Richard Reinsch analyses the defence of freedom and family in the United States

On 17 November 2023, we held a meeting with the director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at the Heritage Foundation, Richard Reinsch. During the talk entitled “Family and individual freedom in today’s world”, the academic analysed the political and social context of the United States. “In America, I think things are getting better and worse at the same time”, Reinsch shared.

The analyst began his intervention by referring to the existing racial and LGTBI+ movements in America. He pointed out that the intention of these minorities is that everything should be reordered in the name of equity towards these minorities. “They are supposed to be a model group that protests and demands that things be given to them, and what they really want is a completely new country and for our past to be completely eliminated”, the expert assured.

In this sense, he said that American conservatives have made an effort over the last six decades to represent the Constitution of the United States following the original meaning of the written document, “as we believe the founders understood it and ratified it, not in this progressive way”, added Reinsch. However, “the progressive left in America wants to make the Constitution into something limitless that doesn’t really guide political deliberation”, he said.

Family and religion

The director of the B. Kenneth Simon Center for American Studies at the Heritage Foundation has pointed out that in the United States the defence of the family and marriage “is an ongoing process of struggle in which there are more and more of us”. The analyst said that the culture of marriage is declining, a reality that, according to Reinsch, “goes hand in hand with increasing secularisation and declining church attendance”.

Adding to this is the declining birth rate. “Young people in their 20s and 30s are now the most secular Americans, and they are the ones who are not really getting married and not having children. In this sense, the director maintains that “this is going to be a problem for us”.

Reinsch concluded his speech by saying that Americans are going to get tired of this situation and will want to go back to their roots, “to the old ways”.