How mothers and fathers vote…doesn’t it matter?

While analyzing the availability of data on family I happened upon one of the most telling evidences of what is going wrong with our society.

The U.S. Census Bureau, among many other studies and reports, prepares a document that categorizes the citizens in many segments in order to analyze how they voted, for instance during the last presidential election of 2004.

In it the segments used are: Sex, Race and Hispanic Origin, Nativity Status (whether born in the US or naturalized), Age, Marital Status, Educational Attainment, Annual Family Income, Employment Status, Tenure (whether they own or rent the house), Duration of Residence at the place where they vote, Veteran Status and the Region where they come from.

In no place could we found the segment that relates to the most fundamental pillar of our society namely fathers and mothers. Could it really be that no one cares any longer how fathers and mothers vote?

The environment?

A couple of days ago, in a green meeting, surrounded by environmental activists, I started to argue for the 1C1V with the votes exercised by the parents and they all bunched up against me with their... “forget it!!! ... all those SUV driving parents!!!”.

I responded with "there is nothing like getting the mandate to vote someone else's vote, like your children's, to really start thinking responsibly about the future" and somehow the argument seemed to hit home, which of course is not something easy, or sure either, when talking with activists of any sort… like 1C1V´s activists.