Brownback calls for return to 'family values'

Brownback calls for return to 'family values'
Says results of experimenting with marriage definition 'very bad'

The United States needs to get back to its "basics," and then resolutions to dilemmas such as the war on terrorism will become clear, even if not easy, according to Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and a candidate for the Republican nomination for president.

Brownback told WND in an exclusive question-and-answer session that people will expect candidates to talk about Iraq and the economy.

"If we will rebuild that family structure and renew the culture you will build your basis for a growing economy and your strength to face off against radical militant Islam over the [next] generation," he said. "But you've got to get your basics right, and that's where I think we've got the most difficulty, in our basics."

He said he'd like to be able to direct the conversation during the campaign for the 2008 election to rebuilding the family and renewing the culture.

"Those are the central institutions that really need help, and they are the ones we have to build up to sustain the will to fight this long-term fight against militant Islam," he said.

Brownback, who grew up in Kansas and was a White House fellow in the first Bush administration, was elected to the House of Representatives with the Republican Revolution in 1994. In 1996 voters gave him the U.S. Senate seat previously held by Bob Dole.

He now serves of appropriations, judiciary and joint economic committees as well as the subcommittee responsible for the Constitution.

Dubbed "the Wilberforce Republican" by the Economist, he was described by the New York Times as "one of the most conservative, religious, fascinating – and, in many ways, admirable – politicians in America today."

His goals have been to re-establish traditional marriage as a fixture in the United States, let consumers establish priorities for health care issues, and appoint judges that interpret the Constitution.

As such, he told WND that he wants to see an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would limit marriage to one man and one woman. It's a plan he's carried in the Senate twice already.

"We don't need fewer marriages in America, we need more and stronger marriages. We need more children raised in the optimum situation, which is between a mom and a dad bonded together for life," he said.

Other nations where marriage definitions have been the subject of more experimentation have produced early results that are "very bad," he said. Married parents with children, he said, "is the way societies have organized their families for millennia. To move away from it is a huge, huge social experiment…"

He also has worked on issues including violence and obscenity, especially in the media.

There are, he said, literally thousands of studies showing the more violence in the entertainment, the more violence in society.

"The storytellers today are generally the television or the radio and that's why I go at these issues aggressively," he said. "These are, to me, just basic issues, and culture … has a huge impact on the entire nation and the society."

"And just as a dad, the father of five children, my wife and I raising these kids, we'd like to have the culture back us up and support us in an effort to raise good children, not always attacking us and that's something that I think just from a personal basis many families see as a big problem," he said.

On other subjects, he said Roe vs. Wade should be overturned, the citizens of the U.S. have spoken clearly that they want the nation's borders secured, and he warned that the fight against terrorism is going to continue "for a generation."

"We had been in it for 10 years prior to 9-11 before we experienced the Pearl Harbor of this war and that's what 9-11 was. This is a fight with radical militant Islam. It is not everybody that's a Muslim, but it is a dedicated group. … I think we have to recognize what this fight is, and we're going to be in it a long time. Here on own home soil, I think we have to be very aggressive on our intelligence. That matters to keep people safe."