‘Blues vs reds’ when it comes to parents

By Silvio Canto, Jr.

We are a divided country. Nothing shows our divisions more than our attitudes on parental rights.

I found this editorial at the Washington Examiner interesting.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this February released its Youth Risk Behavior Survey, covering the years 2011-2021. The data were alarming. Almost 3 of every 5 teenage girls reported feeling persistently sad or hopeless in 2021, and nearly a third of them said they had considered suicide, up 60% from a decade ago…

The two main political parties have vastly different diagnoses of the problem…

For Democrats, the cause of this mental health crisis is conservatives' failure to accept nonconventional gender identities among the younger generation…

Democrats increasingly want to tackle the problem by empowering professional caregivers to take this growing young population away from their parents and give them the healthcare treatment they think best…

Democrats are thus clear about the source of the problem and the solution. They say the problem is the family. They want mental health professionals, using state power, to do things to minor children that their parents would not approve of. Their solution is to save your children from... you.

Republicans have a different diagnosis and a different solution. Republican-controlled states such as Utah and Texas recognize that the use of social media on mobile devices has exploded at exactly the same time that depression has been rising, especially among girls…

In response, Republican state governments are empowering parents over the objections of Big Tech corporations…

The contrast between blue and red states on rising youth mental health problems could not be clearer. Blue states' solutions move to weaken family ties and empower government. Red states are moving to weaken corporations and empower families.

Last, but not least, states with school choice will have another reason to attract families to their zip codes. The more traditional the family, the more likely that you will look for an environment that is parent friendly rather than wants bureaucrats to raise your children.

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