August 22, 2006 10:22 PM
I told you so!
I've been saying for years that liberals - with their affinity for abortion and lack of interest in procreating - were making themselves extinct. This is from today's Wall Street Journal
The Fertility Gap: Liberal politics will prove fruitless as long as liberals refuse to multiply.by Arthur C. Brooks
(excerpt)
Simply put, liberals have a big baby problem: They're not having enough of them, they haven't for a long time, and their pool of potential new voters is suffering as a result. According to the 2004 General Social Survey, if you picked 100 unrelated politically liberal adults at random, you would find that they had, between them, 147 children. If you picked 100 conservatives, you would find 208 kids. That's a "fertility gap" of 41%. Given that about 80% of people with an identifiable party preference grow up to vote the same way as their parents, this gap translates into lots more little Republicans than little Democrats to vote in future elections.
Full article here.
Posted in Current Affairs | Permalink
Comments
As noted by another reader, there is no question that liberals are more prone to abort "unwanted" innocent humans. But if all other variables are constant, in particular religion, there must be a difference in how liberals practice their religions.
The motivation for procreation is not, as Shakespeare wrote in Sonnet I, merely a matter of replicating oneself, but rather of creating another, separate being in God's image and likeness.
A plausible argument can be made that liberals exploit religion for political purposes, reshaping and revising it to fit those craven designs--cf., Catholic liberals who have traduced the liturgy.
When religion becomes the tool of one's political machinations--which is nothing more than what Constantine believed--then children are a distraction to the dream of heaven on earth.
It's the same scenario in Western Europe where negative birth rates are positively correlated with church attendance.
Philip Mella, Editor
ClearCommentary.com
Posted by: Philip Mella | August 22, 2006 10:34 PM
My first reaction is "shhhhhhh, don't give them any ideas!"
Then I remembered reading an abortion debate forum where most pro-abortion folks refused to believe in any type of "Roe effect". If they won't have babies for the simple reason that children are beautiful gifts from God, they won't do it for political reasons, either. Children simply don't fit into their world view.
Posted by: mopsy | August 23, 2006 10:07 AM
I love it that you shared this article! We just announced the birth of our 7th sweet baby and for years when asked why we were having "another" child...my hubby would jokingly respond with - "We're just trying to win an election in a few years".
I guess he is pretty close to the truth!
Another great reason for believers to have children. :)
Posted by: Beth Lambdin | August 23, 2006 6:31 PM
I blogged about this article too. I especially liked the part where they said that California can be 56% to 44% conservative by 2020. It almost makes me want to move to California just to help tip the scales.
Posted by: Spunky | August 23, 2006 6:45 PM
Actually, I don't want to have a ton of kids because I'd rather focus my resources on the few I have. Better a well-educated, well-loved one or two than a litter.
Posted by: jpe | August 26, 2006 9:15 PM
