The Republican party’s obsession with families has taken a fanatical turn | Moira Donegan

It is becoming clear that much of the stakes of the November contest will revolve around questions of gender – and specifically, questions of family

“It’s possible,” writes Jessica Winter in the New Yorker, “that if JD Vance had his way, citizenship in the United States would be conferred not solely by birthright but by marriage and children.” This is no exaggeration. In a now viral 2021 clip, JD Vance said: “Let’s give votes to all children in this country, but let’s give control over those votes to the parents of those children. When you go to the polls in this country as a parent, you should have more power – you should have more of an ability to speak your voice in our democratic republic – than people who don’t have kids. Let’s face the consequences and the reality: If you don’t have as much of an investment in the future of this country, maybe you shouldn’t get nearly the same voice.”

This position now represents large swaths of the Republican party, which has taken on an angry and aggressively prescriptive approach to family life.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist