In his May 13 essay, Delano Squires asserts that “The family is the foundation of civilization, and marriage — the union of one man and one woman — is its cornerstone. It is the seedbed of self-government.” True enough.
But what happens when the government plants the seeds of dependency inside that seedbed? And what happens when conservatives join the Left in trying to plant those seeds?
Squires mentions how the massive expansion of the welfare state in the 1960s damaged the American family. President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society has been disastrous for the institution of marriage and for the families caught in the welfare trap.In 1964, when Johnson announced his ambition to build a Great Society to end poverty, only 7% of babies were born to unmarried mothers. Today, that number is 40%. Johnson saw himself as the savior of poor families, but his Great Society welfare programs created a cycle of government dependency that shattered the bonds of countless families. Rather than sowing the seeds of family development, Johnson sowed the very weeds that choked out the institution he purportedly sought to reinforce.Squires has written and spoken eloquently about how the expansion of the welfare state has led millions of low-income households to try to replace husbands and fathers with the federal government.But unfortunately, instead of calling for an overhaul of the welfare system that has done so much harm, Squires’s essay promotes the Heritage Foundation’s call to expand welfare to more traditional families. Heritage’s report, “Saving America by Saving the American Family,” proposes new government transfer programs. Squires describes one program as potentially providing “the type of financial security that would go a long way to help newlyweds, especially in working-class and low-income communities where the married, two-parent families are a relic of the past.”" data-large-file="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/AP23240854081311.jpg?w=696" src="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/AP23240854081311.jpg?w=696" alt="The Heritage Foundation building is seen on Aug. 5, 2017, in Washington" class="wp-image-4361514">The Heritage Foundation building is seen on Aug. 5, 2017, in Washington. (Andrew Harnik/AP, file)
