The Grand Illusion
Two recent and separate studies reported in 2020 that large families tend to be far more conservative and far more religious than smaller families, as well as less highly educated, and that such conservatism is definitely reflected in their voting behavior.
While these studies don’t surprise me in the slightest, they certainly tie into the current U.S. political scene. They also explain, at least in part, why the United States is likely to remain politically polarized for some time to come, since, by definition, large, conservative, religious, and less highly educated families are having more children, and liberal, more highly educated, and smaller families are having not just fewer children, but considerably fewer children, roughly two or less, and some younger couples in this group are choosing to have no children at all.
Part of the reason why these trends may well continue is the skyrocketing cost of higher education. Parents who think about educating their children may well decide to have fewer children, and children from larger families may find less support for higher education as well as finding it increasingly difficult to afford higher education. Then there’s the fact that rural areas tend to be more conservative, more religious, and also usually have lower costs of living.
At the same time, these statistics reflect groups as a whole, not individual families, since there are certainly highly educated, large, religious and liberally inclined families as well as small highly educated families that are quite conservative.
Hmmm, I haven’t seen the studies, but if the conservative couples are marrying at younger ages than the liberal couples, that could explain a lot.
And “more highly educated couples” could be delaying children until after husband and wife finish grad school.
Here in the UK, the age of (any) first marriage is now into the 30s. Well beyond graduation. I suspect that living together happens well before this.
If the leftists will make themselves extinct in a few generations; that would solve a lot of problems, as long as they don’t take others with them.
I’d also suggest that instead of “educated”, read “indoctrinated”, and it might be more accurate. Classical liberalism, meaning being open to the possibility of new ideas, is fine, but modern leftism is just tyranny lite, and after awhile it stops being lite. Its extinction is much to be desired! Witness the level of “cancel culture” and groupthink the left now demands.
There’s absolutely a place for compassion and inclusion and maybe some other things the left pretends to have a monopoly on, but it is mostly voluntary and the place of individuals or freely cooperating groups, not a farce designed to keep people dependent on government.
I appreciate your ability to expouse upon the evils of liberalism and equate it to tyranny, yet conveniently ignore what the right is currently doing. It has given me a clear example of why one should not allow their engagement in politics to be driven primarily by opinion.
Personally, I believe tyranny to be when the minority controls the majority by manipulating law and facts to support their ends. I wonder which political party does this…
Was Nazi Germany tyranical (prior to WW2)? Yes, clearly so. But the majority of Germans supported Hitler’s actions. A tyranny can be of the majority over a minority. The Chinese government is acting tyrannically against a small part of their population (the Uighers).
Anyone that wants someone else to pay for what they want in either dollars or lost liberty, is on the way to tyranny.
My party is the Just Leave Me Alone party.
Sorry, No.
Your party is the “I Have A Perfect Fantasy That Lets Me Rant And Avoid Hard Work With Others To Solve Difficult Problems” party.