Parent Gap

Vial Capitol Fax, but here’s the Full Progressive Policy Institute Study.

Here’s the blurb about why it matters:

The 2004 election revealed a striking gap in the political leanings of people who are married with children: They favored the Republican, President George W. Bush, over the Democrat, Sen. John Kerry, by nearly 20 percentage points — 59 percent to 40 percent. This married parent gap must now take its place in the popular political lexicon alongside previously established voter gaps such as the gender gap (in which women generally lean Democratic and men lean Republican) and the race gap (in which minorities lean heavily Democratic and whites lean heavily Republican).

It was not always like this. Democrats were successful in competing for married parents in the very recent past. Bill Clinton only narrowly lost them in 1992, and then narrowly won them in 1996. Bush opened up a 15-point married parent gap over Al Gore in the 2000 election (winning the group 56 percent to 41 percent). But Clinton’s success shows that Democrats should be able to compete for married parents again in the future — or even win them.

The Washington Times piece mentions the Governor’s video game initiative to ban sales of violent and sexually graphic video games to underage buyers.

Many people have ridiculed the Governor for this, but above all, one should understand it’s good politics. Parents are concerned about the level of sexuality and violence in a society. More importantly, sex without context is too often portrayed as normal–something few of us want to teach kids. Even if you disagree with abstinence only types of messages as I do, I don’t really want idiots like Britney Spears teaching my kids about relationships. That’s not to say I would ban Britney Spears for sexuality–though I might given the Emporer’s Thrown based on taste.

But more importantly to me personally, is the gratuitous violence in our culture–and violence is harder to control access to because the courts have long held that sexually explicit material is easier to regulate than violently explicit material. The basis is that there is no clear evidence that exposure to violence hurts kids–though I think there is little to suggest that exposure to sexuality is hurts kids irreparably either. The idea that pornography reduces kids inhibitions is about the same as evidence that violence in media does the same. That the two areas are treated differently is the result of a legacy of sex being treated differently in publications than violence with no rational basis.

For adults, it is entirely reasonable to say there shouldn’t be restrictions, but for kids, the idea that graphic depictions of violence should not be regulated while graphic depictions of sex should be boggles the average parent’s mind–and not in the way of being that both should be available to kids.

The courts are relatively clear and G-Rod will probably lose the fight if his bill is passed, but it’s important to note that the bill would only regulate video games that are graphically violent–not just any violent material. Thinking of it this way, it is very similar to bans on sexually explicit material and in the case of the law the Governor has advocated, the restriction is on sales so parents are given control over what their kids see. The restrictions are not a great threat to the First Amendment, and in fact, are less threatening than bans on obscene material given it only affects minors.

The idea that this is a significant restriction on freedom is a bit hard to swallow–given it only affects minors and parents may make the choice to still provide those materials if they deem the minor sufficiently mature. What it does do is allow parents to have another tool to restrict access to materials they find harmful to their children. While a parent might be unwise to do so (which I think is probably true and wouldn’t exercise that veto at an appropriate age), that still seems like a choice a parent should have.

I know the comments will be filled on this one with comments such as “parents should just be responsible,” but that’s the point of many parents–there are so many sources of such images it’s already too hard–this tool just lets them even the balance out.