by Maggie Gallagher

About the author: Maggie Gallagher is the author of Enemies of Eros and The Abolition of Marriage: How We Destroy Lasting Love, from which this viewpoint is excerpted.

The next great American challenge is to get out of the business of merely managing the decline of the family and begin the process of rebuilding it. To recreate marriage, we have to step back from the angry couple and look at marriage in a wider context: What incentives are now in place, and what incentives does marriage require? How can we restore some traditional supports, and how can we come up with innovative ways to nurture marriage? People who wish to marry are attempting to do something—something more than merely living together until they drift apart. How can law, culture, and public policy conspire to...