Interesting exit polling from 2004.

[wisteria]

I never heard about this number before.

"In 2004, according to exit polls, unmarried women voted for John Kerry by a 62%-37% margin,"


http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/07/21/1212838.aspx

[MonteLukast]

1. What is it exactly...

... that makes women want to go Republican once they get married? :(

[wisteria]

2. I wish I could figure that one out. n/t

[ladym55]

3. They move to the suburbs

And begin hanging out with mommies. Usually the mommies who say the most, know the least. Where I live it's peer pressure. If you want to be "in" with the mommies, you need to say and do certain things.

My children are grown and gone, but I remember the pressure. And I recently had the wife of a young university faculty member come to me all distraught because the mommies had turned on her for being independent, intellectual, and progressive. She wondered what price her children would pay for her independent views.

[MonteLukast]

4. It doesn't exactly make me want to be a mommy myself.

I don't know how much you saw of the two recent threads about childrearing-- "Is it unethical to have many children" and "Why did you choose not to have children", but I talked about this very thing in both of those. Whatever combination of hormones, cultural conditioning, and exhaustion is responsible, I care about my precious brain far too much to risk it like that.

I actually worry for your friend's "comrades" kids. They'll grow up not knowing how to relate to somebody unless they're just like them.

I wish we humans were *not* such social creatures, and we *didn't* have such a need for interdependence. The price we pay to get and maintain those social support systems... :eyes:

[ladym55]

5. My kids turned out fine

and I really didn't hang much with the mommies. I found them too annoying.

I have two very independent progressive kids who both left home at the right time and are doing their own thing.

I am concerned about the cookie cutter pressures of our culture. And I can fully understand why you would think long and hard about having children. I know my daughter also has serious questions about having children herself.

[MonteLukast]

6. I personally think...

... that instead of creating more new kids, people should not only adopt more, but make more senior citizens and other disadvantageds part of their "families". Really, there's so much work to do in our communities, there's hardly room for your own kids at all once you really get into it!

[wisteria]

7. Terrible. Where are the free thinks and those who are strong enough to withstand this kind of BS.

This just irks me.

[MonteLukast]

8. Like I said...

Humans are social creatures. We depend heavily on support systems and relationships for our personal growth and emotional health. Some say, even our physical health. So naturally, we will do anything to get and keep those support systems, even at the cost of our own well-being.

I think women embrace repressive religions because they sincerely want stronger marriages and happier lives, and are willing to overlook the side effects in pursuit of the goal. And with all the reverence our culture places on happiness, no one bothers to ask where this happiness is supposed to come from.

A progressive victory against authoritarians MUST take this basic need into account. We all must dare to say that if you have to pay for happiness or connectedness with your individuality or your mind, that's too stiff a price.

[sandnsea]

9. Less need for government

The husband looks for burglars, not the police, or you have a private security system. The company pays for health insurance. Private schools. You give to the food bank, you don't use it. You don't need much of anything the government offers, so you think there's no reason taxes can't be cut in order to cover the basics. In other words, they *do* vote in their economic best interest. I can't deny that the thing my sister has always needed most was tax cuts.