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Within the days since a 2021 clip emerged of the Republican vice-presidential candidate J. D. Vance criticizing the Democrats for being led by childless figures, individuals have responded with memes, outrage, and, sometimes, settlement. Vance focused Kamala Harris as one of many “childless cat girls” who run the nation and in addition included Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (who has since had kids) in his criticism, as a result of solely dad and mom might “actually have a direct stake” within the nation. In a current interview with Megyn Kelly, Vance dug in and said that he believes that Democrats, particularly those that aren’t dad and mom, are “anti-family and anti-child.”
This criticism of political leaders who don’t have organic offspring could be a shock to early generations of Individuals, and never simply because a 3rd of our first 15 presidents, together with George Washington, had no organic kids. In reality, the absence of organic offspring was truly seen as a advantage within the 18th and nineteenth centuries, as Individuals seemed for leaders who might safeguard their fledgling republic.
A well-liked 1788 newspaper article praised Washington as the selection for America’s first president, partly on the grounds that “having no son,” he wouldn’t run the chance of “exposing us to the hazard of an hereditary successor.” This was, in spite of everything, a rustic that had simply overthrown a king and turned towards the very notion of inherited energy. Washington even thought of emphasizing this level in his first inaugural deal with. In a draft, he famous that he had not had “my blood … transmitted or my identify perpetuated by the endearing, although typically seducing channel of rapid offspring.” He continued, “I’ve no little one for whom I might want to make a provision—no household to construct in greatness upon my Nation’s ruins.” In different phrases, relaxation assured, fellow Individuals; Washington didn’t have a son who would possibly finish democracy earlier than it might really take maintain by seizing the presidency after him. (Descendants of a Black man named West Ford imagine that Washington was his father, however historians, together with these at Mount Vernon, argue that no documentation helps this.)
The perceived good thing about a president with out direct descendants prolonged to international affairs. John Adams acknowledged this in a 1787 letter to Thomas Jefferson when he anxious that European powers would possibly need to construct home alliances with the youngsters of American leaders, thus permitting hereditary energy to take root within the new nation. “If Normal Washington had a Daughter,” he wrote, “I firmly imagine, she could be demanded in Marriage by one of many Royal Households of France or England, maybe by each.” A son, in flip, “could be invited to come back a courting to Europe.” The absence of progeny was a boon to America’s independence.
That Washington had no organic kids additionally made it simpler to color him as the daddy of his nation. As one in every of his most well-known eulogists exclaimed, “AMERICANS! he had no little one—BUT YOU,—and HE WAS ALL YOUR OWN.” United States Senate resolutions printed after Washington’s loss of life said plainly, “Our nation mourns her father.”
One other key determine had no direct descendants: James Madison. The nation’s fourth president and the writer of the Structure had, like Washington, married a widow, and the couple by no means had kids. (A Black household’s oral historical past claims Madison as their ancestor, however neither documentary nor DNA proof have proved a hyperlink.) Biographies of Madison in newspapers when he ran for president didn’t point out his now-famous spouse, Dolley, a lot much less the truth that he had by no means fathered a toddler. When Andrew Jackson ran for president within the 1820s, the controversy over his marketing campaign needed to do with the timing of his marriage to his spouse (she had not but been formally divorced from her first husband when she married Jackson), not his lack of progeny. Lack of kids was equally a nonissue for James Ok. Polk within the 1840s and James Buchanan within the 1850s. Buchanan was not even married, though his supporters turned that right into a constructive trait by claiming that he was “wedded to the Structure of his nation.” It was not till the mid-Twentieth century that our imaginative and prescient of a president, a primary woman, and their kids solidified into what we now discuss with because the “first household.”
Nonetheless, each one in every of these “childless” presidents raised kids, as has Kamala Harris (known as Momala by her stepchildren). Washington, as I describe in my e-book First Household, raised stepchildren and stepgrandchildren who got here from his spouse’s first marriage. Martha’s kids had been simply 4 and a pair of years outdated when Washington grew to become their stepfather, and he and Martha took in her two youngest grandchildren once they had been infants. There was additionally an everyday rotation of nieces and nephews who both lived at Mount Vernon or benefited from the Washingtons’ parental and monetary assist. Dolley Madison’s son was simply 2 when she married James Madison, making him a stepfather. Jackson, Polk, and Buchanan all took in nieces and nephews and served as surrogate dad and mom, bringing their prolonged households into the White Home. In reality, the bachelor Buchanan’s niece Harriet Lane served as first woman throughout his presidency.
All of this raises the query of what we actually imply once we label any person a mother or father. Almost 20 p.c of American households with kids beneath 18 embody kids past direct organic descendants: stepchildren, adoptees, grandkids, foster kids, different family members, and unrelated kids. Tens of hundreds of thousands of Individuals are at the moment elevating kids in households that don’t seem like the “conventional” nuclear household, and all through our historical past, communities of household, pals, and neighbors have helped with child-rearing. In an period of genetic family tree and cheap DNA testing, it might be significantly tempting to see organic ties as what issues most. However that ignores—as does Vance’s nostalgia for an imagined previous extra dedicated than our current to childbearing—the richness of our household life. Many adults dwelling in households with out kids (because the majority of married Individuals of childbearing age now do) play key roles within the lives of the children of their siblings and pals.
Neither our democracy nor our households ought to and even could possibly be ruled by organic dad and mom alone. It’s the very variety of experiences of household and parenthood that gives the various views we want in a pluralistic society.
