Introduction – Many of us are wondering why 50% of our income, plus property taxes, sales tax, and numerous fees, dues and permits still aren’t enough to fund our government [the deficit is astronomical]. It seems clear that the reasons are welfare, jobs, schools, healthcare and crime (of course we are now finding that corruption should probably head the list). The common denominator is that before the heavy hand of government took control of the oversight of these areas, families and local communities were instrumental in their everyday administration. Now faceless bureaucrats thousands of miles away are calling the shots. And as you can see it’s not working out well. It’s time to get back to family-based solutions to both economic and social problems.
The genesis of the problem stems back to 1935 and the social security act, but the real destruction came with LBJ’s Great Society program. The government took over the role of the family, and men in particular. The government basically bribes women to not get married. There is no way an economically disadvantaged young man from the inner city with a Milwaukee public School education, can compete with government welfare programs. Single mothers receive free healthcare, free food, free childcare, transportation, rent assistance and even cash benefits. The role of fathers or men in general have been severally marginalized.
The attack on families starts with attacks on men and women. Not just, men, but manhood and masculinity and the attacks go much deeper than the recent attempts to demasculinize men. The attack on men is just a part of the overall attack on the family structure. There is an attack on women as well. Moreover, the attacks are focused on both mothers and fathers. Not only fathers in particular but men in general and not only mothers but women in general. Marriage is the cohesive glue of the family. The safest women in the world are married women. Children whose biological parents get married and have children lead the most successful lives including high school graduation, income and avoiding the judicial system. Those statistics are even more substantial in African American families. Also, married men live longer. Significantly longer.
Let’s Start with Fatherhood.
Chapter one – My advocacy for fatherhood started in 2005, when I began my career at the Wisconsin State Capitol as Research Assistant for newly elected State Presentative Don Pridemore, an extremely solid conservative. We were approached by several father advocacy groups and after a long struggle we got a 50/50 placement bill passed through the Assembly. AB897 was the first equal placement bill passed by either house of a legislature in the entire country. We saw no reason why a father who was “deemed” decent enough to have his kids every other weekend and one day during the week wasn’t “safe” enough to have equal shared placement. The three objections we had to overcome were the “abused women” lobby who never could articulate why 50/50 placement was more dangerous than the 65-35 placement of every other weekend, a day during the week and split holidays. One “victim” of domestic violence cried so hysterically that we temporarily adjourned the hearing. Although men who were convicted of domestic abuse were given supervised visits at best’ the domestic violence lobby decided to punish all men. The second group we needed to get past were the Democrats. The lawyers have the Dems in their pockets, and they were making way too much money on the system to let the bill pass. The entire family court system is nothing more than a money grab for the lawyers and “family” psychologists. The third and most powerful group we needed to get past were the female legislators on both sides of the isle. It became quite apparent that women liked having the power to decide whether or not a guy gets to see his kids, and believe me, the younger the new girlfriend, the more likely a woman is willing to use the kids as retribution. In Wisconsin as in most other states, the amount of child support is directly tied to “placement schedules” and the first question female reps or senators ask is “how does this effect the money?” Because that’s what it’s all about, money. Every father who feels like he’s getting eliminated from his children’s lives is willing to pay; hell, the court costs are in the tens of thousands of dollars. The one thing I can tell you is that most divorces involving children don’t become the “War of the Roses”. The director of family court once stated that 95% of these cases are settled quickly and amicably. Former State Representative Steve Kestell asked, “what we should tell the other 5%?” The problem lies here. Example: A divorced father of two boys calls the ex-wife and says the boss just gave me three front row seats for tomorrow’s Bucks game and the ex says, you know that’s not your day, sorry. I’ll end the segment with this fact. The closer a state’s laws are to equal placement, the lower that states divorce rate. See Kentucky divorce rates have fallen dramatically.
NOTE: AB151 & SB161 is a current effort to normalize 50/50 placement in the Wisconsin State Legislature. State Senator Wimberger and Rep. Jeff Mursau are the authors, and the bill has been sent to the appropriate committees. The senate has held a hearing and the assembly has not. A trusted source tells me that there is no objection from leadership, but the bill is not moving forward. The first question in the assembly is, has the author (Mursau) officially requested a hearing? If so, then why hasn’t a hearing been scheduled? And in the senate, the question is why hasn’t there been a vote on the measure? My source tells me the governor has not objected to the bill (but the Wisconsin State Bar lobby is a powerful influence, it’s easy to “claim” that there is no objection).
NOTE: The WCD would like to thank both Senator Wimberger and Representative Mursau for bringing the bill forward. I have reached out to both and will include any input they have in future additions to this series.
Milwaukee’s Fatherhood Initiative.
Once the Pridemore office got noticed for our Fatherhood advocacy, Don Pridemore was named chair of the Assembly Committee on Children and Families, and I then became the committee clerk. Both Pridemore and myself were invited to work with the Milwaukee Fatherhood Initiative – See more here. We attended the summit in 2006 and in addition to Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker we heard from the Reverend James Redd (father of Buck’s superstar Michael Redd). The experience was both profound, uplifting and depressing at all at the same time. Reverend Redd was very clear on what the challenges laid before the African American community. Not only were their no fathers, due to drugs, alcohol and prison, there were no uncles or grandfathers as well. Point in case number one: No good men. The burning question was and remains, why? I was very uplifted by the idea that the issue was getting such needed attention. But there’s a problem, many at the summit had a strong belief that white men “just don’t understand the situation” and most of the Milwaukee and state leaders within the Democrat Party wish to dismiss the high crime rates within Milwaukee as “racial disparity” within law enforcement and Wisconsin’s court system.
Which leads us to the next foray into the problems of fatherhood and non-existent leadership.
In 2007, most likely in response to comments from Reverend Redd, Governor Doyle formed his Commission on Reducing Racial Disparities in the Wisconsin Justice System and because Pridemore was the chair of the Children and Families Committee (but also due to his advocacy for fathers) he was asked to submit testimony to the committee, which he gladly accepted. See the report here. The problem of course is the excuse making that the Democrat Party wishes to make regarding crime, incarceration rates and the astonishing number of black males that find themselves in the court system. Reverend Redd says – Role models! Governor Doyle (who I liked personally) says – the cops and judges are racist. JD Vance (having just read Hillbilly Elegy) would say it’s the culture. I’ll go with JD and the Reverend! Another source of information is a study labeled “The 100 Billion Dollar Man” which delves into the importance of fathers. The number is outdated and is probably closer to a trillion by now (without exaggeration), but the concepts remain the same, households without fathers are costing us our country in terms of money, crime and quality of life. See it here.
NOTE: Please Visit Wisconsin for Children and Families AND Dads of Wisconsin.
By Bill Savage – Editor, The WCD
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