Data published late last year by the Pew Research Center indicated that the marriage rate amongst U.S. adults stands at an all-time low. “In 1960, 72% of all adults ages 18 and older were married; today just 51% are.” And within the 49% that remain unattached, more than half of the unmarried Americans are women. For every 100 single women, there are 88 bachelors available.
What does this mean beyond a favorable dating pool imbalance for the nation’s single men? Well for the tone tone-deaf Republican party one implication is that when the polls open this November to elect the next President of the United States, there will be an awful lot of single women casting votes. The party continues to cater to its target base of wealthy, older white men at its own peril.
The New York Times highlighted the predicament facing Republican candidates this morning in an article published as part of the paper’s “Campaign 2012” series. Viewing the female vote through the prism of the country’s weak fiscal performance, the piece by writer Shaila Dewan entitled, “Weak Economy Puts Spotlight on Votes of Single Women,” argues “Single women are one of the country’s fastest-growing demographic groups — there are 1.8 million more now than just two years ago. They make up a quarter of the voting-age population nationally, and even more in several swing states, including Nevada.”
The article presents examples of women, small-business owners and urban singles among others, who feel a conflict between government regulation and intrusion but have suffered personally in an anemic job market with soaring health care costs. This brand of savvy singleton is not so quick to swallow the GOP party directive of laying blame for the nation’s troubles at the feet of Obama. Remembering the unpaid for Bush tax cuts, the deregulation of Wall Street and bristling at the very recent assault on women’s reproductive health does not require the lengthy-tenured cognizance of an elephant. As one woman quoted in Dewan’s piece claims, “I am definitely a swing vote…I have no idea.”
It is more than proper, it is fact common sense, to wonder how Republicans view a path to victory that excludes single women, not to mention the Hispanic vote they have also devoted ample time to alienating. For every crazy like Palin or Bachmann who puts a pretty face on outdated feminist doubletalk, there are literally millions of women struggling to keep a roof over their head and food on the table while GOP standard bearers presume to tell them what they might be able to do with their bodies. Meanwhile, as the title of the Times article suggests, they have bigger fish to fry. As one of those single female voters in abundance, I can tell you we are tired of not being taken seriously.
Keep patting us on the head, calling us sluts and shuffling us aside as statistics like this go ignored: “While the jobless rate for married women has stayed relatively low, at 5.6 percent compared with 2.6 percent before the recession, the rate for unmarried women has risen to 11 percent, from a prerecession level of 6 percent.”
There are more single women than single men in the country yet our ability to provide for ourselves is reflected in an unemployment rate that exceeds the national average. Those of us who do have jobs can expect to earn less than our male counterparts while fending off presumptuous debates regarding our reproductive health. It’s enough to drive a madwoman to the attic.
But we’ll have our revenge at the ballot box this Fall. And we’ll enjoy the spectacle of the GOP’s mystified Wednesday morning quarterbacking when it’s all over. It’s sort of like ignoring half the chess pieces on the board then wondering how you found yourself checkmated.
I hope women turn out in droves to crush the GOP! Women need to realize our freedom of choice is being slowly eroded by restrictions put in place by Republicans all over the country. They would love nothing more than to outlaw all abortions. We must vote!
The GOP Party Platform for Women’s Issues: “After yer done making dinner, spread yer legs and get comfortable- we’re putting a baby in ya, whether ya want one or not!”
Amen
I have heard that single women are one of the groups targeted by GOP strategists to keep away from the polls, and I’m not sure how they plan to do it, but don’t rule out agitators priming the manosphere for stochastic violence.
I’ve been volunteering the phone banks for President Obama – in North Carolina, mind you – which I suggest you all do.
Today was confrontational calls. ie: the undecideds from the earlier calls. Let me tell you that the women are not happy with Romney.
Also, please let me tell you that if you get a phone call from a volunteer from a political campaign and you don’t want them to call again answer their questions! Don’t tell them that you are busy, or you’re not sharing your secret vote, or that you’re having dinner! Tell them “I’m voting for XXXX” Within days they’ll never call you again.
Yuck!
Romney is already conspiring with Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli to do just that. He has requested that Cuccinelli investigate 15,000 voters (specifically Black voters, Hispanic voters, and unmarried women) to see if they are eligible to vote.These are people who are already registered, but Romney is looking for irregularities that probably don’t exist.
The standard excuse for looking at Hispanics is that they “might” be aliens, and at blacks is that they “might” be felons – and that is already over the line. What “might” single women be that married ones aren’t?
