Do you ever wonder why George W. Bush creamed John Kerry in the votes of married people, married people with children, and religious folks? Some argue that Republicans confuse those folks into voting Republican based on irrelevant moral issues and ignoring the economic issues, on which presumably Democrats are stronger. But here's a real life example of why voters who are religious and raising kids tend to vote Republican.*
The other day I happen to have a conversation with a guy I know. Without going into detail, because I don't want the War College outing him, this fellow is pretty successful in his occupation, mostly because he is super competent and hard working. He owns a small business, is married and has a large family (I don't know the exact number of kids). He is not a political person, just a hard working guy, active in his kids' schools, and trying to provide for his family. I know him well eough to say this is just a plain old decent guy. We happened to get on the subject of child rearing. I was surprised at his passion on the subject, as he is quite a mild mannered fellow. He expressed his frustration over how hard it is to raise kids, given all the bad influences. He wants to have ESPN in his house because he and his son like basketball, but is shocked at how even ESPN is raunchy at times (he blocks many of his cable channels because of the raunch). He tries to raise his kids well, but if their friends and the friends' parents are not as diligent as he is, his kids get exposed to things he'd rather they not be exposed to. It's not enough that he take care of his kids; he needs to have support from the community. Hey, you might even say "it takes a village." He has taken to buying DVDs of old TV series just to have something the family can watch together. In general, the vulgarity of the greater culture is pervasive and he can't keep it away from his kids. I said to him, "Raising kids sounds really difficult." He said, "I used to think raising kids was difficult. Now I think it's impossible."
I don't know how this guy votes, but I bet he votes Republican. Why? He's a business owner, and that might have something to do with it. But I bet it has a lot more to do with the fact that he sees a culture in decay and he feels helpless to stop it from influencing his kids. The Democratic Party is the home of those who are the purveyors of the vulgarity that upsets this guy so much. The Republican Party is the home of those who speak out against it. That's not to say all Democrats are libertines and all Republicans stand for "traditional values" (for lack of a better term), but to the extent those two camps exist, they tend to house in the two parties as I have described.
* This of course is a generalization, and should be taken as such. My point is that cultural libertines tend to be Democrats, not that all Democrats promote raunch culture. Also, those who speak out for public morality tend to be Republican, not that all Republican's speak out for public morality. And I am not claiming the Democratic Party doesn't care about families (I think the opposite is true), but there are those who mock people like this acquaintance of mine as an "extremist" and a "religious nut" or "theocrat." Those people, to the extent they support a party, tend to support the Democrats.
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