I recently reviewed Red Families vs. Blue Families. (I didn’t like it much.) The authors’ constant refrain was “The Blue State Script works. Delay marriage and childbearing until the mid-thirties, with the help of unapologetic use of abortion and contraception. The marriages last longer and are more stable. The kids are better off. Be like us. The Blue State Script works.”
It all depends on what you mean by “works.” Here is an article in The Weekly Standard that shows a bit of Trouble in Paradise. It seems that the Parents in one of the tonier, Bluer regions of the Nation’s Capitol, are inflicting themselves on the Non-Parents, or as they prefer to call themselves, “the Child-Free.” Listen to them complain in these blog entries:
“Keep your nasty little snotty kid away from me, PLEASE!!!! Do not let your stickly offspring rush up to me in Whole Foods and grab my $250 Ralph Lauren silk skirt with its grubby crusty hands.”
The Child-Free objected to the suggestion that the DC bus lines should rescind its policy that strollers must be folded while on the bus. This policy of course, means the baby can’t be in the stroller, which means in turn, that parents with small children are less likely to do the Earth-Friendly thing of riding the bus.
“Why do people with children always think they should be catered to? Fold your damn giant stroller.”
Here’s another charmer:
“People should think about how they’re going to get their food once they have a child BEFORE they have a child. Maybe have your neighbor watch your kid for an hour or two. Maybe move closer to the store so you can walk. Maybe don’t have kids.”
So the Child-Free, who are counting on other people’s children to keep the world turning, have zero tolerance for the actual duties of child-rearing, have no respect for the people who undertake these duties, and just generally feel themselves ill-used by having to get their nice clothes mussed.
Without someone having children, the nurses and doctors and accountants will start to die off. Everyone benefits from living in a society that sustains itself, that regenerates itself. But the Child-Free prefer to free ride on the contributions, both fiscal and tangible, of other people’s children. They justify their short-sightedness and self-centeredness by congratulating themselves on their small Carbon Footprint. This is just another way of saying that they hate the human species and what it does to the earth. Their doggies are more important than other people’s children.
My point is not just that it is about time we quit coddling these free riders. My point is that even among the Blue States, the Blue State script isn’t working. These are not impoverished teenage mothers: these are the folks who shop at Whole Foods and wear expensive shirts. These readers of the Washington Post live in districts where 83%-99% of voters went for Obama. These folks are as Blue as they come. The fact is that the Blue State mind deeply resents children and the obligations and constraints they legitimately bring with them.
They only thing for these DC parents to do is to move to Northern Virginia, or heaven forbid, Indiana. And become Republicans.