I’ve been writing for months on Facebook and Twitter that the GOP have pissed off every voting bloc in this country except for two: angry rich old white men and extremely stupid poor and middle-class white folk who the GOP somehow magically (Jedi mind trick? “Those aren’t the tax cuts you’re looking for?!?”) get to vote against their own best interests. They’ve pissed off women with all of their anti-female bills across the country (most notably, the backdoor anti-abortion bills); they’ve angered Hispanic and African-American voters with their solution-looking-for-a-problem, “voter ID” laws (let’s just call them what they really are: voter suppression laws) and they’ve really angered Senior Citizens and People with Disabilities with their proposals to solve the “debt-ceiling” fiasco about a year ago. Can anyone really tell me with a straight face that the GOP AREN’T going to get slaughtered politically on 6 November, 2012 (aka, Election Day)? The GOP’s war on women is especially dumb, as 55% of this country’s voting electorate are WOMEN! There are simply not enough stupid poor and middle-class white voting victims of the Jedi mind trick and rich old angry white men to allow the GOP to keep the US House, let alone take the Senate majority and put Mittens the Liar Rmoney into the White House. If you want an idea of how I think the 2012, 2014 and 2016 elections will go for the GOP, look up the 1932, 1934 and 1936 elections; history will most likely repeat itself eight decades later in each case. It’s obvious that the once-great Republican Party, the party of Abe, Teddy and Ike (the only three GOOD GOP presidents), the party that freed the slaves and got the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments passed into our Constitution, the party that effectively got our Interstate highway system built (Ike), has been infected with a terminal virus of extremism, idiocy and ignorance. Don’t be surprised if the GOP dies on 6 November, 2012 and I have to pay off my bet with my Facebook friends about it, which is to make and post a Youtube video of me playing a Southern minister and officiating the funeral of the GOP…I’ve been practicing my Southern accent … LMAO
I just hope these oppressed – and I use that word sincerely – women show up for both the primaries and the general election. Wherever they are, they need to register and vote en masse.
I couldn’t agree more with your post! It’s almost like the ravings of crazed senile, striking out against anything that seems at odds with their increasingly incoherent grasp of reality. My concern is that more than few people will simply buy the “everything is wrong and getting worse because of Obama” or “everything will get better if you just give us another chance” plea. While the party is tearing itself up, the architects behind curtain are working furiously (with some VERY intelligent and otherwise level-headed operatives) to use their nearly infinite resources – including vote-counting tricks – to ensure that elections go their way.
Andrew, the Repubs are trying to get the people who are still struggling in this economy (which is millions of people) to blame Obama and look elsewhere. Many people have short memories (or are just stupid) and won’t remember how we got into this mess and why the Dems haven’t been able to pull us out as quickly as we would want them to.
I have gotten many comments on my blog lately blaming Obama for various things, and a few people who insist that “Obama started the recession”.
Just plain morons. I’m tired of these idiots.
http://mollysmiddleamerica.blogspot.com/2012/08/obama-caused-recession.html
How are they going to do it? Well, I did hear a local reporter call into “The Power” (XM) last week (I think it was Rev Al’s Show?) and said down in Georgia there was some kind of local election that day…what was going on in a couple of voting places (some stripe mall in Lexington? maybe Lexingtonville??) the local sheriff along with Child Protective Services where there…the police were stopping voters outside asking for ID and then running violation checks on them. If there was an outstanding warrant, they were ARRESTING PEOPLE AND IF THEY HAD CHILDREN WITH THEM IN THE CAR, THEY WERE TURNING THE CHILDREN OVER TO CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES!
That’s how their going to do it; that was a test run…
Now, in all truth, I have not heard this story elsewhere; it didn’t show up in print that day.
That needs to be followed up on, and if true, it needs to get before the national public.
The ACLU should also be called in. If what I suspect is true, even the SPLC would be interested (a focus on minorities and the poor).
That’s bad and scary. It will scare many innocent people off from voting, and strip people with the right to vote of that right.
Well, if you listen to the comments on the streets and in the stores, the Democrats don’t have a chance.
I think that people are being programmed to hate Democrats, and even more so liberals (we’re the source of all evil, second only to atheists and LGBT people – and they’re trying to define all liberals as atheists too). The churches are getting away with it, and I suspect in part because they preach against liberals and try to not mention specific names or parties (although I strongly suspect that there is a lot of hint-hint nudge-nudge going on). “Everyone knows that Democrats are liberals!” (Common knowledge shared on the streets.)
I hope that other areas are better than this one. In yesterday’s paper, there was an article about how the redistricting of Florida has created super-conservative districts, and the one I’m in was mentioned as being especially conservative. (In fact, a friend of mine says that now we Democrats may only win in one district.)
We’d passed amendments to the constitution that were meant to outlaw gerrymandering, but it’s even worse. The Republican – No, Tea Party – legislature and Scott are to blame for that.
I hope that the atmosphere isn’t reflective of most of the population – but the last election was rather suggestive that it is (and when Obama was elected – I was downright scared to drive anywhere because of the violent language I heard).
In fact, I understand a method is being used in Pennsylvania which weeds out women who are, or have been, married far more than those who have always been single, and that is demanding excessive *original* documentation for every name change. This demand has such a foreseeably disparate impact on women that I suspect it can be challenged as intentional.
