Demographic breakdown of poll on divorce reform
Subject: New Sentiment: Make Divorce Tough
From: schafer@netcom.com (Lenny Schafer)
Date: 1995/07/06
Message-Id: <schaferDBB0Mn.MC6@netcom.com>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.free-l
By nearly a 2-1 margin (47 percent to 26 percent), Americans now
say that divorce should be more difficult, rather than easier to obtain,
according to a UPS report in the Sacramento Bee, July 5, commenting on
polling data in the current edition of the American Enterprise. This
represents a substancial hardening of anti-divorce sentiment since 1974,
when
Americans favored tougher divorce by only a narrow 42 percent to 32% margin.
Interestingly, this new wave of anti-divorce sentiment appears to
have swept over all age groups. Among young adults, who are the first
generation raised in the no-fault divorce era, the sea change in opinion
is particularly striking. In 1974, by a margin of 48% to 33%, young
Americans (age 18 to 29) urged easier divorce.
By 1994, opinions of these children of divorce had undergone a
180-degree turn, with 42% of young adults favoring more difficult divorce
and only 31% arguing for easier divorce. Indeed, in a 1995 pool, young
adults-influenced perhaps by their own firsthand experience of the pain
divorce gives children-were also more hostile than any other age group to
divorce as a solution when "marriage is not working out."
When you crunch the numbers, you find that pluralities of
Republicans, Democrats and independents all favor getting tough on
divorce (with the Republicans leaning most strongly in that direction).
Protestants and Catholics also agree, as do both men and women. In fact
contrary to what feminists will tell you, WOMEN ARE EVEN MORE OPPOSED TO
DIVORCE THAN MEN.
Anti-divorce sentiment is also uniformly strong among among
high school graduates and those with some college. Only among college
grads do divorce advocates outnumber anti-divorces -- clear proof that Dan
Quayle's dread cultural elite is alive and well.
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