In many ways politics in the US seems stuck in the 70s. Doubt me? Then listen to some political speeches & debates from then.

Consequently the Democrats and Republicans are not addressing new problems as they prefer reusing old rhetoric without us holding them accountable. This is most clear on the collapse of marriage in the US since the 70s. It has now reached the crisis of middle aged single women posting TikTok videos lamenting “Where have all the good men gone?” while single men laughingly replying “Away from you.”

The Democrats benefit electorally from women remaining single. When polls breakdown party support by sex and marital status, only single women have majority support for the Democrats with the others each favoring the Republicans. Sorry single ladies who want a loving husband but the Democrats can’t afford for you to marry thus don’t date single men who mostly vote Republican.
What do the parties actually say about marriage in their party platforms?

According to the 2020 Democratic Party platform, they support increased funding for the UN Population Fund, in part to reduce forced marriages overseas. That is it. No policies regarding marriage in the US.

According to the 2016 Republican Platform (as no new platform was not created in 2020), marriage is a value that drives their other policies including related to taxation, education, healthcare, and welfare. Specifically, they wanted to eliminate marriage penalties related to taxes and public assistance programs, plus eliminate policies and laws giving financial incentives for or encouraging cohabitation. Mostly on marriage, the Republicans in their platform are obsessed with gay marriage by restoring legislative definition of marriage and protections from discrimination for religious beliefs against gay marriage.

Not any effort by either party to reverse decline in marriage. Does it matter? The public costs of most social problems today are rooted in children raised without dads, see Warren Farrell’s The Boy Crisis. Additionally, as marriage falls, rates of unhappiness and mental illness in women have increased. While these are not necessarily problems for government to solve, government can at least eliminate policies that exacerbate the problem.

However, the collapse of marriage is having national security consequences as well related to recruitment and retention of war fighters. Single mothers tend to produce sons who are less fit for military service based on obesity, drug abuse, education failure, and mental toughness. As boys without dads increase, recruitment goals are not met despite lowering standards and reduced force size. Meanwhile, divorce and child custody issues are depriving our forces of retaining expensively trained war fighters. Second Class Citizen estimates that 40% of military suicides are related to divorce and child custody.

What can reasonably be done as a matter of marriage reform?

1) Abolish or reduce alimony. Despite alimony, post divorce excessive rates of poverty exist for both the former husband and wife. Divorcing men report high incidence of becoming homeless. As opportunity for women to work exist today at levels unknown in the 60s, we shouldn’t award alimony as if it were 60 years ago. Such a policy would reduce the short term incentive for wives to file for divorce to win cash and prizes (80% of divorces are filed by wives). Overall, eliminating alimony will reduce poverty by encouraging savings and reasonable expectations about post-divorce self-support.
2) Default full child custody to the father. This was the practice in the past and would help reduce poverty in women after divorce. The principle in child custody has been the best interest of the child but an irrational bias by judges in favor of mothers have crippled generations of children. Obviously each case should be judged individually to assure the best interest of the child. For example, children should not be given to abuser as judges now regularly assign custody to abusive mothers. Further, child support orders would no longer become the issue they are today when dad has custody.
3) Enforce prenups. State courts have violated contract rights by using arbitrary rulings after the fact to void prenuptial agreements. This has reduced men’s confidence in marriage by the creation of incentives for wives to dissolve a marriage for cash and prizes. Today the way for a woman to become independently wealthy is to divorce her wealthy husband.
4) End federal student loans. Debt is a leading factor making single women unmarriageable. Federal policy has encouraged women to take out debt that lead to careers that cannot repay that debt level. Today as women are begging to have their student loan debt forgiven, not making new federal loans is a good start to preventing future indebtedness that discourages marriage.

While about 5% of women don’t want to get married, most women do but are increasingly losing out on that personal goal. Meanwhile, men have increasingly given up on marriage largely because of divorce risks having witnessed the consequences of divorce.

To the extent that bad government policy and laws exacerbate that problem, now is the time for reforms.