Marriage and the family: A Comparison of the Democrat and Republican Platforms
by Andrew Guernsey, FRC:
Last week, the Republican Party ratified its 2016 platform that includes key socially conservative planks on life, marriage, and religious liberty, which FRC Action, in tandem with our partner delegates, helped to improve from the 2012 platform. This week, the Democrats approved their platform, which swings them even farther to the extreme left on their radical social agenda.
While platforms are non-binding documents, research shows they matter—significantly. One study found that in the past 30 years, Republicans in Congress voted for positions supported by their party platform 89 percent of the time, while Democrats did so at a rate of 74 percent. If Republicans and Democrats in Congress make good on their party platforms’ promises, people of faith heading to the polls in November can be confident that Republicans will defend life, marriage, and religious liberty, while Democrats will continue to put those same values under direct assault.
The difference between the two parties’ platforms could not be clearer on values issues. Here are some concrete instances:
MARRIAGE
On the Redefinition of Marriage
Democrats support the Court’s judicial activism in Obergefell “that recognized LGBT people … have the right to marry the person they love.”
Republicans, on the other hand, “condemn the Supreme Court’s ruling in United States v. Windsor … [and] Obergefell v. Hodges, which … robbed 320 million Americans of their legitimate constitutional authority to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. To echo Scalia, we dissent.” Republicans “urge its [Obergefell’s] reversal, whether through judicial reconsideration or a constitutional amendment returning control over marriage to the states.”
On Supporting Marriage and Family
The Democrats look to government and “social support services,” not marriage and family as the foundation of American society. Without mentioning the family or natural marriage, Democrats “are committed to creating a society where children … can thrive physically, emotionally, educationally, and spiritually … [through] civil structures that are essential to creating this for every child.”
The Republicans, on the other hand, affirm that “the American family … is the foundation of civil society, and the cornerstone of the family is natural marriage, the union of one man and one woman.” The platform affirms the numerous benefits of natural marriage to human flourishing, and supported by overwhelming evidence from social science, concludes that “every child deserves a married mom and dad.” Republicans believe that “strong families, depending upon God and one another, advance the cause of liberty by lessening the need for government in their daily lives,” and conversely, “the loss of faith and family life leads to greater dependence upon government.” The Platform also discourages cohabitation and calls for “marriage penalties to be removed from the tax code and public assistance programs.”
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