The idea that the government believes that children belong to them and not their parents is a terrifying thought. It raises fundamental questions about the role of the state, the autonomy of individuals, and the family institution.
The concept of parental rights and responsibilities has been at the heart of Western society for centuries. It is widely accepted that parents are responsible for the upbringing and welfare of their children and that the state’s role is to support and protect families in this endeavor. However, if the government were to assert that children belong to the state, it would imply a drastic shift in the balance of power between the individual and the state.
And Joe Biden, the man who currently occupies the White House, effectively endorsed that premise on Monday. Biden was giving remarks that honored the Council of Chief State School Officers’ 2023 Teacher of the Year, Rebecka Peterson, a high school math teacher from Tulsa, Okla.
“Rebecka put a teachers’ creed into words when she said, ‘There’s no such thing as someone else’s child.’ No such thing as someone else’s child. Our nation’s children are all our children,” Biden said.
BIDEN: “There’s no such thing as someone else’s child. Our nation’s children are all our children!” pic.twitter.com/scaZ4vDrPZ
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 24, 2023
Do you know who else thought that children didn’t belong to their parents? Have you read George Orwell’s 1984? Various aspects of the classic novel about an authoritarian surveillance state have come true in recent years, and the government’s efforts to erode the family unit by pitting children against their parents is the latest one to become ever so apparent.
Today, a threat to the family institution, similar to that in 1984, is emerging from the left’s adoption of a radical ideology and use of the public school system to push that ideology and undermine parental rights in the process.
Starting in Joe Biden’s first year in office, the Department of Justice targeted parents expressing concern at school board meetings, treating them as domestic terrorists and accusing them of threatening and harassing teachers. Attorney General Merrick Garland authorized the FBI to investigate these protesting parents, citing a “disturbing trend.” However, PJ Media’s Megan Fox investigated the DOJ claims and discovered they were unsubstantiated.
Related: Five Things Orwell Accurately Predicted About the American Left
Such disturbing trends are happening at the state level as well, in deep blue states. In 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California signed two bills into law that allow minors to conceal abortions and transgender treatments or procedures from their parents. Furthermore, school districts across the nation are deliberately withholding information about gender-transitioning children from parents. Earlier this month, the Washington state legislature approved a bill that grants the state authority to offer “shelter” to minors who seek abortions or transgender procedures against their parent’s wishes, essentially establishing state-sanctioned kidnapping. These efforts by radical left-wing states constitute a direct assault on parental rights that fractures families and indoctrinates children into believing the state has their best interests at heart — not their own parents.
As Joe Biden said, the left believes there’s “no such thing as someone else’s child.” From their perspective, children are mere instruments of the state, and he just said the quiet part out loud.