Saturday, November 20, 2004

Why the Democrat Party Loves Single Mothers

Here is my latest column:

Since the Bill Clinton years we have been told that women always vote democrat at an overwhelmingly higher rate than men. In 1996 women favored Bill Clinton over Bob Dole by 16 percentage points and in 2000 women favored Al Gore over George W. Bush by 11 percentage points. This creating the so called gender gap and the media driven voting block called soccer moms. Interestingly enough, in 2004 women still favored Democratic Presidential Candidate John Kerry, but only by 3 percentage points, not the usual +10 point advantage.

So what happened? Where did all the soccer moms go?

According to the media, who created the soccer moms, the soccer moms became security moms voting their concerns for their family’s safety after the 9-11 terrorist attack. But did the soccer moms ever exist to begin with?

They probably did not, or at least not to the extent that the media described, unless the soccer moms were single mothers. The real gap in America’s voting is not the gender gap but is what I call the marriage gap. The major gap is between married and unmarried women not between genders. Single women especially, single mothers tend to vote democrat. In 1996 single women favored Bill Clinton 62% - 28% over Bob Dole. In 2000 Single women favored Al Gore 63% - 32% over George W. Bush. In 2004 single women favored John Kerry 63% - 36% over President George W. Bush. When you poll just single mothers the numbers are even higher for the democratic candidate.

Married women, on the other hand, tend to vote more republican especially if they have children. In this years election married women voted for President Bush 54% - 45% over John Kerry and the numbers are higher in favor of President Bush if they have children.

So why do single women, especially single mothers vote democrat?

It is women’s nature to seek protection and security. Since the beginning of time women have always searched for a provider and a sense of security and protection from their mate. Through the breakdown of the family over the years and the creation of the welfare state it has become difficult for a lot of women to find these traits in men. Since it is women’s primal desire to be protected, and she can not find that protection in a man, she turns to the security of the government. The government becomes her husband, her provider, her security blanket. The government will provide everything for her and her children through social programs making her dependable on the state and not a man. Why marry when you can get more benefits from the state while remaining single and get even more money if you have children while remaining single?

However, once a woman does get married, she no longer holds the favorable view that she once had of big government. She no longer needs government for protection or a security blanket any longer as her husband now takes that role. If she has children while she is married she then begins to look at big government as a burden and a threat on her family. She feels that her family is now endangered by big government, because as it grows, it takes more money from her family. This making married women, especially with children, to lean more republican.
The natural desire to be protected and protect her family works in the very same way when she is married and votes republican as it did when she was single voting democrat.

This is why family values haves left the democrat party. It now takes a moderate, conservative democrat, which is a dieing breed, to promote marriage and family. It is not in the Democratic Party’s self interest to strengthen the institution of marriage and traditional families.
For all these reasons the democrats know what’s to gain by expanding dependency on government and to promote alternative families rather than a family that consist of a married man and woman with children.

The democrats know where their votes are and that’s why they love single mothers.

I'm Tony Spain

Tony Spain worked on President George W. Bush's election campaign in 2000 in Danville Illinois. He is originally from the Danville Illinois area and currently resides in Fayetteville North Carolina.