The Real Threat to Heterosexual Marriage: The Economy and Straight Men

If one listens to the Christofascists and the professional Christians who have made a cottage industry out of demonizing gays, educated single women, and of course, racial minorities, the number one threat to straight marriages is loving same sex couples getting married in civil ceremonies.   Indeed, same sex marriages according to the Christofascists threaten Western Civilization itself.   Interestingly, the Pew Research Center has released the results of a new study that find that the real threats to marriage are (i) the bad economy - which is a result of the GOP policies the Christofascists support - that prevents young men from finding decent, steady jobs, and (ii) a shortage of non-dead beat young men.  The take away is that if the Christofascists truly support the "sanctity of marriage" - which they don't - they would be supporting jobs programs, infrastructure investment, and economic stimulus programs.  A piece in Salon looks at the Pew findings.  Here are excerpts:

In 2012, a record one-in-five Americans 25 or older had never been married, the Pew Research Center reported today. This wasn't surprising, as matrimony has been on a decline for decades now. However, Pew did offer an extremely elegant, two-part illustration of the role economics have played in that process.

Part I: What are America’s young, unmarried women looking for in a mate? A steady job.

Part II: What do young, unmarried men lack? Steady jobs. For every 100 never married women between the ages of 25 and 34, there are just 91 employed and never-married men the same age. Where once America had a surplus of working single men, now it has a shortage.

A dearth of eligible bachelors isn't the only reason marriage has been on the wane. Young people are getting married later in part because they spend more time in school. Back in the day, couples got hitched, then got settled financially; today, they prefer to get their finances in line first. Oh, and then there's birth control, changing social mores about sex out of marriage, etc.

But economics are an obvious and unavoidable dimension of the issue. That's why it's far-fetched to think we can revive the institution of marriage in a meaningful way without addressing the underlying forces that have left young men in such shabby financial shape.  

 Despite these realities, don't expect the Christofascists to change their politics or cease demonizing gays.  The real threat that gays - and our increasing acceptance in society - is that we make it harder and harder for Christofascists to continue to cling to their myth based religious beliefs.  For those afraid of thinking for themselves, nothing is more terrifying than facing the reality that much - if not most - of the Bible is fiction.   Adam and Eve never existed, so get over it!!

Can the GOP Appeal to Women?

Apparently, far right columnist Jennifer Rubin is trying to get herself exiled from the Republican Party.  How else to explain her spate of columns taking the GOP to task for its embrace of ignorance and bigotry - translation: the Christianist and Tea Party - and it's refusal to accept that the world and nation are changing and that the GOP must change as well.  In her latest column in the Washington Post she looks at the GOP agenda that is increasingly forcing women who haven't had a lobotomy into the arms of the Democrats.   Rubin's position is a far cry from egomaniac Phyllis Schlafly who wants the GOP to focus only on white voters per Right Wing Watch:

Eagle Forum’s Phyllis Schlafly is riled up about comprehensive immigration reform, and she has hardly been hiding the reason why. Last month, Schlafly predicted that comprehensive reform would be “suicide for the Republican Party” because immigrants “come from a country” where they expect “a handout” from the government. 

Then, she claimed that Mitt Romney lost the presidential election not because of eroding support for the GOP among people of color, but because “his drop-off from white voters was tremendous” – which is just blatantly false.

But in an interview this week with conservative radio program Focus Today, Schlafly just came right out and said it. Calling the GOP’s need to reach out to Latinos a “great myth,” Schlafly said that “the people the Republicans should reach out to are the white votes, the white voters who didn’t vote in the last election.”  

Let's be candid.  Schlafly is a racists and she is a long time opponent of fully equality for women (other than herself, of course).  In contrast, here are highlights from Rubin's column:

The Post reports:

In a trend accelerated by the recent recession and an increase in births to single mothers, nearly four in 10 families with children under the age of 18 are now headed by women who are the sole or primary breadwinners for their families, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center.

This has significant implications for all facets of American life, from child-rearing to culture to economics. And it should wake up Republicans to the need to recalibrate their message.

So how badly are Republicans doing with women?  .  .  .  . [Mitt Romney] lost women overall by a 44 to 55 percent margin.

The message that too many women heard from the GOP (and that Democrats exploited) was negative – finger-wagging at contraception and demeaning women in the military (as Rick Santorum did), commenting in outlandish ways about rape and decrying gay marriage. For those women not already in sync with Republicans, it came across as harsh, off-putting and mean spirited. They concluded that the GOP had nothing for them and, if they were single mothers, that Republicans didn’t really approve of them.

The message that focused on entrepreneurs, tax cuts and repealing Obamacare was not that attractive either. Most women don’t own or start businesses.

Put it this way: The image of the fiery, ferocious conservative warrior that the right-wing media applauds is precisely the type that turns off women voters who aren’t already die-hard Republicans.

I suspect that the GOP will ignore Rubin's message and embrace that of Schlafly.  The GOP base is increasingly insular and demands that the GOP focus only on the wishes and wants of the Christofascists - i.e., special rights - and the demented members of the Tea Party who make Neanderthals look like rocket scientists.