The Patriot Post® · Conservative Values Make People Happier

Despite the Left’s best efforts to paint conservative values as outdated and oppressive, official studies and even people’s public admissions about being betrayed by liberal ideas continue to prove the opposite.

Progressives have tried to convince women that a career or a pet can take the place of family and children; to tell teens and young adults that the sense of “right and wrong” is unnecessary and only meant to keep them from living their best lives; and to tell boys and men that previous expectations of being masculine, strong providers can be abandoned in pursuit of more self-serving objectives.

We’ve seen the overall mental health situation in America and across the Western world plummet into what are now crisis levels. If we are truly interested in improving people’s outlook on life and fostering a more stable and healthy society going forward, we need to acknowledge that certain ideas and beliefs benefit people because they fulfill their souls on the deepest levels.

In an attempt to understand the underlying causes for the downward spiral of young people’s outlook on life, Gallup and the Institute for Family Studies recently conducted a study to find out what ideas and concerns might be leading this next generation to feel more hopeless than those who came before them.

The results indicated that things like household income, educational level, race, and ethnicity (all valued at a higher level by those who lean left on the political spectrum) had little impact on the well-being of children and adolescents. Instead, the views of their parents, the type of relationship between family members, and the way mothers and fathers treat each other were all factors that could lead to a more positive worldview for children.

Blaze Media summed up the kind of conduct that leads to a positive perspective in children: “regulation and enforcement, including settling well-established rules; demonstrating affections daily; setting a regular routine; and authoritatively regulating behavior.”

“Political ideology was found to be a strong predictor of parenting style,” the article adds. “According to the study, adolescents with ‘very conservative parents are 16 to 17 percentage points more likely to be in good or excellent mental health compared to their peers with very liberal parents.’”

The lead author of the study, Jonathan Rothwell, pointed to the work of Stanford University psychologist Eleanor Maccoby to confirm that children raised in homes with boundaries and respect for authority were more likely to develop “self-control, social competence, success in school, compliance with rules and reasonable norms, and even exhibit more confidence and creativity.”

The results also found a direct correlation between the political views and overall perspective of the adults in the home and the mindset that their children carry with them into society.

Conservative parents use their foundation of traditional beliefs to raise children — meaning they foster a bond with their kids and prioritize the mother in the home during their children’s most vulnerable and formative years. Politically, conservatives see people as individuals capable of achieving success based on their skills and choices, while understanding that decisions can either contribute to a better outcome or cause struggle and hardship.

These philosophies held in conservative homes heavily dictate how we vote and ultimately who we believe is responsible for what our lives look like — ourselves or the government.

By contrast, a common thread in more liberal views is to hear the words of politicians who promise the world to their constituents and who claim that if social programs and local and federal workers can provide for their needs, there is no need to make the effort with their children in the home. Believing that someone else is responsible for the outcome of your life fosters the desire to absolve yourself of personal responsibility. This leaves room to blame “the system” when things go downhill, as they inevitably will.

Outside of the realm of home and family, there has been an increasing trend of women in their mid to late 30s, or even older, discovering too late that they were lied to by feminist ideologues, convinced that they would never naturally feel inclined toward a husband and kids if society instilled other values into them. With time, maturity, and experience, these women are finding out that the traditional view of getting married and raising a family was never based on the desire to oppress women but rather to empower them in the greatest pursuit in which a human being can engage.

The New York Post highlighted one 38-year-old woman who told of how, at age 22, she married a man with those dreaded traditional life goals of having a wife who cooks meals and raises their children. She made it clear that her priority in life was a career and that she did not want kids — and after a decade together their relationship ended in divorce.

Heavily immersed in the false promise of fulfillment that modern feminism sells to young women in the form of career and self-love, she did not believe that her views would change as she got older. She was determined to fight any inclination that her instincts might try to impose on her as a woman and told herself that work could fill the hole that might otherwise have been dedicated to raising kids.

However, her older and more mature self kicked in, and her previously held feminist views are no longer drowning out what her mind and heart have always known — that having a husband and a baby is ultimately what she wants.

These studies and public admissions from young progressives continue to confirm the truth. Conservatives tell women, men, and young adults daily about the values that will lead to the greatest joy and fulfillment for individuals and families. They are tried, true, and traditional for a reason.