Nation: On Traditional Family Values

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The legislation most favored by these traditionalists is the Family Protection Act, introduced in the Senate in 1979 by Paul Laxalt of Nevada, Reagan's campaign chairman and one of his closest friends. This measure would eliminate the "marriage tax" (a married couple now pays higher taxes than an unmarried couple with the same income). It would provide assistance for at-home care of the elderly, prohibit intermingling of the sexes in school sports and encourage voluntary prayer in public schools.

Like the family planks of the Republican platform, the Family Protection Act claims to protect an institution in a form that hardly exists any more. The number of Americans who live in the traditional household with working father, domestic mother and dependent children amount to a mere 15% of the population today. But to defend that institution represents a passion for people who, as Drew Arena, a Denver Republican leader, put it, "sense that events are out of an individual's control."