Squires: The future of America depends on men who are willing to make responsibility great again

Brandon Johnson, Chicago’s mayor-elect, would be in a much better position to lead the Windy City if he had attended last weekend’s first Fearless Army Roll Call.

Johnson, who will be sworn in next month, is like many people who saw video from downtown Chicago over the weekend showing teens jumping on cars and twerking in the streets. Another video shows a group of teens surrounding a woman and beating her as she attempted to enter a building. Police also report that two people were shot during these teen flash mobs, but thankfully neither shooting was fatal.

Johnson, who will be sworn in next month, released a statement Sunday evening that perfectly captures the state of the left’s “hard bigotry of no expectations” when it comes to the black community.

In no way do I condone the destructive activity we saw in the Loop and lakefront this weekend. It is unacceptable and has no place in our city. However, it is not constructive to demonize youth who have otherwise been starved of opportunities in their own communities.

Our city must work together to create spaces for youth to gather safely and responsibly, under adult guidance and supervision, to ensure that every part of our city remains welcome for both residents and visitors. This is one aspect of my comprehensive approach to improve public safety and make Chicago livable for everyone.

Politicians like Brandon Johnson love to talk about race but are allergic to conversations about the role black people play in our own uplift. The only thing that brings them out of anaphylactic shock is a jab of their “what about white-on-white crime” EpiPen.

Johnson grew up with a father who was a pastor. He has been married to his wife, Stacie, for over 20 years, and they raise their three sons on the city’s West Side. He connects his work to his faith. On paper, he is exactly the type of man who attended Roll Call. But he differs from most of the attendees because he doesn’t embrace the roles and responsibilities that come with being a man, husband, father, and leader.

One of the major themes of Roll Call was that men play a critical role in their homes and communities. Our political leaders act as if the government, whether on the local or the federal level, is a suitable replacement for what men contribute to their families. The truth is that children need fathers. That statement is not particularly controversial, but the same can’t be said for the reality that women need men who are willing to provide safety and stability in a monogamous covenant relationship.

The breakdown of the natural family unit is the main reason the state of America’s union is weak. Our family fragility can be seen in the disappearance of marriage in many low-income black neighborhoods, the Moynihan-level rates of nonmarital births among white people, or the multiethnic increase in conscious co-parenting.

Anyone who is concerned about these issues needs to understand how the threats to the family have evolved in recent years. It is easy to identify the pink-haired, septum ring-wearing hard-left feminist as an enemy of the family. What concerns me is the rise of men on the political right who preach a similar message, albeit for different reasons.

Online influencer Andrew Tate’s advice to men living in the West who want children is to fly to South America or Asia to impregnate a woman, return home, tell her she can’t join you, send money, and visit the child periodically. There is nothing alpha, based, or conservative about intentionally creating fatherless children with economically desperate women.

Tate’s position is not due to his age. Jeff Younger is the Texas man who fought his ex-wife’s efforts to “transition” their son. His experiences with the court system and medical professionals have made him understandably skeptical of our legal system. But they have also made him an unapologetic opponent of the natural family: “Reminder to young men: do not marry. The laws governing marriage can destroy your life. There is no way to ensure your spouse won’t use the laws to take your kids. Use adoption or surrogacy, if you want children.”

Both Tate and Younger – much like man-hating feminists – have distorted views of family and the responsibilities of men based on deeply hurtful personal experiences. They certainly raise serious issues about how courts treat men who want to be involved fathers. Women shouldn’t be able to use children as weapons in legal proceedings against men or keep fathers from seeing their kids because a relationship has failed.

But changing our laws to prevent men from being treated unfairly is a far cry from advising men to bypass biblical family formation altogether. A child has a right to the care and protection of the father and mother who created him. It takes two people to make a child, and it also takes two to raise a child. The fear of a failed relationship or alimony payments is no reason for men to abandon God’s design for the family. The last thing our culture needs is more scared men.

The failure of men to form and maintain stable families is having repercussions in every part of our culture. So is the unwillingness of politicians like Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson to be clear that men — not the government — need to provide for the children they create and that teenagers are accountable for the crimes they commit. Maybe he should have his own summit. I’d suggest calling it “Make Responsibility Great Again.”