Another Father’s Day is upon us, so hopefully everyone will pause long enough to remember dear old Dad. It’s hard to buy gifts for fathers because they typically buy what they need or want. We are mercifully past neckties, so perhaps fathers will get some grilling utensils or maybe even freeze-dried meats. At least give him a call; Dads don’t ask for much. The best gift for fathers is the security of their families and the success of their children. That’s our job.

Dads appreciate gifts, but they prefer results. Sadly, Dads have been fighting an uphill battle for years. In our hyper-feminized society, masculinity is shunned and fatherhood considered entirely dispensable. Broken families and single mothers and their children have been suffering the absence of fathers for generations, but society has too often just tossed money at the problem and turned a blind eye. However, society is now aghast at the recent surge in teen violence, but for anyone paying attention it’s simply the harvest of absent or weak fathers.

Discounted in every realm, fatherhood has been under assault for decades by pop culture. The opening salvo was President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” where big government determined to replace poor fathers with welfare payments. Combining government as the family bread winner with the 1960’s sexual revolution that removed morality from the societal equation and poor families were decimated. Indigent families were consigned to generational failure, misery, and poverty.

With poor fathers abandoning their families or even being driven away by government benefits, pop culture set their sights on the middle-class father. Over time in the late 1980s and 1990s, every father in movies or on TV was portrayed as an awkward, ignorant, self-centered buffoon; Dads were idiots, so Moms provided strength and wisdom. Forget “Father knows best,” Homer Simpson became America’s Dad.

Fathers also must resist leftist indoctrination parading as education; public schools are brainwashing our children that the traditional family is obsolete, LGBTQ+ lifestyles are normal, and America is a hopelessly flawed bigoted nation. Add social media and video games and our children are despairingly adrift with no moral compass or familial mooring. They have been thrust into a virtual world without morality and no grasp on reality. Therefore, it’s no surprise teens embrace violence because they have no concept of consequences; there is only one life – no reset.

Life has become cheap. Video games promote carnage and social media insulates cruelty and stupidity, but pervasive abortions have taught generations that life is expendable when inconvenient. More states legalizing euthanasia only compounds the demoralization of our youth because it tells them they can choose to end their own lives when deemed inconvenient or unfulfilling. They are not being taught to pursue life, so they are indifferent to death.

Masculinity has been mercilessly maligned and mispresented for decades. Men have been smeared as oppressive when they demand standards or overbearing when they defend their families. True to Biblical masculinity, fathers are just trying to protect and provide for their families; that’s their God ordained purpose. Fathers should be leading their families, especially spiritually.

While good fathers are trying to raise their children to be productive well-adjusted adults, feminists have been incessantly bemoaning the patriarchy; their objective is to drive men out of the family and destroy the nuclear family. Feminists see children as an unfair burden not a blessing, so it’s ironic and silly that their goal is to sever the paternal partner in the family leaving mothers to fend for themselves. Mothers are finding a feminist world without masculine men is difficult, miserable, and unfair.

Fatherhood and masculinity have been casualties of the culture war, but the real goal has always been to dismantle the traditional nuclear family because strong families make strong communities which makes a strong country of rugged individuals. And a robust nation of independent families will not tolerate much less submit to the failed ideology of envy, scarcity, and victimhood known as socialism.

The war on fatherhood is really just one front in the larger war on the family. That’s why leftists oppose masculinity and fatherhood but can’t define a woman and promote unnatural LGBTQ+ notions as normal. It’s all about creating uncertainty and instability; that’s where socialists believe they are needed.

The good news is Americans are increasingly rejecting leftist ideals of feminism and socialism because they are living with the rotten fruits of these failed philosophies. Unparented teens are running amok with criminal violence and children growing up with only one parent or none are much more likely to struggle with lifelong failure and poverty.

The further good news is that good fathers have not left their posts; they have been diligently and quietly leading their families unnoticed by the pop culture but noticed by their thriving families and communities. There are millions of good Dads coaching little league sports, taking their kids camping and fishing, and teaching them about Jesus.

Moreover, average Americans know and appreciate the benefits of Biblical masculinity and strong fathers, but those Americans left behind by broken families, failed progressive policies, and the hollow promises of leftist hedonism are also realizing they are missing something. Depression and mental illness are much more prevalent among left leaning Americans, but they are noticing the contentment and happiness among Americans that embrace traditional values – and more and more of them want some of the American dream.

The overarching point is most Americans know that good fathers are indispensable to strong thriving families and fatherhood is making a steady comeback. Not just because it works, but because America needs good Dads if we ever hope to keep America great. So, keep pressing ahead Dads and families give good Dads the respect they deserve. We will certainly continue to face difficult challenges, but good fathers won’t give up. They will keep the wolf from the door.

Happy Father’s Day!

“The righteous man walks with integrity; blessed are his children after him” (Proverbs 20:7).

Pete Riehm is a Navy Veteran, conservative activist, and columnist in south Alabama. Email him at peteriehm@bellsouth.net or read all his columns at http://www.renewamerica.com/.