TAKING MARRIAGE SERIOUSLY: Maggie Gallagher

...Third, if you are politically smart you find ways to strengthen marriage. The marriage gap in voting dwarfs most other gaps, including the much ballyhooed gender gap. Married people favored Bush by 14 percentage points. Unmarried folks went for Kerry by 18 percentage points, according to The New York Times.
Why? Marriage has a simultaneous effect on two important political predicates: values and income. When people get married, they go to church more often and refocus on culturally conservative values. They also move into the middle class. Economically, this is especially true for women. As economists Lena Edlund and Rohini Pande pointed out in a 2002 analysis, "Marriage and divorce affect a woman's party affiliation significantly more than they do a man's. Marriage tends to make a woman more Republican, whereas divorce tends to make her more Democratic."

Taking marriage seriously means protecting marriage from judicial redefinition. But a party that was serious about looking for ways to strengthen marriage so that more children (and voters!) end up in stable, married families would find many politically attractive policy options (more on that in another column).

Does President Bush get it? First test: Look at who gets appointed to the proposed tax commission, and what proposals come out of it. A party serious about marriage (and its own future) will make sure that any proposed tax reform is pro-marriage and pro-family.

more

posted by Eve at 8:57 PM VOTE

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home