Single Voters
In their values and their appraisals, single women are on the leading edge of where the country is already headed. Currently, for example, 77% of both married and unmarried women believe that the country is on the wrong track. But single women got there first. In November of 2006, 66% of single women, compared to just 54% of married women, thought that the country was headed in the wrong direction. Single women were on the vanguard in their disapproval of the Iraq War, too.
DePaulo suggests that voters who are single – “people who are divorced and widowed, along with those who have always been single” – are an attractive segment of the population, especially for the Democratic party. It remains to be seen if the Democrats notice us!
To help Democrats, DePaulo even includes a list of suggestions of what Democrats can do to mobilize single voters. Starting with how they talk to us: Rather than the exclusionary language many of the candidates are using, they need to start realizing that “we need to value all of our important relationships, and not just our ties to a spouse or our own children.” Next, they need to get their facts straight: Instead of claiming that families are the bedrocks of community, they need to look at the mounting research that shows that
Singles are more likely than married people to help, encourage, and spend time with their neighbors and friends. They are also the ones who more often visit, support, advise, and contact their siblings and parents.
And this happens despite discriminatory laws and policies that favor married people. DePaulo provides details.
The bottom line, argues DePaulo, is to realize that including single citizens, in language as well as in action, includes all citizens.
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I agree, Angela! It seems to me that it’s time for us to get organized, though I am not sure how. Most singles are not thinking of ourselves as a political force as singles. Being single is so much viewed as a transitional status that singlism remains pervasive and largely unrecognized even by fellow singles. For example, I was rather disappointed about the lack of critical analysis at a recent panel of single women writers at the Commonwealth Club here in SF. Somehow, they seemed to miss how radical it is to choose to be single! I think it’s time for some major consciousness raising!
Yes and thank you very much. It sometimes feels like we singles are the lost segment of our population – and there are so many of us!