Kay Trimberger and I are not far apart politically. We share a feminist perspective. We agree that “irreversible changes” have occurred to marriage and family life, and we agree that family change does not equate to moral decay. We agree about the kind of policies progressives should support—health care, child care, and so on that have been on the liberal agenda for decades.

We differ, however, on how to describe family change, on what the statistics show—or fail to show—as well as on the historical background to current family trends. Most significantly, we disagree about what political stance progressives should take with regard to family matters in general and marriage in particular—and what language we should use.

Trimberger holds to the view that prevails among pundits of all persuasions, the media, and the general public that marriage and “the family” are in decline, fading away, on the verge of disappearing. If the left does not take this decline as...

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