Tuesday, December 07, 2004
Natalists
David Brooks thinks that family fertility explains the election map. Excerpts:
Most people become more conservative, in a personal sense, when they have children. Risk assumes a different shape. Social change is only attractive if it increases certainty. People who live for the moment find themselves obsessing about the future. Parents, especially mothers, often define their lives in terms of their children.
There is no inherent reason why these concerns should drive voters to the Republicans, but they have. The Democrats need to understand why this is the case, and respond to it.
There is a little-known movement sweeping across the United States. The movement is "natalism"....
They are having three, four or more kids. Their personal identity is defined by parenthood. They are more spiritually, emotionally and physically invested in their homes than in any other sphere of life, having concluded that parenthood is the most enriching and elevating thing they can do. Very often they have sacrificed pleasures like sophisticated movies, restaurant dining and foreign travel, let alone competitive careers and disposable income, for the sake of their parental calling....
If you wanted a one-sentence explanation for the explosive growth of far-flung suburbs, it would be that when people get money, one of the first things they do is use it to try to protect their children from bad influences....
You can see surprising political correlations. As Steve Sailer pointed out in The American Conservative, George Bush carried the 19 states with the highest white fertility rates, and 25 of the top 26. John Kerry won the 16 states with the lowest rates.
Most people become more conservative, in a personal sense, when they have children. Risk assumes a different shape. Social change is only attractive if it increases certainty. People who live for the moment find themselves obsessing about the future. Parents, especially mothers, often define their lives in terms of their children.
There is no inherent reason why these concerns should drive voters to the Republicans, but they have. The Democrats need to understand why this is the case, and respond to it.
1 Comments:
By 
Final Historian, at
Tue Dec 07, 12:36:00 PM:
Mothers care about security and stability, and hence vote for the party that they think will be better at securing those two. In the US at the present this means the GOP. In England, before the rise of Blair, women used to support the Conservatives more than men did.
