The church is meant to be a choice, not an echo

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, March 24, 2024

“Some people have a picture of Mother Teresa hanging up in their home. If you grow up in a Republican household of all daughters, you might see a picture of conservative activist Phyllis Schlafly instead. But dad, this column won’t be about Schlafly, per say.

It’s that the title of her bestselling manifesto, A Choice Not an Echo, has been haunting me lately. That’s because I feel as if the American evangelical church is at a risk of becoming an echo, not a choice.

Recent reporting on the church’s political engagement reads as an echo of our sad, toxic, loud and divided culture, fighting for power and dominance. To be sure, there are times and places for fighting. I’ll mention some later in this column.

But for the earliest Christians, the church presented an entirely different choice. We shouldn’t be too quick to ignore their example.”

The Kids Are Not All Right

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, March 18, 2024

We want life to be up and to the right. We want to end up with more money than we started with. We want our families to be less dysfunctional than the one we grew up in. We want better medicines, technologies, freedoms and art — for the world to become a more enlightened place.

Not only do we want these things, we can subconsciously believe they are our destiny — that progress is almost inevitable save for an accident or unexpected crisis. But it hasn’t been up-and-to-the right for our kids for a while now.

Let’s go back a few decades. The last time America had an official, comprehensive pulse on child well-being was the National Commission on Children in 1991. The commission was created by Congress “to serve as a forum on behalf of the children of the nation.” It was a bipartisan body whose 34 members were appointed by President George H.W. Bush, the president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate, and the speaker of the House of Representatives. Its final report posited the question: “Are children worse off?”

McCloskey: Our next president is gonna be Biden or Trump?

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, March 7, 2024

We dreaded this. On Super Tuesday, it happened. Texas and the others fell like dominoes. It’s a Trump-Biden rematch for 2024. Woof.

A dear friend asked me the other day why, in a country as big and diverse as ours, we couldn’t have someone other than these two old guys for president. One geriatric. One maniacal.

But up until now there has been a young, talented, Southern governor, immigrant, former U.N. ambassador and actual conservative in the Republican race for president who hasn’t flaunted the U.S. Constitution to stay in power: Nikki Haley.

When people have shared their voting intentions for the fall with pollsters, she’s held double-digit leads over President Joe Biden. Former President Donald Trump is in the low singles.

Ideally, parties wouldn’t put up their weakest candidate for the general; but their strongest one. Clearly, she’s stronger. Why didn’t she count? Why didn’t the normal people who care about democracy and decency or actual conservatism flood the primaries for her?

NPR: The Result Is Not the Weak Tea You'd Expect

Cory Turner, NPR, March 6, 2024

I couldn’t have been more proud to have led the Collaborative! Strong coffee, if I do say so:

“The challenges facing families with young children are legion.

From affording the costly basics — like diapers, clothes and food — to the exhausting search for high-quality, reasonably priced child care, parents and caregivers have their hands full. And it's hard to imagine government, as polarized as it is, agreeing on anything that might help.

And yet. A new report suggests there are bold moves that folks across the political spectrum can agree on.

The report is the result of a yearlong effort called the Convergence Collaborative on Supports for Working Families. Throughout 2023, the collaborative convened meetings among some 30 think-tankers, policy wonks, child development experts and government influencers — from the hard left to the far right — and tasked them with forging consensus on ways to help families. . . .”

What if our biggest sins are the ones we cannot see?

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, February 24, 2024

Wilber Wilberforce has me thinking about the costs of consumerism.

Unlike the slavery of the American South, slavery was something that most Brits could ignore. The atrocities and appalling conditions on slave ships from Africa to the West Indies occurred out of eyesight and earshot of most people in England, although British ports and companies participated in the trade. For Wilberforce, there would have been more visible wrongs to address in the vulgar and violent 18th century. Prostitution and brothels were rampant, including child prostitution. Public hangings for petty crimes were entertainment. . .

When we look at history, it seems so obvious what the wrongs were and so obvious that history would arc for justice. Do we have the courage to look around our lives today? What if any atrocities are hidden for the seemingly simple pleasures we enjoy? We learn from Wilberforce that staring them in the face is the first step toward change

The IVF Ruling Clearly Confuses Everything

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, March 3, 2024

Someone accidentally dropped frozen embryos in Alabama, and it’s full-on politics. Welcome to the politics of reproduction and human life in 2024.

A recent Alabama Supreme Court decision, made 8-1, legally protects embryos under the state’s wrongful death statute. It prompted in vitro fertilization facilities in the state to pause treatment. The ruling wasn’t intentionally halting IVF, according to what I’ve read. It was intended to dignify the embryos with status beyond a cellular clump.

