The GOP Is Still the Pro-Marriage Party
February 26, 2025
While Elon Musk was chainsawing at CPAC, his ex-girlfriend, the singer Grimes, pleaded with him to attend to their child’s medical crisis. This dustup followed a claim by the conservative influencer Ashley St. Clair that she had given birth to Musk’s 13th child. Musk’s complicated family life, combined with the admiration for Musk among many conservative writers, seem to indicate that the Republican Party has strayed far from the family values that once defined it.
Indeed, Musk’s rise in the Trump administration is but one sign that the post-religious right has assumed a newly prominent place at the Republican table. And certainly, some members of the secular right—from “barstool conservatives” rejecting Covid excesses to anti-woke Americans reacting to the cultural excesses of the left—are indifferent or even hostile to social conservatism. They think Americans should do as they please in private—to live and let live—including how they form and raise families. Looking at these trends, it’s easy to conclude that the GOP has given up on family.
