Are Parents Responsible For Their Kid’s Behavior?

It’s looking more likely that Ashley Biden was set up, but fully enjoyed snorting some cocaine. The Deceiver (via Instapundit) says this story reminds them of the Rielle Hunter media blackout and imagines that were the story about Bristol Palin, we wouldn’t hear the end of it (something John Hawkins noted when the story broke earlier this week).

The Deceiver talks about Joe Biden’s drug war stance:

And over the years, there’s been no bigger drug warrior than Vice President Joe Biden. As a senator, he championed laws against shipping drug paraphernalia though the mail, going to raves, and using marijuana for medical reasons. He helped create the Office of National Drug Control Policy. He even coined the term “drug czar.” So if you or someone you know has been affected by America’s draconian approach to drug enforcement, or if you just get a kick out of your tax money being thrown at one failed drug-prevention effort after another, you can thank your old buddy Joe.

So, Joe’s policies couldn’t prevent his daughter’s demise.

Forget policies for a minute and just judge him as a parent. Is it his fault his daughter enjoys a line from time to time? What about Sarah Palin’s fecund daughter Bristol?

We are also on the eve of the anniversary of one of the worst American acts of terrorism–the Columbine massacre. April 20, 2009 it will be 10 years post-Columbine. Are the parents to blame for their kids?

A next-door neighbor to the Harris’ said:

Pollock said she is alarmed at much of the angry talk aimed at the parents of Eric Harris and Dylan Kelbold. “I don’t blame the parents,” she said. “If they (children) don’t want you to find or see something, you’re not going to find or see it.”

Having raised five teenagers, Pollock said, “you cannot always choose what your kid is going to be.”

The parents of victims of the killers certainly felt that there was some responsibility:

Eventually the parents of the Columbine killers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, appeared willing to speak, but the threat of lawsuits drove them to silence. The families reached an impasse: the killers’ parents would talk only if the victims disavowed legal action, but the victims would waive lawsuits only if the parents spoke.

The Harrises and Klebolds settled their last lawsuits in 2003. Their homeowners’ insurance had already agreed to pay $1.6 million, but five holdout families demanded information. The killers’ parents were deposed in a closed federal courtroom, to which the plaintiffs gained access by agreeing to a gag order. Fourteen days before Mr. Cho opened fire at Virginia Tech, a district court judge ruled that the transcripts of these meetings would remain sealed for 20 more years.

It was an ugly compromise. The victims got answers, at the price of hiding them from experts and the public. The Harrises and Klebolds endured eight years of vilification and legal action.

So, are Biden, Palin and the killer’s families culpable in their kid’s actions? At what point is a child responsible for his own actions?

Posted in Corrupted Culture
Tags: Parenting • Politics