What MAGA gets painfully wrong about dads

From Christian nationalists to al-Qaeda and the Taliban, many far-right social conservatives are vehemently opposed to contraception and believe that women need be having as many babies as possible.

The Taliban enacted strict birth control bans after retaking Afghanistan, claiming that contraception is harmful to Islam. Similarly, in the MAGA movement and evangelical Christian nationalism in the United States, contraception is often attacked as anti-Christian.

Vice President JD Vance famously demeaned women who don't have biological children as "childless cat ladies," while the Quiverfull movement opposes all forms of birth control. MAGA natalists even have their own convention: Natal Conference, an event championed by Tesla/SpaceX/X.com leader Elon Musk.

Salon's Amanda Marcotte offers a blistering critique of far-right natalism in an article published on February 16, arguing that natalists have a twisted view of fatherhood and favor "quantity" over "quality" when it comes to parenthood.

"Good dads make kids feel safe and loved," Marcotte explains. "They raise children with moral fiber, to care about the people in their lives as well as the larger world around them. But MAGA media has a very different idea of how to measure the worth of a father. They believe it's by how many kids he has produced. In this worldview, the father deserves most of the credit, despite putting almost no effort into the production side of having babies. In an era when most people can barely afford to raise one kid, this focus on quantity isn't just tone-deaf — it reduces kids to a commodity, which in turn encourages neglectful, toxic or even abusive approaches to parenting."

Marcotte adds, "Before his death, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was a perfect example of these damaging ideas. He hyped the idea that having 'a ton of children' is inherently virtuous, at least for white people. He was less happy about Black people having a lot of kids."

The late Kirk encouraged Americans to "get married young and have more kids than they can afford," which Marcotte describes as a "bad idea" at a time when Republicans "want to simultaneously gut public education and social spending."

"Growing up in poverty isn't fun or romantic," Marcotte warns. "It's stressful and leads to long-term problems for a lot of kids. From Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth bragging about his seven kids to Vice President JD Vance gloating about his fourth that is on the way, the idea that having a big family is the same as having a happy family is ubiquitous on the right…. (Musk) is Exhibit Number One in why this casual conflation of quantity with quality in fatherhood is so misguided. Musk is a terrible father."

Marcotte cites far-right evangelical pastor Doug Wilson, an ally of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, as another example of why the natalist movement is so wrong-headed.

"Life is not, in fact, simple," Marcotte writes. "It is complicated, and so is raising kids. Wilson clearly desires children to be quiet little automatons, instead of living, complex human beings."