Does anyone know just what the phrase "Family Values" means?

[jemelanson]

It is a phrase or sound bite that is used allot especially by the Right Wing and Wing-nuts but I have never gotten a real answer as to what "Family Values" really means?

What values do they consider Family values?

Does it have a real meaning or is it one of those "It means whatever they want it to mean on that given day and time?

Any answers out there?

[Enrique]

1. tax cuts n/t

[DefenseLawyer]

16. +1

[bmbmd]

2. Seems like we owe it all to Dan Quayle.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,975627,00.html

[liberal N proud]

3. If it is a right wing value then it implies the opposite of what you think

[DURHAM D]

4. It means they stand for everything I hate -

and hate everything I stand for.

[daleanime]

5. It's just a code phrase...

means us, not them(which ever them you hate/are scared of). The fact that it means different things to different people is what makes it useful for repugs.

[Nite Owl]

6. To the right it means

if you love your family you vote Republican, Dems don't love their families like us.

[JBoy]

7. It's that special feeling you get when you cram a stick way up your ass

and get pissed off when you see others enjoying their lives, even though they're "different" than you.

[madokie]

32. That's pretty much the size of it

Ain't having any fun, don't want anyone else too either.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

8. Code words for --

white, straight, Old Testament Christian familes.

Everyone else need not apply.

[catzies]

11. You forgot male and patriarchal, or is that redundant?

It may have been Molly Ivins who said that "family values" really meant "Daddy's in charge" and was part of the feminist backlash in the arly 90s around the time of the Dan Quayle/Murphy Brown brouhaha.

[blondeatlast]

9. The phrase must be taken apart, then put back together.

Family: A straight, white, Christian male, ideally of the Baptist, faith, married and supervising a straight white Christian female; who have at least two children and a "American-made" SUV with silhouettes of the family on the rear window and a parental lock on the cable and the internet.

Values" anything they value, commonly hatred of anything they don't understand or outside their 5 bedroom suburban home or anyone not in their church flock.

[Bitwit1234]

10. One thing is sure

it means they support big business, wars and oil companies. That must be their families.

[gratuitous]

12. If you don't know what it means, hippie

Then get out of the country!

That's what "family values" means, and thankfully none of the media chuckleheads ever bothers to ask one of these dimbulb talking-point-spouting politicians just what it means. I'd guess Mark Souder would have changed his definition drastically in the last week.

[havocmom]

13. Do as I say, not as I do

Footnote: see Gingrich, Newt and a whole lotta other posers who use a nebulous phrase to garner support from a population that can reflect their own personal meaning on to it and assume various pols share their personal values.

[kwolf68]

14. Another thing

They are rabidly pro life except in the case of war or capital punishment.

[Jokerman]

15. Same as the phrase "Christian Values".

Totally meaningless buzz words designed to appeal to the authoritarian mindset.

[CrispyQ]

22. +1

:thumbsup:

[Dank Nugs]

17. There is no real meaning; it's dependent on the observer n/t

[catzies]

37. Would you have the same answer if the question were "What are 'American values'?"

What say you then?

[undeterred]

18. It means we want to destroy the environment, stupidify american education,

and impoverish the middle class... all for the children, especially the unborn.

[valerief]

19. It means you bash gays but hire gay prostitutes for youself. nt

[Touchdown]

20. Southern Baptist & Pentecostal families are more valuable than yours.

[CrispyQ]

21. "Family Values" means,

"My family is valuable; your family is not."

[rustydog]

23. My feeling is it depends on the person espousing Family Values...

If a Republican or Tea Bagger or deeply concerned Christian Conservative whose been twice divorced or possibly caught "Hiking the Appalacian Trail", it means absolutely nothing at all.
Same as their other phrases that mean absolutely nothing when applied to them.
Such as:
Christian. Right-to-life (actually right to birth, then they'll place you in the gas chamber.)PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.
Christian Nation, Christian Values...The list goes on, but family values means whatever any single family group would hold dear collectively. You know, like GOP values of racism, elitism, class-warfare, corporations being people but not personally responsible...

But I digress....sorry

[Scuba]

24. It means your family should suffer, and be without health insurance...

...so my family can afford another home, a couple more Mercedes, etc. etc.

[RagAss]

25. It means "Wide Stance".

[MissMarple]

26. Cool article "Do 'Family Values' Weaken Families?" Please, you just have to read the whole thing.

"Can it be? One of the oddest paradoxes of modern cultural politics may at last be resolved.

