The Democrat Media Complex moans incessantly about the “war on women;” never mind that women outnumber men in college, law school, and medical school. Women have broken into every career field, and are working at the top of every industry. The “war on women” they bemoan is the possible loss of the ability to murder the infants in their wombs; leftists gruesomely advance the absurd notion that abortion empowers women – it does not; it damages them. There is a war on women that leftists ignore. The militant LGBTQ+ agenda is attacking the uniqueness of being a woman by declaring any man can be a woman. If this nonsense stands, there really is no reason to honor motherhood or continue female sports.

While too many males are trying to be women, the war on real men has annihilated manhood in our culture and society so thoroughly and swiftly that many don’t fully appreciate how masculinity has been virtually erased from our culture. But every aspect of our daily lives is feeling the deleterious effects of fathers and men missing in America.

America is suffering an epidemic of crime, depravity, homelessness, mental illness, and substance abuse. We see the cruel carnage in our streets and widespread suffering on the nightly news. Americans are afraid. The press, pundits, and politicians drone on about spending more money to enable the very vagaries savaging our society and double down on insanity like “defunding the police,” legalizing more drugs, and poisoning our children with the silliness that their gender is fluid. All of this foolishness passes as serious solutions because sensible and strong fathers and men are absent or silent.

The assault on fathers and men began decades ago when feminism pursued the extreme agenda that women could only be elevated if men are taken down. In that time, we singularly obsessed with increasing education and opportunities for girls and women by feminizing every aspect of education and society, but no one noticed that the boys just dropped out. We got more women in engineering, but we now face a critical shortage of engineers because men are increasingly not pursuing advanced studies. Why would they? They are labeled as predators and maligned for their masculinity on college campuses.

Pop culture eviscerated the concept of fatherhood. Starting in the 1980s, fathers and men in general were portrayed as flawed and weak; the mothers, often single, wore the pants and injected strength and wisdom. By the 1990s, children’s shows cast the children in adult situations acting with maturity and worth. If a Dad was scripted, he was a dolt and only on screen for comic relief. The kids solved their own problems because the parents were too bigoted and narrow minded to contribute to modern society.

Back in the 1960s, President Lyndon Johnson’s “war on poverty” was really a war on families and fathers. Providing assistance to those in need to improve their situation can be helpful, but a half century of social programs has only increased poverty and misery. Welfare programs decimated the nuclear family by rewarding out of wedlock births and giving fathers a free pass. Single mothers took the bribe and fathers took the exit.

These wrong-headed policies were compounded by the sexual revolution that encouraged young people to just do what feels good and forget about the responsibilities of parenthood. You don’t need a father if you have a government check. All the ills of modern society are rooted in the demise of the nuclear family. Mothers generally could not escape the children, but the fathers could and entirely too many did.

Broken families have been devastating for America. Children without fathers are more likely to underperform in school, succumb to drugs, turn to crime, and live in poverty. Girls need strong fathers to grow into strong woman, but boys without strong fathers are even more deprived. Without the example of a good strong man, too many boys turn their attention from decency and education to indulging their vices and wasting their energy on destructive conduct.

The father is the protector and provider; he should also be the head of the house and most important the spiritual leader of the family. Let the feminists and leftists howl; that is how God instituted families – it’s axiomatic. The evidence is overwhelming that families without fathers have a much more difficult time and too often become dysfunctional. Fathers set the standards and enforce them with loving discipline. Children long for boundaries and thrive in structure. Moms can do it, but it’s so much easier and effective with Dads.

We don’t need any more studies or government prescriptions and programs. We are living the nightmare of absent fathers; we know we need fathers. America needs strong men to return to their families and fulfill their paternal duties. Genuine gentleness and true love only come from strength; do not be ashamed of your standards or strength – your families depend on it.

Men, no one is going to invite you back and few will praise you for your fatherly service and sacrifices. It’s simply our duty as Dads; just do it. Our families and the world will be better off. The way our Father in Heaven loves us with unconditional love so too should we step up and love our wives and children with unconditional love. Our reward is not adulation one day a year, but the satisfaction of seeing that your children are safe and grow up to be well adjusted adults. Seek not praise, but rather the love of your families by being the father.

“Hear, O sons, a father's instruction, and be attentive, that you may gain insight, for I give you good precepts; do not forsake my teaching. When I was a son with my father, tender, the only one in the sight of my mother, he taught me and said to me, ‘Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live. Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth’” (Proverbs 4:1-9).

Pete Riehm is the host of Common Sense Radio heard 8 pm every Thursday on FMTalk106.5 or streaming at fmtalk1065.com. Email him at peteriehm@bellsouth.net or on MEWE @PeteRiehm or read all his columns at http://www.renewamerica.com/.