In the past two years, I have written several articles on the pronatalist movement underway in the United States, some of whose most prominent advocates are Donald Trump, JD Vance, Elon Musk, and the members of something known as the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC).

Basically, they promote unfettered procreation — preferably among White conservative Christians, of course — to jump-start a reversal of population decline. What they don’t tell you is how you’re supposed to afford all those new mouths to feed . . . but that’s a whole other issue.

One of the most vocal proponents of larger families is, as mentioned above, the Vice President of the United States, JD Vance. And — in a rare instance of actually following through on his own advice — he and wife Usha have just welcomed into the world their fourth child in nine years, son Alec.

And that’s great . . . for them. They clearly have the means to support and educate as many children as they would like to have. And any woman who can appear for a photo op just hours after giving birth, in full makeup and with her hair done, obviously has all the help she needs.

But for us mere mortals, it’s not that simple. The economy is, to put it mildly, so uncertain at present that few people can be confident of even having a job next week or next month. The cost of everything has skyrocketed, with incomes lagging far behind. The global environment is worsening, with record-breaking heat waves, violent storms, wildfires, droughts and floods making the daily news. And the stresses of the continuing political chaos have taken a huge toll on the emotional, and sometimes the physical, health of millions of citizens.

How can anyone justify bringing more children into circumstances such as these? Speaking for myself — and I know there are people who will take issue with this — if I were young and looking forward to starting a family, I wouldn’t do it. Not now. I would postpone that decision for at least a couple of years, until (hopefully) some semblance of sanity has been restored.

It’s easy for people like the Vances, the Trumps, the Stephen Millers, and the Elon Musks of the world to carry on as though everything were rosy — because for them, it is. But for the majority of us . . . well, not so much.

So enjoy your new son, JD and Usha. But keep your hare-brained advice to yourselves. You simply haven’t a clue — nor do you care — what life is like for the other 99 percent.

Just sayin’ . . .

Brendochka
7/20/26