The most amazing part for me is the whole aura around Newt and the boys' claim that this is "revolutionary," that no one has tried this before, and that their remedy for what ails us will cure all our ills. They want to cut taxes, balance the budget, and raise defense spending to get us healthy. (Too bad Ronald Reagan never had that idea!) They want to throw out much of the Federal government intervention into our lives and free us from the clutches of Washington.
A significant change they want to make is to end support for unwed mothers. Newt wants to set up orphanages or force unwed mothers to live with their parents in order to get support. Listen to these guys long enough and you will believe that welfare is the cancer killing our country and it is all young women's fault. No mention of the men who are part of the sexual equation. Oh No! They don't go on welfare, they don't clog up the system; no, not these innocent young men. It is not their fault that some bright eyed needy girl lured them into a sexual encounter and thereby produced another human being. Nope. Nothing in Newt's revolution will force them to be responsible and face the consequences of their lives.
You ought not be surprised. Powerful men have been protecting their gender form for thousands of years. In The Body and Soul: Men, Women, and Sexual Renunciation in Early Christianity, (Columbia Univ. Press, 1988) Peter Brown argues that it was the elite men, the governing class, which set the sexual practices and mores for the Empire. And the rules for sexuality they set up favored themselves above all else. "Men owned the bodies of their male and female servants... fidelity to one's wife remained a personal option. Despite harsh laws punishing women for adultery, infidelity by their husbands incurred no legal punishment and very little moral (censure)." (Brown ibid.)
Not much has changed. Or as the prophet in Ecclesiastes might say, "There is nothing new under the sun." Nor Newt either. Those wonderful people who make our laws are still a majority of white elite males who see the sexual lure of women as threatening to their well being and the cause of moral decay in our culture. So they mount their white chargers and gallop to our rescue. "Our" being the white males, those "Angry White Men" who put Newt and the boys in charge to clean up this mess.
Well, I don't need that kind of rescuing, thank you. I will admit that the welfare system desperately needs reform and we need to find economic and career alternatives for young women who see their only future in child rearing and a check from US. But we also need to give young men the same hope and opportunities. And if we are going to punish, and punish is the right word, unwed mothers, let us not forget the unwed fathers.
As a possible amendment to Newt's welfare reform, I say we go back to what we kids in Ohio thought when we said "15 will get you 10 to 20." Statutory rape was always a big deal when I was turning 18. Mess around with an underage girl and you could wind up in the slammer. Ah, not anymore. Like the Romans of old, the white male elite do not want to threaten their fellow males of any color with sexual restrictions or penalties for "alleged" misconduct! Just wouldn't be right. Not in ancient Rome nor in modern America. Yessir. There truly is nothing Newt under the sun.