left foot. Would Donald stay with her?<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do the breasts look?\u201d Trump asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe breasts are okay,\u201d Stern replied. Then, yeah, of course Trump stays. \u201cBecause that\u2019s important.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Can you even imagine<\/em>\u00a0Obama talking\u00a0about Michelle like that?<\/p>\n

All of this and more should immediately disqualify Trump from being considered a \u201cfamily man,\u201d and<\/em> from heading \u201cthe party of family values.\u201d\u00a0Do you remember what conservatives said about Bill Clinton in the 1990s<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Evangelicals during the \u201990s were not merely concerned with Clinton\u2019s private behavior; they were worried about its effect on a society they felt had already abandoned traditional values. In September 1998, James Dobson of Focus on the Family sent a letter to 2.4 million conservative Christians claiming Clinton should be impeached because his behavior was setting a bad example for our children about \u201crespecting women<\/a>.\u201d Dobson\u2019s apparent concern for women back then feels like a partisan political move now that he\u2019s given Trump an enthusiastic\u00a0endorsement<\/a>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I can\u2019t anymore. I really can\u2019t. I am completely and utterly disgusted.<\/p>\n

I grew up believing all that stuff about family values, I really did. And perhaps I should have seen through it back then\u2014it\u2019s not like the cast of characters that lined up against Bill Clinton all had their family lives in order, after all. But I was a child then, and I was gullible, I suppose. And now, as an adult, looking at conservative hatred of Obama and evangelicals\u2019 sudden embrace of Donald Trump, the hypocrisy is thrown into stark relief.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I grew up believing all that stuff about family values, I really did. And perhaps I should have seen through it back then—it’s not like the cast of characters that lined up against Bill Clinton all had their family lives in order, after all. But I was a child then, and I was gullible, I suppose. And now, as an adult, looking at conservative hatred of Obama and evangelicals’ sudden embrace of Donald Trump, the hypocrisy is thrown into stark relief. <\/p>\n

Click through to read more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":30218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-evangelicalism-fundamentalism","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Party of Family Values, My Foot!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I grew up believing all that stuff about family values, I really did. And perhaps I should have seen through it back then---it's not like the cast of characters that lined up against Bill Clinton all had their family lives in order, after all. But I was a child then, and I was gullible, I suppose. And now, as an adult, looking at conservative hatred of Obama and evangelicals' sudden embrace of Donald Trump, the hypocrisy is thrown into stark relief. 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