Reclaiming the Kitchen Table: Why Democrats Need a Family Policy for America’s New Political Landscape

With the return of far-right dominance in D.C., forward-leaning social policy will likely remain out of reach until at least January 2029. However, Democrats must not waste the intervening years. The social policies of the future cannot be a rehash of the Obama-Biden years or the waning days of neoliberalism. Onrushing trends and an ongoing political realignment have shifted the ground. What’s called for now? A stark alternative to Republican family policy and a renewed way of speaking about the family’s role in America. This endeavor will define the Democrats’ future: whether they continue as “the lesser of two evils” or emerge from the wilderness with a fresh vision for American families.

By any analysis, the context in which Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden won their presidencies no longer applies. In addition to our unstable political environment, three major trends are converging to destabilize American family life: smaller birth cohorts and an aging population, workforce volatility driven by artificial intelligence, and the escalating impacts of environmental degradation. Together, these trends are reshaping the lives of American families. 

In the current political landscape, there is no dominant conservative philosophy. Instead, the Republican Party is characterized by factions—tech libertarians, the “New Right,” and what remains of traditional Republicans—seeking favor from Donald Trump. Within this milieu, a group of conservative voices in think tanks, at foundations, and at the grassroots level have eagerly sought to restore the family to the center of policymaking. With figures like J.D. Vance in prominent positions, it’s plausible that a Republican-led family policy turn is already underway. We will see if Republicans can match their rhetoric with policies that help families. 

But Democrats must resist the temptation to simply critique the GOP’s approach while defending the failed vector of the last Democratic administration—a mix of cultural progressivism that went far beyond what the median voter was comfortable with, inflation-driving stimulus, and unpopular policy tweaks. Instead, they should develop a renewed family policy agenda that not only challenges conservative shortcomings but also offers a compelling alternative.

Importantly, this new agenda must be couched in explicitly moral terms, offering what eminent sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild calls a “deep story.” Writing in her 2016 book Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, Hochschild offers that

A deep story is a feels-as-if story—it’s the story feelings tell, in the language of symbols. It removes judgment. It removes fact. It tells us how things feel. Such a story permits those on both sides of the political spectrum to stand back and explore the subjective prism through which the party on the other side sees the world. And I don’t believe we understand anyone’s politics, right or left, without it. For we all have a deep story. (Her italics.) 

This used to be a strength of the Democratic Party—read nearly any speech by FDR, Bobby Kennedy, or MLK—but it has been replaced by centrist fence-sitting and technocracy. As a group of progressive thinkers wrote in 2023, reflecting on why the pandemic-era expansion of the child tax credit garnered such modest support (even from its direct beneficiaries), “Policies that deliver economic benefit without speaking to, reinforcing, and constructing a social identity are likely to have little political impact.” 

Policy is hard, and hindsight is 20/20, but Democrats have made two key mistakes. One mistake is blinkered and narrow policy thinking: assuming that “family policy” primarily means redistribution of resources, largely to women and children, instead of broadly promoting conditions that support a vibrant, healthy family life, of which redistribution for those in need can be one element. 

The second mistake is cultural and arguably more significant. Democrats have been indifferent—and sometimes hostile—to the idea of the family unit as a crucial building block of a thriving society. In some ways, their position was understandable: it was a response to conservatives’ attempts to narrowly define who counts as a family and their aspersions on families that don’t fit their ideal. But families are central to a strong nation and a flourishing society. It was, again, no less than Martin Luther King, Jr., who once reminded us, 

Family life not only educates in general but its quality ultimately determines the individual’s capacity to love. The institution of the family is decisive in determining not only if a person has the capacity to love another individual but in the larger social sense whether he is capable of loving his fellow men collectively. The whole of society rests on this foundation for stability, understanding and social peace.

Thus, Democrats need to address the issues that conservative family policies routinely ignore while also recognizing that most Americans think support for families, not just individuals, matters. Americans yearn for their own family to be stable, value the duties and obligations that family imposes, and want to raise their children in secure, healthy, and clean communities. Rhetorically, at least, Republicans have trounced Democrats, partly because they appear more in tune with what Americans value about their families and communities.

Yet Republicans ignore plenty of issues that cause instability for families. This gives Democrats a political and moral opportunity to develop meaningful policy proposals. Though certainly not an exhaustive list, the following examples are issues—alongside a good, stable job paying a fair wage—that Democrats should adopt into a new vision for family policy. 

