Introduction
The 2004 election revealed a striking gap in the political leanings of people who are married with children: They favored the Republican, President George W. Bush, over the Democrat, Sen. John Kerry, by nearly 20 percentage points -- 59 percent to 40 percent. This married parent gap must now take its place in the popular political lexicon alongside previously established voter gaps such as the gender gap (in which women generally lean Democratic and men lean Republican) and the race gap (in which minorities lean heavily Democratic and whites lean heavily Republican).
It was not always like this. Democrats were successful in competing for married parents in the very recent past. Bill Clinton only narrowly lost them in 1992,and then narrowly won them in 1996. Bush opened up a 15-point married parent gap over Al Gore in the 2000 election (winning the group 56 percent to 41 percent). Clinton's success shows that Democrats should be able to compete for married parents again in the future -- or even win them.
Many Democrats have come to realize in the aftermath of theirdefeat last November that they must strike out beyond their traditional base of support if they want to start winning national elections again. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), for example, has begun to appeal to pro-life voters. And newly elected Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean has pledged to reach out to evangelical Christians.
But
Democrats will not do better with married parents until they recognize one simple truth: Parents have a beef with popular culture. As they see it, the culture is getting ever more violent, materialistic, and misogynistic, and they are losing their ability to protect their kids from morally corrosive images and messages. To be credible, Democrats must acknowledge the legitimacy of parents' beef and make it unmistakably clear that they are on parents' side.
My guess is that parents, seeing the truth of this observation, have returned to and voted with the church. Until the Democrats offer a successful family-centered alternative the Christian Right (now quite at home in and deeply linked with the Republican party) is talking the only talk that offers a hopeful view. One that promises a more intact family and children who a) live to see adulthood and b) when there make us proud that they made it.
The following (from Barbara Whitehead's above-cited article) shows a move in the right direction [here, as usual, emboldening and underlining are mine]:
... Democratic Gov. Rod Blogojevich of Illinois has launched a campaign to ban the sale of violent video games to kids under 18 by setting stiff penalties for retailers. In addition, he has made effective use of the bully pulpit to assert a crucial principle."Parenting is hard work, and the state has a compelling interest in helping parents to raise children to upstanding men and women. [He and is wife jointly sign the following letter on the governor's website, modeling] how Democrats can combine support for parents with protest against the corporate marketers who peddle violence to kids.To the parents of Illinois:As parents our first responsibility to our children is to make sure they are safe and to teach them right from wrong. When we were growing up, our parents had to worry about what dangers we could encounter outside the home, but at least in the home, we were safe.
Today, with the advent of so many types of new technology, it is a lot more difficult to know what our children are doing. And with the multi-billion dollar industry geared towards marketing violent and sexually explicit video games to our children, is is harder to shield our children.
Too many of the video games marketed to our children teach them all of the wrong lessons and all the wrong values. These games use violence, rage and sexual aggression as play. That is not acceptable. When kids play, they should play like children, not like gangland assassins.
As my wife pointed out, while I was doing the mumbling that precedes an entry, we still have to change our personal lives; neither a Democratic nor a Republican government will do that for us. We need to learn to cut back on consumption and to both supervise and model a lifestyle that is rich in the good values. This probably won't happen with two parents working full-time.
Also, we need to go somewhere where we aren't the only ones in the neighborhood who are living this sort of life. If the government, any government, enables family-friendly neighborhood and community environments , we still have to step up and do the job that comes with raising a family. It would be nice if we had support and company in the effort, but it doesn't take away the fact that good child-raising starts, and ends, at home.
[via Jane Norman, Des Moines Register, 4/10/2005]
[Technorati Tags: family, family-life, popular culture, responsibility]
