[Mb-civic] Single and not voting - Ellen Goodman - Boston Globe Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

  Single and not voting

By Ellen Goodman  |  March 3, 2006  |  The Boston Globe

THERE ARE TIMES when political polling reminds me of one of Liz 
Carpenter's favorite stories. Back in the Carter administration when the 
indomitable Texan was working on women's rights, she asked a university 
president how his campus was broken down by sex. ''Well, ma'am," he 
answered thoughtfully, ''liquor is more of a problem."

Over the years, sexual breakdowns became a regular feature in the 
polling firmament. The gender gap was discovered and then elevated to a 
truism, and finally divided into various subsets of the gene pool.

We had long treatises and longer campaigns built around Soccer Moms and 
Security Moms, not to mention NASCAR Dads. And we added something new, 
something borrowed, and something blue to the 2004 analysis: an 
intragender gap called the marriage gap. Married women leaned to the 
right. Single women leaned to the left.

The story of the hour was Sex and the Single Voter, as if unmarried 
women formed a cohort of Manolo Blahnik Wearers for Kerry. In reality 
they were more Payless. But in the end, 62 percent of unmarried women 
voters picked Kerry and 55 percent of married women voters chose Bush.

The good news for the Democrats was and is that unmarried women are the 
most progressive block in the demographic neighborhood. The bad news is 
that they were and are less likely to vote. In 2004, 59 percent of 
unmarried women voted compared with 71 percent of married women.

In the words of Republican pollster and soundbitetress Kellyanne Conway, 
''Women who have what we call the four magic M's -- marriage, munchkins, 
mortgages, and mutual funds -- are much more likely to vote." And vote 
Republican.

Women who are unmarried because of three magic D's -- delay, divorce, 
and death -- are more likely to vote Democratic. But less likely to vote 
at all.

Fast forward now to the onset of the 2006 election cycle. Many believe 
the best place for Democrats to go fishing for new voters is in the pond 
of 20 million single women who either aren't registered or don't vote.

Enter Anna Greenberg, who conducted a survey for Women's Voices, Women's 
Vote to figure out why they aren't trekking to the polling booths.

It turns out that single men who don't vote are mostly young and 
disaffected. Single women are spread out further along the age spectrum, 
clustered lower on the economic scale, and more likely to believe in a 
role for government in their lives.

But here is the nut. ''Unmarried men are cynical about politics and 
policymakers," says Greenberg. ''Unmarried women are insecure about 
politics." They know less, are more likely to admit it, and a good half 
told her that people shouldn't vote unless they are informed.

This isn't just a matter of boys raising their hands in class first. We 
know, alas, that women are less informed about objective facts such as, 
say, how many justices serve on the Supreme Court. In my least-favorite 
footnote to the 2004 campaign, 40 percent of Americans believed 
incorrectly that Saddam Hussein was connected to 9/11. But there was 
another sex breakdown: 29 percent of men and 51 percent of women 
believed it.

The information gap may be because of women's overwhelmingly busier 
lives. Single women especially have less money and more kids than single 
men. But it may also be because of the media gap. In the gendered media 
world, men are the target audience of talk radio where the subject is 
sports and politics and the style is anger. Women are a prime audience 
for ''Oprah" and reality shows where the subject is relationships and 
the style is empathy.

Even Jon Stewart's ''The Daily Show," where young people get their 
''news" hit with a pox on both houses, has barely a woman on staff or 
screen. Meanwhile ''American Idol" draws votes from some 30 million 
viewers but doesn't require them to register for the real election.

This year, I am sure Democrats will look for ways to, um, engage single 
women without ignoring wives. Even if Democrats are the preferred party 
of the unwed, we won't see them promoting an antimarriage platform.

Greenberg insists that saying ''I do" does not mean saying ''I do become 
a Republican." The marriage gap does not come from sleeping with the 
enemy or being drafted by Republican husbands. Divorced women are not 
likely to change politics when they find new partners. Those who marry 
young and stay married may be more conservative to begin with. These are 
somewhat different economic and social groups.

As for the growing cohort of young women who have delayed marriage? 
Greenberg is convinced that they will bring their more progressive views 
with them on the honeymoon.

Well, she ought to know. The 37-year-old pollster is getting married 
Saturday. The groom, she adds quickly, is a Democrat.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/03/03/single_and_not_voting/
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