MAGA: What’s Missing?

With the coronation of the MAGA movement taking place January 20th, 2025, I have to confess, I have a bit of a beef with them. It’s not a capital B beef, more like a small b.

I rather like the concept of making America great—not so much to have bragging rights, but so that we can use that greatness to do good. Wouldn’t it be charming if instead of being the biggest exporter of porn, abortion, or fertility destroying pharmaceuticals, we stuck to corn, pork bellies, and beef? Yes, speaking of beef, my beef with MAGA is they left one major component out. You can put focus on manufacturing, education, and politics all you want, but the most, and I mean the most essential thing that is needed to make America great is the restoration of the traditional family. As the family goes, so goes…well, really everything.

Gary Becker, a renowned economist and Nobel laureate believed strong families were essential to a strong economy. He taught that:

• Strong families provide children with the education, values, and emotional support needed to become productive members of the workforce.

• Families foster trust, cooperation, and social networks that improve economic transactions and overall efficiency.

• Family stability helps ensure children have better opportunities for economic success, contributing to reduced inequality and greater upward mobility.

Expecting to make America great without strong families is like racing your 800-horsepower Ferrari 812 Superfast in reverse. America will never roar if we don’t address the breakdown of the family.

There are a plethora of studies that show how the breakdown of the family chips away at the very fabric of society. Here are some of the potential results of growing up in a broken home: 

• Emotional and behavioral problems, such as anxiety, depression, and aggression
• Lower test scores, lower graduation rates, and a higher risk of dropping out of school
• Financial instability and limited resources for children
• Increased criminal activities, including substance abuse and juvenile delinquency
• Teenage pregnancy
• More likely to divorce
• Difficulties in forming stable relationships and achieving financial stability
• Higher risk for chronic health problems, such as heart disease and obesity

What can be done to reverse the tide of the family breakdown? President-Elect Trump should borrow a page from the Emperor Constantine, who saw in Christianity a blueprint for strength and longevity in the Roman Empire. It was the moral code of the Christians that brought order and structure out of chaos for early Rome. The early Christians were the original “greatest generation.” 

Why is it that every first-world country is experiencing below replacement level populations and dwindling marriages? If we peel the onion, it’s not a far throw to figure out the breakdown of society, the family, and even the individual stems from the absence of God, manifesting in a loss of faith.   If we peel the onion, it’s not a far throw to figure out the breakdown of society, the family, and even the individual stems from the absence of God, manifesting in a loss of faith.  Tweet This

Which brings me to the last point, the breakdown of the individual. The more recent attack on individual identity is unparalleled in history. Confusion or loss of identity is actually one of the trademarks of demonic possession. The meaning or purpose of the human person has become distorted. Everyone, at some point, has asked the question, “What is the meaning of my life?”

I have found my greatest moral struggles manifest when I lose focus on my purpose in life, both on a micro and macro level. Purpose has a direct correlation and is key to understanding the reason things breakdown. What is the purpose of society, the family unit, and the individual person? That is the key to fixing what has gone wrong. If we want to make America great, we have to reprioritize, restructuring these institutions so that we have a clear understanding of their purpose.  

As the new administration prepares to make our country great, they have selected people like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to make America physically sound and Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to make America fiscally sound. The recent Trump pick of Brian Burch of CatholicVote as Ambassador to the Vatican could be key to addressing the issue of making America moral again (MAMA?). Burch is known for his devotion and political activism in the Catholic Church, and he is also someone who is walking the walk as a father of nine children (all with the same wife, Sara). Hopefully, he can advance the charge of addressing the crucial underlying problem that confronts America: the breakdown of the family.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact that the pillar of the family, marriage, is on life support. Even among Catholics, the divorce rate doesn’t differ much from secular society. Leadership in the Church should take a page from the incoming president to think differently, to make bold moves to address this grave injustice. Let’s drain the swamp in the Church that has allowed marriage to die a slow, painful death. There will never be a “New Springtime,” a “Civilization of Love,” or a “Culture of Life” if we do not fix marriage.  

The MAGA movement and sound marriages need to be inextricably linked.   

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