But of course it has a chilling effect. Who would want to work in a place where you could be liable for murdering kids? What parent would want to choose between being impregnated with quintuplets or being sued? Or go through the daily shots and bruises and pills to only remove one egg for a hefty fee with a slim chance of it working?

Meanwhile, cross over a few state lines and you can legally get an abortion at 40 weeks gestation. What times we are in. How confused we are.

Can’t Washington give us an honest deal?

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, February 19, 2024

I recently hosted a Senate reception for a bipartisan group on family policy that I’ve led the last year. At the top of the event, Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., gave brief remarks about their new bipartisan, bicameral working group on paid family leave. Their collaboration is a rare glimmer of hope for reform that would benefit American families. But it was another topic that got my attention.

In his remarks, Cassidy turned to his left and raised his arm, saying there’s this huge need over here, referring to the need of American families with young children. Then he turned to his right and lifted his arm, and said, “but did I mention, there’s this huge fiscal thing over here?”

I gave an imperceptible head nod. But in my mind, I stood up in the front row and applauded while colorful balloons dropped from the ceiling of the Russell Senate Office Building.

We need more policymakers talking like this. Being real about the tradeoffs and our problems. “Giving the honest deal,” as my former colleague and legendary campaign strategist Steve Schmidt would say during the 2020 Howard Schultz exploratory presidential campaign we worked on together.

Politicians everywhere have ideas for A New Deal, which mostly involves increasing spending or cutting off revenue. President Joe Biden tried to spend more than $2 trillion with his Build Back Better better plan. President Donald Trump went on a $1 trillion to $2 trillion (depending on what estimate you use) revenue reducing exercise with the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Few have been willing to acknowledge the tradeoffs that America is facing with a historic level of debt. This requires caution both on the spending and revenue sides. Our economy’s impressive soft landing in 2024 coming out of inflation is as comparable to the challenge ahead as a moon landing.

REPORT: In This Together

Published on February 6, 2024

“The Convergence Collaborative on Supports for Working Families met regularly throughout 2023. We are a cross-partisan, cross-sector group of leaders who have dedicated our careers to improving the lives of children and families in America. To our knowledge, we are the most ideologically and sectorally diverse group to address family policy that has convened in recent decades. We came together against a backdrop of historic polarization and political divides. This report is our action plan to help low-to-moderate income families with young children flourish.”

PRESS RELEASE: Convergence launches a cross-partisan action plan to support families with young children in America

Bringing together 32 diverse leaders in family policy, the Convergence Collaborative on Supports for Working Families released recommendations for federal policymakers, states, employers, and philanthropy to support families across party lines.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Convergence Center for Policy Resolution released a new Blueprint for Action with consensus solutions for tackling deep challenges facing American families with young children. The Blueprint release will be accompanied by a public reception on Capitol Hill tonight featuring remarks from Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY). The process of this Collaborative was featured in The New York Times article, by Jessica Grose, 'Couples Therapy', but for Politics.

Forged by more than 30 leaders spanning the political spectrum and from very different professional domains and life experiences, the recommendations aim to change the story around parenting in the US, rethink cash support, ensure a wider variety of high-quality care options, and better support families with new children.

"Leading the most ideologically and sectorally diverse group dedicated to addressing family policy in recent decades has been an immense honor," said Abby McCloskey, Director of the Convergence Collaborative on Supports for Working Families and Founder of McCloskey Policy LLC. "Recent events, such as the expiration of pandemic-era support for families, the setback in passing the Biden Administration's Build Back Better proposal, and the overturning of Roe v. Wade — with states adopting radically different approaches in the aftermath — made it challenging to anticipate the outcomes of this diverse collaboration. I take great pride in the remarkable work the Collaborative has accomplished."

Convergence served as a neutral convenor for the Convergence Collaborative on Supports for Working Families. Convergence Collaboratives are inclusive and cooperative processes, informed by social science, in which diverse groups of leaders come together to build trust, forge higher-ground consensus solutions, and move forward in unlikely alliances to achieve constructive change on seemingly intractable issues.

"Parenthood in America is increasingly challenging, and the urgency to support our nation's working families cannot be overstated," said Convergence Interim CEO and seasoned consensus-builder, Mariah Levison. "As the consensus among our participants illustrates, there is a clear pathway for a diverse group of changemakers to strengthen support systems in America, ensuring the needs of both children and parents are met. These solutions will not only make it easier to raise our children well but also foster economic opportunity and community connectedness, which are both key to reducing our division."

This project was made possible thanks to the generous support of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

About Convergence Center for Policy Resolution 

Convergence is the leading organization bridging divides to solve critical issues. Through our time-tested collaborative problem-solving methodology, we bring people together across ideological, political, and identity lines to improve the lives of Americans and strengthen democracy. For more information, visit convergencepolicy.org.

