Where I Stand — Columnist Brian Greenspun: Vote like a woman

Friday, Dec. 19, 2003 | 5:29 a.m.

Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.

WEEKEND EDITION Dec. 20 - 21, 2003

HELP ME, I am beginning to think like my wife. Just joking, honey. Sort of.

According to a USA Today story written by Susan Page and published in the Las Vegas Sun this past Thursday, women and men are thinking far more differently about their politics today than they did just a few years ago. And, while this is not a matter of great concern to me because I am on the side of the angels, it does make me question the intelligence and wisdom of many of my male friends.

Let me try to explain. The data is in about the voting habits of Americans, based on gender, on education and on financial status. And the results show that men and women, as they grow older, wiser and wealthier, tend to vote for the same reasons -- differently. Nowhere is this more true than with married couples. And the male of the species hasn't got a clue.

What husband out there, for example, would not believe that his wife voted pretty much the same way he did in the last election? Over 75 percent of married men were certain that their wives voted along their family's party line. When asked the same question, only 50 percent of the women responded the same way.

That means that the husbands are either naive or stupid or that their wives, knowing about and believing in the sanctity of the secret ballot, plain old lied to their ever-lovins for the sake of family peace. However you slice it, the fact is that men vote very differently from women even when they don't think they do. And the voting disparity grows as education and wealth increases.

What causes these differences? The researchers are quick to point out that they don't know for sure other than to suggest that men tend to look at things such as taxes and women take a more global approach to the role of government.

Put another way, the more men are educated and the more money they make, the more they grow concerned about their own financial situations. At the same time, the more women are educated and the wealthier they become, the more they act on their innate concerns about the world generally and the needs of others that are not being met.

A study of the last election, for example, showed that President Bush's "compassionate conservatism" line, which was supposed to play to the highly educated women in the voting public because it made the Republicans sound less harsh toward society's most vulnerable, did not work. Men voted overwhelmingly for George Bush. Women voted overwhelmingly the other way. And there is nothing to suggest in the studies that this phenomenon will change anytime soon.

If anything, the gender gap keeps growing wider, which mirrors the country generally, which is an electorate that is becoming more polarized over non-security type issues. Only as the education level tops out does the size of the gender gap grow smaller and more people, men and women, tend to vote Democratic.

So, what does all that mean? For one thing, whichever party gets more of its base to vote -- in this case not social conservatives or tree-hugging liberals but, rather, educated men and women -- the better its chances for victory.

The more President Bush, for example, promises wealthier and better-educated men the opportunity for tax cuts and more money in their own pockets, the more he will be able to count on their coming out to vote next election. If tax-cut talk gets cut out of the campaign rhetoric, male interest wanes and the chances are better than not that the man of the house stays home.

By the same token, the more the Democratic candidate talks about education, Social Security, problems of the homeless and global warming, the better the odds that the more educated and financially secure women will find their way to the polling place to vote just the opposite of their husbands. But match the president word for word on taxes and the women stay much closer to home.

Since I have been out front on where my vote went last time out, this kind of research has caused me to question. Not my sanity or intelligence, mind you, but my virility. And that, dear friends, can cause me to question my sanity, if you know what I mean.

That's because I really believe, as opposed to all those husbands who believe but are wrong about their wives, that Myra and I vote pretty much the same. That means that like my wife, I am voting on issues such as global warming, energy conservation, peace in our time, helping those in need, protecting our seniors from all forms of predators -- the human kind and the health kind --and above all else, educating the next generation to be smarter and more productive than my own. And that means I am not voting like my golf and gambling buddies who are voting in, let's say, a much more selfish way.

If word of this leaks out, people will start questioning my manhood. How could a self-respecting male member of the human species go against all that is holy -- that tax thing, remember -- and vote the same way his wife does? My friends will laugh at me, they will even point fingers. The secret ballot will mean nothing, ever again. This kind of thing, should it get out, could be really bad for my image.

But I really have no choice in the matter. Myra is one of the smartest, most thoughtful women I know. Sure, she gets emotional, but what's wrong with that? And, sometimes, she even votes based on that emotion. What's wrong with that? But, for as long as I have known her, she has never been stupid or selfish about how she fulfills her citizenship, which includes the way she votes. Would it really be disloyal to my sex if I admitted that I vote the same way?

I have given this matter a great deal of thought. I have considered the extensive research about husbands and wives and their voting habits. You know, about how many of them lie to each other for the sake of family harmony. But I am not one of them.

I am secure in my marriage and secure in my own sense of who I am. That is why I am going to make this admission as a birthday gift to my wife. Myra, I love you and, more than that, I vote like a girl.

There, I have said it. Happy birthday.

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