Echoing remarks by President Joe Biden and other leading Democrats, Vice President Kamala Harris suggested children belong to the “community” and that government must protect them. Despite widespread ridicule surrounding her remarks, critics suggested they were evidence of a dangerous and totalitarian mindset.
“I grew up understanding the children of the community are the children of the community, and we should all have a vested interest in ensuring that children can go grow up with the resources that they need to achieve their God-given potential,” said Harris, who has no children of her own.
Speaking at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s 47th Annual Leadership Conference in D.C. late last month, Harris argued the government should be more active in families. Among other duties, she said it should provide resources needed to “raise their children well.”
While she did not specify what taxpayer-funded resources might be needed to raise children properly or how they should be delivered, Harris did rant about companies allegedly “price gouging” and the supposed need for “billionaires” and “big corporations” to “pay their fair share.”
It was not the first time she used the creepy language about children belonging to the “community.” Speaking at the Children’s National Hospital in D.C., in 2022, Harris also said, “When we talk about the children of the community, they are the children of the community.”
“I will tell you, I — I — most of my career — in fact, all of my career — children have been one of my main areas of focus — what we can do to protect them, to keep them safe, to protect their wellbeing, and to nurture them in all the ways we know we have a responsibility as a society to do,” Harris said, as if parents did not even exist.
“You know, when we talk about our children — I know for this group, we all believe that when we talk about the children of the community, they are a children of the community [sic],” continued the vice president, saying she fought for children’s “wellbeing” for decades. “And in that way, we should all feel a direct sense of responsibility for their wellbeing.”
Across the World Wide Web, Harris was ruthlessly mocked for the statements, with commentators and even Fox News deriding her “word salad.” Countless radio hosts and podcasters lambasted her for being “stupid” or ignorant. Critics, however, were not amused, suggesting there was a much darker meaning behind the “word salad.”
“No Kamala. There is no such thing as ‘the children of the community’,” explained Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, on X. “We do NOT co-parent with the government. Parents have the fundamental right to direct the upbringing of our children. #ParentalRights.”
RedState Senior Editor Brandon Morse expressed similar concerns about Harris’ bizarre statement on the “community’s” children. “Kamala Harris reminding you that Democrats see your children as their children,” he argued. Another commentator said it was Harris’ “Marxist version of ‘It takes a village.’”
Unfortunately, Harris’ apparent sentiments about children and who is responsible for them have become widespread on left and among the Democrat Party. Even her boss has expressed such views many times. “Look, these aren’t, we always talk about these children,” said Joe Biden. “They’re not somebody else’s children, they’re our children.”
Biden and Harris’ Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, has also repeatedly revealed his views on this. Asked in a U.S. Senate hearing whether parents should be in charge of their children’s education as the “primary stakeholders,” he said: “I believe parents are important stakeholders, but I also believe educators have a role.”
And just this summer, Biden-appointed Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, the senior “health” bureaucrat, classified parental stress as a major “public health” problem. Among the unconstitutional recommendations he offered: more government “help” for parents, including tax-funded “childcare.”
During the Obama administration, these sentiments became official policy. For example, in a policy document put out by Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Education, parents were referred to as “Equal Partners” with government in child-rearing before going on to portray government as the senior partner.
Obama’s Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, meanwhile, repeatedly called for the establishment of government “boarding schools” that would take care of children “24/7.” Even those children who did not end up in government boarding schools should attend “community schools” for “12, 13, 14 hours a day.”
Hillary Clinton infamously advocated for a greater role for the state in her book “It Takes A Village.” And MSNBC darling Melissa Harris-Perry was featured endlessly in promos claiming that children belong to “whole communities” and not to parents. This mindset is now ubiquitous among American elitists.
It is also prominent at the United Nations. In its so-called Convention on the Rights of the Child (UN CRC), globalists with the organization and its member governments agreed all decisions must be made in the “best interests” of the child. The problem: Government, not parents, is regarded as the final authority on what is in a child’s interest.
The United States has so far refused to ratify the CRC. But in Scotland, lawmakers passed a law assigning a “named person” (bureaucrat) to every child born who is in charge of overseeing that child’s development from birth to adulthood, a sort of government supervisor for parents.
Under the leadership of Classical Conversations founder Leigh Bortins, a broad coalition of leaders and activists joined forces to create the Declaration of Educational Independence. The main idea: Education and child-rearing are a family responsibility, not a government one.
Of course, the Bible also makes clear that children belong to God — not government — and that it is parents’ responsibility to protect, educate, nurture, and raise them. In Matthew 22, Jesus urges the payment of taxes. “Render to Caesar what is Caesar’s,” he says, pointing to Caesar’s image on Roman coins. Children, though, are made in the image of God.
Throughout history, those seeking to collectivize responsibility over children have always been the most dangerous people to the wellbeing of children: pedophiles, perverts, tyrants, and mass murderers. Hitler, Chairman Mao, and Joseph Stalin were all major advocates of “community” children, not to mention the endless parade of child predators in “child protection.”
“Parental rights” is not just a slogan. It is essential to civilization and the protection of children. After all, nobody loves a child more or has a stronger vested interest in the wellbeing of that child than his or her parents. Iron-clad defense of the rights of parents must be considered non-negotiable by all civilized people who want what is best for the next generation.
