The reason that Conservatism is “pro-family” is because no ideology can ultimately be defined in purely negative terms. It is not enough to say that we oppose big government, because to oppose anything is necessarily to promote whatever must exist in its place. In this case that cannot simply be “the individual”. Libertarian economist Milton Friedman once said “We tend to talk about an individualist society, but it really isn’t, it’s a family society. And the greatest incentives of all, the incentives that have really driven people on, have largely been the incentives of family. "

No free society has ever existed that was constituted primarily of individuals pursuing their own interests as isolated individuals. It is stable, successful families, and communities of families, that make a free society possible. The only real world alternative to a society built upon the state, is a society built upon the family.