1. Family homelessness: A 2021 study found that 1.3 million children under the age of 6 experience homelessness each year, and more are likely on the verge. The high prices of the last five years certainly haven’t helped, and neither have a slew of policies that criminalize homelessness and further stigmatize some of the most vulnerable members of our society. Any serious family policy must address this crisis, ensuring every family has a safe and stable home.
2. The destabilizing impact of mass incarceration: Nonviolent offenses too often result in prison sentences that tear families apart, with devastating consequences for children and communities. Nearly five million children have had a parent incarcerated at some point in their lives. Family policy must prioritize criminal justice reform and prison policies that keep families together and help incarcerated moms and dads stay in the lives of their children. 
3. Care that reflects the needs of all families: Many Americans prefer external child care to enable their desired work arrangements, yet some Republicans dismiss this option as “class warfare.” Democrats have leaned into external child care but have not supported proposals that would help parents stay home if they choose. This must change, and Democrats must recognize that families want and need maximum flexibility. The same applies to elder care: families shouldn’t be forced to care for loved ones outside their homes before they become unfit simply for financial reasons. Family policy cannot be an either/or proposition—it must empower families to choose what works best for their family’s circumstances.
4. The looming threat of workforce volatility caused by AI: Artificial intelligence is set to disrupt middle-income jobs across the country, with profound consequences for family stability—not just low-income families. A forward-thinking family policy must anticipate these changes and prioritize supporting families as they navigate this volatility. If the collapse of factory towns and the resulting surge in suicide, alcoholism, and drug overdoses have taught us anything, it’s that economic devastation shatters families and destroys communities. Shoring up families now is imperative for hedging against the possible devastation of future economic dislocations.
5. Consequences of the climate crisis: As Americans increasingly endure extreme climate events, we must confront the harsh realities of climate change and its outsized impact on children and families. Climate disasters disrupt the care and education of countless children each year. Children and pregnant women are also most susceptible to the health consequences of climate disasters and pollution. The climate crisis also has longstanding effects on communities. For adults and children alike, it can contribute to feelings of anxiety, fear, and hopelessness that have ripple effects across our society. Climate change is a risk multiplier for already vulnerable families. Building community resilience, connectivity, and the capacity of families to adapt to a disrupted environment must become a pillar of family policy. 

Seen this way, abundant housing, healthcare, and childcare—as well as criminal justice and labor reform—aren’t just individual policy priorities. They are also family policy priorities. They won’t just help individuals thrive but will also shore up the stability of our families and communities, many of whom have been devastated by the economic policies of the last 40 years, in the face of new risks to stability. 

Republicans have framed family policy as a moral and cultural issue, but they do not have holistic policies in place to achieve their public goals. The second Trump administration is balancing priorities that could hurt families, whether through cuts to entitlement programs or laying off thousands of federal workers providing for their families. If Democrats cannot find it in themselves to reclaim the mantle of championing families under these conditions, they deserve to remain in the minority. 

But we shouldn’t stop with material conditions. “Man does not live on bread alone”; spiritual and cultural conditions also matter. People want clean air and water, the opportunity to enjoy the sunshine or a concert in their community, and more than endless scrolling or streaming on their devices after the kids have been wrestled into bed. 

There are limits to what policy can do here. Yet rhetorically, Democrats must “confront the poverty of satisfaction—purpose and dignity—that afflicts us all,” as Bobby Kennedy said at the University of Kansas in 1968, because “for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things.” Surely, a family policy agenda like the one we have sketched out can help create conditions that enable families to live a good life in a good society.

The next two years (at a minimum) in the political wilderness at the federal level are an opportunity for Democrats to regroup and rethink. They must not oppose the GOP’s family agenda with purely individualistic responses or retrenchment to old technocratic proposals. Instead, Democrats must craft a vision of family policy that prepares America for future challenges and radically commits to the stability and quality of family life in America.

They must also develop a vocabulary to articulate the renewed ethical vision that Americans desperately desire. The future demands persistence, energy, and innovation—a bold reimagining of what it means to govern for families, communities, and the common good.

Joe Waters is Capita’s Co-Founder and CEO.

Elliot Haspel is a Senior Fellow at Capita.