About the nuclear family.
Though you dodge the point in more ways than I can count, I'll just address the most blatant case.
The whole nuclear family is a stepdown from the extended family that preceded it. It constitutes a compromise between the extended family and no family. And the conservatives who espouse the nuclear family, instead of the extended family, are in fact capitulating. The gratitude of their opponents for this willingness to meet halfway is underwhelming.
I think it was mistake for modern conservatives to make this sort of concession. To an ideologue, any concession is a sign of weakness, not of reasonability.
