Republicans portray Trump as the nation’s “daddy,” a disciplinarian father who’s going to get America’s house in order. The analogy is more revealing than they realize.
More than 30 years ago, the journalist Chris Matthews argued in The New Republic that there was “an accepted division of chores in American politics today,” in which Republicans “protect us with a strong national defense” and “worry about our business affairs” while Democrats “look after our health, nutrition, and welfare.” “The paradigm for this snug arrangement,” he added, is “the traditional American family. ‘Daddy’ locks the doors at night and brings home the bacon. ‘Mommy’ worries when the kids are sick and makes sure each one gets treated fairly.”
Matthews’s characterization of Democrats as the Mommy Party still rings true: They’re warm and caring, with a view that government’s purpose is to nurture the people. Think LBJ’s Great Society or FDR’s New Deal. Even Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act and Joe Biden’s limited student loan forgiveness—while not the sweeping, transformative measures progressives had hoped for—were rooted in the premise that the role of the federal government is to help its citizens, easing their pain and proverbially tucking them into bed.
And Matthews’s characterization of Republicans has held up to a degree too: The Daddy Party practices tough love, promising to protect Americans from outside threats while also expecting people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. “In this way, disciplined people become self-reliant,” linguist and philosopher George Lakoff, who explored the mommy-daddy paradigm in his 1996 book Moral Politics, described the GOP perspective in a 2003 interview. “Wealth is a measure of discipline. Taxes beyond the minimum needed for such government take away from the good, disciplined people rewards that they have earned and spend it on those who have not earned it.”
Then, as now, this tough love strays into meanness. Matthews reported on a House GOP retreat where the “favorite target” was “welfare mothers.” Edward Luttwak, the conservative author and military strategist, drew laughs when he quipped, “Every time I read about graft in the welfare system, I’m happy because it means that some of the money is not going for counterproductive activity.” And George Gilder, the conservative investor and author, was cheered for saying, “The only thing single parents produce is crime, drugs, violence, disease, and Democrats.”