Women are truely under an attack from the cowards, homophobes,mentally impaired party of codependent weezils. We will all learn in Nov. if women voters are unaware of the misfits advocating for more babies to feed the war machine.
I’m a single, white, female voter.
Do I worry about putting food on the table?
Yes.
Do I worry about paying my mother’s medical bills after her health care provider failed to provide her with adequate medical care and she nearly died because of it?
Yes.
Do I worry about keeping a roof over my mother’s head because, after struggling to pay her medical bills, there may not be enough money left to pay her property taxes?
Yes.
What has the Republican Party done for me? Other than call me a slut for using birth control? Or try to repeal the ban on the health insurance industry denying my mother care because she maxxed out on her benefits? (Two months in the hospital, eight months in a rehab facility re-learning to walk, and home health care because the rehab facility won’t provide rehab because the insurance company won’t pay for it doesn’t come cheap.)
Not a damn thing.
Is there any chance I’ll vote GOP in the coming election?
Maybe. When pigs fly through a snowstorm in hell.
Andrew Rei, we can help you with an authentic Florida nativespeak to deliver a homily on the DEATH of the G.O.P. , especially bad for none. Floriduuhh has inexplicably gone batshite crazy for putting Repubs in elected & appointed positions. Blocking out the plans to effect a fair outcome will require smart independent poll watchers. The tally point in all 67 counties need to be monitered closely. Obama definitely is a smart man. We need to help him provide the rest of his promises being blocked by Repubs. leftover in the U.S. Justice Offices.
Republicans aren’t going to know what hit them. They will only win by suppressing the vote.
Walkaway, fortunately, Obama does not need Florida to win. (Romney needs almost all of the swing states to win.) But Obama is up about 2% on Romney in Florida in some of the latest polls, and that margin appears to be increasing.
Sorry you are in such a conservative district.
I really, really want to believe women will deliver the smack down the GOP deserves. Generally speaking though, I’m worried on several fronts. First, I’m not seeing enough Democrat enthusiasm this time around. Okay, it’s admittedly been a rough term for Obama, so I don’t expect the overwhelming “wave,” but I do expect people to recognise how hard he’s worked – how can people have such short memories and be so gullible?!?! Second, I worry about the voter suppression – the GOP is acutely aware of what they’re doing and it’s intended effects. Third, there is a reason Fixed Noise – sorry, Fox News – is the #1 rated “news” channel. Don’t ask me what that reason is! The problem is that it has the amount of viewers it has in the first place – all kinds of people being fed GOP propoganda and misinformation. They’re anti-Democrat, obviously. Forth, Romney?!?! Even if I thought Obama was the worst president ever – and there are many people who think this – I’d write in someone before I’d ever vote for Romney. Yet many of these same people appear to be “settling” for what they think is the “lesser of two evils.” Fifth, the money curve. Citizens United has done huge damage to our election process this time around. Right now, Romney and his PACs have more money and they’re using it to spread negative lies.
So unfortunately, I’m not convinced this election is in Democrat hands.
How might they try to suppress single women’s votes? My guess would be to question a woman’s legal last name, even if she’s never been married. They’ll come up with some excuse.
Where and when does the violation of civil rights enter the foray? If a person is legally registered and denied their right to vote the ACLU shouldhave reps at polling places where the majority of those voters are. I”m sure they recruit volunteers to act as Challengers,
Don’t forget the House of Representatives is majority Republicans..If they continue their stance and majority, Obama will have his hands tied. The Senate is majority Democrats and we MUST increase the number of Democrats. ,The President needs both Houses to get anything done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am just a firm believer that they are going to rig this election like they did in 2000 and 2004. I feel they didn’t try in 08 because they thought Americans would never elect a black president or a woman for that matter (Hillary). So now that they see all the lies being told are being shot down thanks to social networking and 24 hour news, they are going to go back to the election rigging that they are famous for.
Also, I suspect that a lot of married women will keep their mouths shout how they’re voting, then go and vote for what they know are their own best interests. I know that’s what I learned to do from my own mother. Agree if you need to while the supposed ‘head of the house’ is talking, then when you pull the curtain, you can vote anyway you want to and there’s nothing can be said. A bit of sweet revenge there.
I’m not sure whether to be worried about how much money the GOP/TP/RWNJ’s can raise or not. I mean, in this election cycle, the over-welming theme of EVERYTHING is about MONEY! Who has it and who has not. Given that we KNOW that the RWNJ’s are going to raise more money then the Dems are, could actually BACKFIRE on the GOP/TP/RWNJ’s.
But I digress, I’ve been voting since ’74, and the sheer stupidity, lies, hyprocrisy, coming from the RWNJ’s is the likes of which I have never seen!!
As I’ve posted in other blogs, the GOP/tp/ RWNJ’s hasn’t gone so far to the right as to have gone off the cliff, they have gone OFF THE EDGE OF THE EARTH !!
To be sure, no arrogance should go unpunished as any Mom would tell you, and it need not be Democratic or Republican….humility moves people…not bullying.