Diane Lazic

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More than ever, especially with the poor odds of marriage lasting, people are deferring marriage or only committing to remaining single. Since the early 1960s, the unmarried percentile of the adult population has surged to 44%. It seems that religious or gay people are the only ones left wanting a fairytale sashay down the aisle.

Conservatives have been warning that the increase of divorce and sticking to single lifers are a major social problem that will wreak havoc in every sector of American society. This view has support from the US Census Bureau which projects that by 2005, what was known as the Traditional American Nuclear Family, will constitute less than 50% of the American families. Conservative stance on staying single and divorce seem hypocritical since some republicans like Newt Gingrich stroll away from marriages. Newt had been conducting an affair since 1993 with a congressional staffer young enough to be his off spring.

His Wife Marianne couldn't have been completely blindsided by this behavior and her mate’s inability to honor a marriage vow, since she was once the "other woman." In 1981, Gingrich thoughtfully served Jackie, the first wife (and the mother of his two daughters) with divorce papers as she lay in a hospital bed recovering from ovarian cancer. I’m hoping the divorce papers were accompanied by one of hallmark’s most thoughtful, top of the line get well cards. This cleared the way for a 30-year-old Ms. Marianne Ginther to become Mrs. Marianne Gingrich only a few months later. Newt seems like he might have made a better bachelor than committed hubby.

Conservative’s briefs being knotted up might have less altruistic reasons than simply observing a change in electoral trend.

Some factors fueling Republican concerns could possibly be because of the gender gap in voting behavior and that there are key differences between Republican and Democratic voters based on the marriage gap. The divide is deep, and runs between voters along matrimonial lines - married favoring Republicans, unmarried favoring Democrats.

In the early postwar period, a majority of women favored Republican candidates. In recent decades, voting patterns have changed with far more women supporting Democrats and men voting Republican.

Recent elections highlight this shift. The support of women was a big factor in Bill Clinton's victories, and if women's votes alone had been counted in 2000, Al Gore would have won by a landslide. While polls suggest that George W. Bush has at least temporarily closed the gender gap after September 11th, it still exists at the Congressional level.

As we have seen in previous elections, divide persists between married and unmarried voters - and it grew steadily throughout the 1990s. Increasingly, married voters are Republican voters. In 2000, only 44 percent of married voters supported Vice President Al Gore, compared with 57 percent of unmarried voters.

The marriage gap is driven, at least in part, by differences between these voters on a range of issues that are popularly known as "family values," in other words, the concerns centering around "morals" in our families, society, and the political arena. In the 2000 election married people were more likely to cite "values" as a reason they voted for Gov. George Dubya.

Single adults, especially men, just simply do not think about certain issues as much as married people. According to an iVillage.com/Knowledge Networks survey, only 16 percent of single men thought that sex and violence on television were a very serious problem, compared with 47 percent of married men. By comparison, 42 percent of single women and 56 percent of married women thought they were a problem.

Some data also shows that women become more likely to vote Democratic after a divorce and less likely after marriage. The decline in marriage, and its effect on the relative economic fortunes of a majority of women, seems to also push them to the left.

The crucial question for Republican strategists, of course, is how to retain control with the increase of popularity of staying single.

Many state and national actions and programs in the last decade have the reputation of creating more problems and confusion than they have solve (The Bushes administrations brilliant Abstinence program). Some states have recently passed bills amendment that would allow faith-based organizations to compete for government money to administer charitable programs in solving (and hopefully fixing) this messy social problem. These efforts seem delusional and in vain since well educated players on the conservative team can’t stick to the pro family values lifestyle.

Political moves to control and capitalize on such a turbulent social change is what can be so disturbingly tasteless about politics. Less effort on directing personal lives and more tolerance and promotion of functional healthy understanding might be in both parities best interest to get voters.

Regardless, all of this suggests that Republicans may face an uphill battle with female voters unless marriage stages a hardcore comeback real soon.