As an example of how the terrain of family politic has shifted, see this story from the recent runoff election to represent Tennessee’s 4th Congressional district.
“this was the first time DesJarlais was up for re-election since news broke that he’s slept with his patients and encouraged both his wife and a mistress to get abortions. In the end that wasn’t enough to get Tracy the win.”
This seems like a good example of how the notion of a “pro-family candidate” no longer actually makes any sense. “Pro-family” is meant to index a series of political commitments ranging from pro-life beliefs to disagreement with the advancement of rights for LGBT people. Clearly a “pro-life” person who has encouraged his mistresses to have abortions is suffering from some serious inconsistencies to say the very least.
For my purposes, though, I’m curious about how the term “pro-family” in this since feels like a relic. “Pro-family” has at least a 40 year history of associations with conservative politics. I think the politics of family has moved beyond the connotations of family that this story relies on.
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