The family and the market
American conservatives have worked politically in recent decades to advance two sets of goods: the family and the market. They have advocated traditional values that sustain cultural vitality, and economic freedom that brings material prosperity. These two sets of ideals are mutually reinforcing to an extent. The market relies on a stable and orderly society made possible by sturdy families and strong social institutions; and freedom from unduly coercive authority is an essential prerequisite for making moral choices.
There are undoubtedly some who are true believers in both. But perhaps there are many more who are willing to pay lip service to the defense of family while selling themselves out to the oligarchs.
The parenting class
What may be an ideological problem for conservatives is also, for Americans in general, a very practical problem. The greatest threat to the interests of families and free markets today is in fact the tension between them. This tension is not just an abstract theoretical challenge, but also a force in the everyday lives of American families, most especially as a source of anxiety.
Today? Should we not say that this problem actually has been around much longer than that? The erosion of the family has been gradual, over the past century--it's only become visibly manifest to people in the last several decades.
In the end, I think the author is either trying to flatter the powers-that-be or is rather ignorant of the depths of the problems plauing American society and the Republican Party. I say Republican Party and not the "conservative" movement, because I think there are conservatives out there who have always recognized the problems within the Republican Party for what they are, and others who maintained an uneasy alliance with the "neo-liberals" for the sake of defending traditional morality. Mr. Levin needs to talk to Allan Carlson.
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