They Don't Mean Any Of It

We had decade of "trying to achieve liberal goals through conservative means." You know, like Jack Kemp and Newt Gingrich were going to end urban poverty, but The Conservative Way (tax cuts). Liberals got suckered (or agreed with) that, and now I fear we're having a round of liberals getting sucked into attempting to convince conservatives that THEIR goals can be achieved by liberal means. Like this well-meaning Alyssa Rosenberg piece:

Liberals don’t like talking up marriage. Here’s how they can start.

First - you never have to start these pieces with "conservatives have a point, liberals are bad about this." Conservatives don't have a point! They don't care about marriage or perceived benefits of marriage! They don't care about anything even tangential to what liberals care about!  When conservatives say, "marriage is good," the words don't mean what you think they mean!

They care about forcing people into the conservative patriarchal "success sequence" and then throwing them to the wolves for their own failures if they don't! Don't live by conservative rules? On to the ice floe for you!  And that includes getting divorced!

Generally, the problem people face is precarity and there are policy ways of reducing precarity that don't involve trying to nudge them into cohabitation arrangements.  We shouldn't encourage people to get married, we should make life fucking easier so they can choose long term partners if they wish.

There's no benefit to be gained from starting from the conservative obsession du jour. Ever.