The paradox is this: Cultural conservatives revel in condemning the loose moral values and louche lifestyles of "San Francisco liberals." But if you want to find two-parent families with stable marriages and coddled kids, your best bet is to bypass Sarah Palin country and go to Nancy Pelosi territory: the liberal, bicoastal, predominantly Democratic places that cultural conservatives love to hate.
...
Naomi Cahn and June Carbone -- family law professors at George Washington University and the University of Missouri (Kansas City), respectively -- suggest that the apparent paradox is no paradox at all. Rather, it is the natural consequence of a cultural divide that has opened wide over the past few decades and shows no sign of closing. To define the divide in a sentence: In red America, families form adults; in blue America, adults form families."

http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/st_20100501_5904.phttp

And here is bit of what the wikipedia says.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_values

"Republican Party

Since 1980, the Republican Party has used the issue of family values to attract socially conservative voters.<13> While family values remains a rather vague concept, social conservatives usually understand the term to include some combination of the following principles (also referenced in the 2004 Republican Party platform):<14>

Promotion of "traditional marriage" and opposition to adultery <15><16><17><18>
Support for a roll back of aspects of Feminism and support for a traditional role for women in the family.<19>
Opposition to same-sex marriage<14>
Support for traditional education and parental involvement in that education<20>
Support for policies that encourage "adoption over abortion"<21>
Support for behavior identified as traditional or moral such as respect, discipline, attentiveness, religious commitment<22><23>
Support for healthy choices such as a nutritious diet, medical screenings, and physical activity<14>
Support for "abstinence education" exclusively regarding risks associated with early sexual activity such as teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases<14> while not teaching such topics of sex education as human sexual behavior, safe sex and birth control.<24>
Support for policies that are said to protect children from obscenity and exploitation.<25><26><27><28><29><30><31>


Democratic Party

Although the term "family values" remains a core issue for the Republican Party, in recent years the Democratic Party has also used the term, though differing in its definition. For example, in his acceptance speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, John Kerry said "it is time for those who talk about family values to start valuing families."<32> The Democratic Party definitions of family values often include items that specifically target working families such as support of:

a "living wage"
universal health care
the acceptance of same-sex adoption
the acceptance of the non-traditional family (single parent households, same-sex marriages"

[Initech]

27. Family values = homophobic bigotry

[lamp_shade]

28. Conservative Family Values. My republican sister kept using the term so I looked it up in

Wikipedia. Here's what I found......"Social and religious conservatives often use the term "family values" to promote conservative ideology that supports traditional morality or Christian values.<3> American Christians often see their religion as the source of morality and consider the nuclear family to be an essential element in society. Some conservative family values advocates believe the government should endorse Christian morality,<4> for example by displaying the Ten Commandments or allowing teachers to conduct prayers in public schools. Religious conservatives often view the United States as a "Christian nation"<5> For example, the American Family Association, says "The American Family Association exists to motivate and equip citizens to change the culture to reflect Biblical truth and traditional family values."<6> These groups variously oppose abortion, pornography, pre-marital sex, homosexuality, certain aspects of feminism<7>, cohabitation, separation of church and state, and depictions of sexuality in the media."

[begin_within]

29. "If our family doesn't see your family at the country club, then you don't count."

[Lucky 13]

30. "Self-loathing, hypocritical, closet case"?

[theorbiter]

31. Hmmm

Just another vague, blanket term akin to "homosexual lifestyle" "liberal agenda" etc. Complete blather used for emotional manipulation of the not so bright.

[Stevenmarc]

33. "Family Values" = After you exit the birth canal all bets are off.

[Zix]

34. "Not Faggots"

That's about it, as far as I can tell

[donco6]

41. +1

[Unvanguard]

35. "Discriminating in favor of our families."

"Our" meaning "their", of course, not "our" as in "everyone in society's."

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

36. Code for "extremist reactionary like me."

[Hansel]

38. It means that whatever they do is okay because god will always forgive them

but anyone not like them (read non-Christians, minorities, gays, urban people, single women) have to live their lives exactly the way that they pretend they live their lives.

[Lyric]

39. Oh yeah--it's a code word.

It means:

--Rigid advocacy AGAINST gay rights in ANY shape or form. Ditto for transgenders, pansexuals, and anyone else who isn't 100% vanilla heterosexual.

--Support for outdated and sexist gender roles and sexual norms--basically, that women are meant to have and raise babies, men are meant to work outside of the home, sex before marriage is inherently wrong, women should be responsible for all the housework and cooking, men have a right to be The Authority in their homes, women should be subservient and passively obedient to the men who rule over them, and that anything other than vanilla heterosexual sex meant for procreation is immoral and wrong. Also, that Christians who take steps to ostracize, exclude, punish, or otherwise socially discipline people who step out of the pre-approved "family values" lifestyle should be allowed to do these things without criticism or intervention by any social or government entity.

--That children should be spanked and/or beaten in order to teach them right from wrong, and that God intended parents to beat their children. Also that children should ideally be passive, obedient, meek, silent, and absolutely unquestioning of whatever their parents order them to do, say, or believe.

--That religion should be forced upon children in public schools in order to stay true to the "Christian roots" of our nation. Also that Christianity is THE official American religion, and that anyone who chooses to live outside of this religious norm should silently endure and respect without question the special favored status of Christianity in America.

--That the government should GET OUT of peoples' lives when it comes to cracking down on child beating, religious propaganda subsidized by taxpayer dollars, and regulating homeschool criteria...but that the government should INTERVENE whenever Christians dislike how other people have sex, form families, and raise children, especially non-religious families.

[Warren Stupidity]

40. It means "can we kill all the gays now?" nt.

[NuttyFluffers]

42. "family values" = "supports stake burning mutually hated people"

but that's just what it sounds like to me.
:shrug:

[Old Troop]

43. Ours usually meant we couldn't afford something