My research documents the development of a progressive family politics in America from the Reagan era to the present. Conservatives have based claims in favor of “traditional” gender roles, deregulation, and lower taxes on a defense of the traditional family for the for more than four decades. In recent years this conservative capture of the family has given way to an emergent Left politics that emphasizes familial diversity, exemplified in part by President Barack Obama’s outreach programs targeting fatherless men of color and references to his own family life in speeches. My research on presidential rhetoric, federal policy, and social movements reveals that conservative “family values” politics laid the groundwork for a more liberal and democratic family politics now unfolding.
The family is at once an element of speech and an object of policymaking, and using an interpretive mixed method approach allows me to explore these multiple facets. I historicize the emergence of a left politics of the family by comparing the evolution of social policy, including welfare programs and child support enforcement, with political speeches mentioning family life. This approach demonstrates how themes emerge out policy reform, influence public debate, and then interchange among political actors over time. I also compare social movement activism around the family from 1980s to the present, including conservative anti-gay activism and movements against mass incarceration. Attention to social movement activity provides an account of non-elite politics and gestures to future possibilities in family politics.
Each chapter of my doctoral dissertation, entitled “Re-Focus on the Family: The development of a liberal family politics 1980-2015,” focuses on one aspect of the shifting terrain of family discourse and social policy. The first chapter examines “personal responsibility” rhetoric as a central element of welfare reform policy debates. Over the late-20th century, conservatives reframed the liberal call for greater community responsibility in addressing familial breakdown as a demand for more personal responsibility among people of color and the poor. The second chapter analyzes the history of child support enforcement to show how the federal government rationalizes increased scrutiny of men’s lives in a process I call “the responsibilization of fatherhood.” Chapter three is a case study of President Barack Obama, who has adopted conservative family themes and redeployed them for liberal purposes. Obama demonstrates both the dialogic process of articulating political messages and the pitfalls of reshaping themes. Chapter four focuses on conservative anti-gay discourse to show how the mantra of “family values” is no longer culturally resonant. By comparing Anita Bryant’s activism from the 1970s with Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis’s recent protest against same-sex marriage, I show that conservative anti-gay rhetoric has shifted toward personal religious freedom away from defending the traditional family. The final chapter considers three social movement organizations that work for criminal justice reform by highlighting the impact of tough sentencing laws on families. These organizations rework familial political discourse by applying the theme of family impact, first promoted by conservatives in the Reagan White House, for liberal ends. In the conclusion I argue that progressive groups can win public favor by framing their issues with reference to family, but these references must confront the historical legacy of conservative familial politics.
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