Is it really all that 'weird' for politicians to be pro-family?

I went to a family picnic in Chicago last weekend. Boys played baseball with their fathers. Three little girls played with dolls. All the kids -- and there were many -- jumped in the bouncy house. We ate hot dogs and bratwurst.

One young couple now has four children, which seemed like a huge number to me. I was the second of four children myself, but that was the Baby Boom.

Is it weird for people to get married and have children?

Democrats keep saying that J.D. Vance is "weird" because Trump's running mate thinks U.S. policy should encourage marriage and family. He once described Democratic stalwarts as "childless cat ladies."

Molly Jong Fast said Vance only wants white babies, apparently forgetting that his three children are biracial.

Perhaps Vance's original sin is marrying a Yale Law graduate and persuading her to have three children, rather than prioritizing her career.

NBC’s Sahil Kapur posted a Biden fundraising email, warning that Trump would be bad for workers, with a Harris email, sent a few days later, focused on abortion rights and "democracy." It calls Vance a "creep." 

Abortion is not a winning issue, writes Michael Baharaeen on Liberal Patriot. While Democrats, who are voting for Harris no matter what, see abortion rights as very important, swing voters are focused on the economy and the cost of living.

By the way, Vance supports a national ban on abortion after 15 weeks. That's in line with 55 percent of Americans, who say abortion should not be legal in the second or third trimester, reports Gallup. Earlier this month, he said he supports availability of the abortion pill, mifepristone, which is used for 63 percent of abortions. Maybe that's ideologically inconsistent and/or politically motivated, but it seems normie to me.

J.D. and Usha Vance have three children.

Nearly half of childless Americans under 50 say they are not likely to have children, according to a 2023 Pew study, reports Christina Caron in the New York Times. That's an increase of 10 percentage points since 2018.

Fifty-seven percent said they don't want children with women (64 percent) more child-averse than men (50 percent). Other reasons included wanting to focus on their career or interests, worry about the state of the world or the environment, concerns about the cost of raising a child and not having found the right partner.

The U.S. fertility rate has hit a new lot of 1.6 births per woman in 2023. This is the lowest number on record, and well below the replacement rate of 2.1 births.

The decision to raise kids is shifting from “something that’s just an essential part of human life to one more choice, among others,” said Anastasia Berg, an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of California, Irvine and co-author of What Are Children For? Many were “averse to embracing the kinds of risks that having children implies,” said Dr. Berg, who is a millennial and a mother of two.

I think "risks" is the key word. Young people seem much more risk averse than earlier generations. And, of course, more women have expensive college degrees and careers, access to reliable birth control and less social pressures to become mothers.

Global population growth has slowed, as fertility falls worldwide, according to a U.N. report. Europe, with 1.4 births per women, is losing population the fastest, but North America, South America and Asia also are below the replacement rate. Only Africa, with 4.07 births per woman, is growing.