Barack Obama Father's Day reply - INVOLUNTARY fatherlessness
4,104
Published 2007-12-20
This is my response:
Barack is right on when he talks about the need for fathers to be more involved with their kids. But he completely misses the point that most absent fathers did NOT choose to walk away, they were FORCED OUT as innocent defendants in no-fault divorces. Democrats uphold defendants' rights, right? Apparently not in family court and not when there are no criminal charges against the defendant. We can NOT strengthen fatherhood if we ignore the ease with which any family court judge can terminate the parental rights of any good, devoted father in divorce court.
Also, Obama offers several proposals to "strengthen fatherhood" - but they pretty much ALL require the father to be divorced and pay his support on time. Fathers who pay no support through an agency - BECAUSE they live at home and provide direct support - do not qualify for Obama's program. By focusing on improving support collection, Obama's plan actually will make divorce and support money MORE attractive to moms who are fearful of dad's job (in)security, his plan will increase the divorce incentives we have now and will make MORE children fatherless.
This is not change. "More money for single moms" is the same-old thing we've done for decades, and it's a big part of how we got to a place where Obama needs to chide absent fathers - it IS the engine of big government's effort to REPLACE fathers as providers of family security.
Also, Obama looks at fathers who have already decided to walk away, and he wants to convince them to turn around and walk back. He'd be a lot more successful if he was doing something for the fathers who were FORCED away, who already want to spend more time with their kids.
Equal protection of the fundamental parental rights of all fit parents, will eliminate the divorce incentive and strengthen families. THAT would be a change! Does Obama have the courage to challenge the liberal media's "All Men Suck" template? Not so far....
All Comments (21)
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I've only watched the first one minute and ten seconds but (so far) I feel the deepest compassion for you. Thats not fair.
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this is powerful man this is an incredible response.
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I, too, have had my children kidnapped from me. The state put up no boundaries between my ex taking my children out of town over 100 miles away. However, they did put up boundaries when I was proving that I am a fit, loving, compassionate, caring and able father. What I've witness with purely absurd destruction of my children's emotional and mental well being.
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this video needs more views.
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Did you post this as a video response to Barack's father's day speech video? If you upload it there you might have more of a shot at getting it noticed.
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As one who has "worked in the social welfare system for years", your display of "presumption of innocense" is touching. Guys, it's exactly this - the "you must have done something to deserve this" attitude - that forces good fathers away from their kids. Obama says that 26 million kids are away from their dads. If 6.6M are guilty of something, put 'em all in jail - you'll quadruple U.S. prison pop., and leave 20M good dads forced out.
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Bill Clinton said, as quoted by Bruce Reed in the 1/22/2002 "DLC Blueprint Magazine", that "When fathers pay their child support, they rediscover a connection that they and their children desperately need". Curious that as a dad, he forgot to mention the connection he has with Chelsea despite making NO support payments for her.
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Thank you, Marlee. Re: Vixen, thanks for clearing that up. Re: "much of what is happening today", I agree completely! Mortgage crisis? 1960 US pop 180M in 58M homes = 3.1 per home. 2006 US pop 300M in 126M homes = 2.3 per home. If 300M lived at 3.1 per, we'd need just 96M homes - we have a housing surplus of 30 million homes... Any market, overstocked, declines. Your ex's lawyer has to stay friendly with the court for tomorrow's client... he won't waste that on a lost cause (any father)
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@RoseCityRose thank you finally a lady that understands
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I was speaking to 'vampedvixenvids'. Steve, I am in nearly total agreement with you, but I hold unilateral forced divorce responsible for much of what is happening today.
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Excellent point! I hope senators and the president elect hear this point how can we tell them?
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@RoseCityRose thank you finaly a lady that understands
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When I lost custody, I had 120 hours of foster parent training and a foster care license. I would have had a foster child if I had asked for one. Officially, in the court order, the reason we don't have joint custody is because one of us did not agree to joint custody. PS, my ex's boyfriend was not reqired to be evaluated before the judge placed my son in his home. Try again, Vixen.
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@marlee51 - unilateral divorce IS a problem. But, honestly, people DO have a right to associate -or not- with whoever they want (provided the other consents to the association). When my spouse chose to leave me, she had THAT right. What she DIDN'T have was a right to demand that I leave my son. No-fault divorce MUST be interpreted as the FILER's request to leave the whole family and pay support.
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Pixie, I agree with you on both points: 1)Obama is not talking about devoted dads forced out of familes - my complaint is that Obama is ignoring this problem, and 2) I don't say this is a DELIBERATE conspiracy, just that the laws now ACT as a divorce incentive. (but, read Kate Millet, "Sexual Politics" 2.3, 1969 for her description of family as the patriarchal unit from which patriarchal society is built. Or read Karl Marx for his declaration that the concept of "family" should be abolished)
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Obama definitely has an important message for A-A families, really for any parent who choses to ignore responsibilities - and I wasn't criticizing what he said. But spending time changing minds of voluntarily absent parents, seems less productive than opening doors and removing roadblocks for those who ALREADY WANT to be there for their kids.
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Obama speaks for 1:15 before he mentions the A-A community. "We are called to recognize how critical EVERY father is to that foundation... You and I know this is true everywhere." My complaint is that while speaking of "every [absent] father", he says "..they've abandoned their responsibilities, they're acting like boys instead of men." I OBJECT! I am absent, but I did not abandon, I was FORCED OUT, disempowered, invalidated, marginalized, excluded, denigrated.
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Simon, not sure I understand why you posted this comment, but... Democrats have always talored their essages to specific groups, which is why they often speak to closed assemblies. One day, to social workers: "I'm for work opportunity, more jobs in that factory there" - next day, to the union at that (same) factory: "I'm for protecting your jobs, closed shop, yeah!" - next day, to Greens: "I'm for closing that dirty (same) factory there". Dem strategy: DIVIDE AND CONQUER (also family policy)
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Frankly,if you look at the stats on who wins custody and at what percentage the imbalance is clear. The modern family will soon be composed of: Woman, Child and State.
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But Barack wasn't speaking on "Black Fatherless Day" - His message, "too many fathers are absent", applies to all absent fathers except the few who are unfit. But his solution misses half of the problem - in the same way that Lincoln's Emancipation missed poll taxes and literacy tests and oppressive districting. Solving inner city fatherlessness is part of the solution, but ONLY part.