SOURCE Convergence Center for Policy Resolution

Biden should take border deal

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, February 1, 2024

Immigration is 2024′s biggest issue. Except for potential world war, but that’s for another day. What a win a deal on the southern border would be. Let’s start with what it means for the presidential election and then move closer to home.

With abortion off the table after the Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, immigration has become the biggest visceral issue for the GOP in 2024. Donald Trump is building his campaign around it. We can’t have a secure country without a secure border. Republicans are right about that.

Immigration denial could cost Biden re-election. Fortunately, Americans love a good conversion story. “I was lost and now I’m found.” And a bipartisan Congressional deal has come knocking on Biden’s door, combining aid for the Ukrainians in their defense against the Russian invasion and money for border security.

Biden should take the deal and pronounce, over the progressive howls, that securing the border will be the focus of his domestic attention for the rest of 2024. In fact, he should ask for Democrats to strengthen the deal. The current negotiated threshold is that it would only kick in if 5,000 migrants crossed illegally in a day.

For a re-election campaign still searching for its message, voila: “I kept a demagogue out of the White House, fought Putin from invading the West, oversaw a soft landing for the economy (despite my role in the inflationary part), and finally shut down the southern border.” Close your eyes and it’s practically conservative.

Is Life More Precious After Roe?

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, January 29, 2024

“The dust is settling. The new order is taking shape, and the extremes are winning. In the last two years, blue states have ramped up their abortion access, purple states too. Red states have favored strict abortion limits or total bans without rape or incest exceptions. That’s where we find ourselves in Texas, with unclear exceptions for maternal health that are being played out in courtrooms instead of in medical settings.

Will my daughter, when she’s grown, see a more humane and compassionate policy landscape for women and children now that Roe is gone? I’m not so sure.”

Texas is acting like California

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, January 21, 2024

I recently had coffee with a colleague. He said he was concerned about what’s happening in Austin. I didn’t know him well, but having lived in Texas for a decade, I immediately translated his comment to mean the problem with “the blueberry in the tomato soup” and the progressive ways of our wayward little sister who we love to rag on but may be secretly jealous of her ability to hike and chill.

But my colleague was not talking about city politics. He was talking about our state government. And I couldn’t agree more.

Let me back up. In my experience, Texas can get an unfair rap from the coastal types. When my husband and I left Washington, D.C., for Dallas in 2014, we were given a nice bottle of red wine and forlorn claps on the back, as if we were on our way to big box housing, strip malls, and megachurches, leaving the finer life behind. When I tell my Washington colleagues that our house is more than 50 years old, we are within walking distance from Whole Foods and a lake, we go to a tiny Anglican church downtown, and that at least one of my children is more fluent in Spanish than English according to state testing, they are, in a word, dumbfounded.

This perception isn’t just on the American coasts. Just days after I filed the first draft of this story, I jetted off to London for my husband to launch his newest spy novel. Nearly every day of the week we were there, the Financial Times included some mention of Texas Republicans, always about red meat issues like abortion or immigration. Never about our state’s highly diverse, growth-oriented, pro-family constituency, which provides unmatched opportunity and a model for economies worldwide. . . .

Our culture is confused over the most basic things about mothers, fathers and children

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, Janjuary 13, 2024

I am not a royal watcher. I admired Queen Elizabeth II from a distance, I occasionally watch The Crown and I remember when Princess Diana died and my parents’ TV played nonstop. But that’s about it. Harry happenings and palace intrigue, no thanks.

Which is why I am late in applauding Kate Middleton’s public campaign to raise awareness of the importance of early childhood. The campaign is called “Shaping Us.” Kate gave a knockout speech at the launch. But it is the short, charming clay animation video accompanying the campaign that has captured my attention.

It is a beautiful short. But after more than a decade professionally immersed in family policy, studying topics such as paid leave, child care, and maternal health — and in particular, in settings across political and ideological differences — I cannot help but think that such a video would not fly in America.

Waiting for normal politics? Go ahead, pull up a chair

Abby McCloskey, Dallas News, December 17, 2023

When will politics return to normal? If you’re like me, you’ve asked this a lot. Take a swig of your eggnog because you might not like what’s coming next. What we are living through is normal, at least when it comes to the Republican Party and our country’s history of polarization.

Couples Therapy, But for Politics

Jess Grose, New York Times, December 13, 2023

A sneak peak of my most recent project with Convergence. Our report comes out in Q1 2024!

The Women Shaking Up Economics

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, December 10, 2023

“Economics is male-dominated and colloquially known as the dismal science, which is why it’s delightful that two women — both quick to smile — made the biggest splash in the discipline in 2023.

Even better, they’ve applied their academic prowess to the taboos of marriage, work and gender. Why women study “women’s issues” is a question for the ages. But there’s certainly been a vacuum of information that these economists have begun to fill, to the benefit of all of us.”