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Singles broke decisively for Obama. Though his margins with them were lower than they were in 2008, he still won them handily: Obama was +16 among single men and +36 with single women. But the real news wasn’t how singles broke—it was that their share of the total vote increased by a whopping 6 percentage points

This was a very interesting analysis, and for one thing shows why so many young non-Hispanic whites voted for Obama: they're single, have no families, and see the government as the shaper of their lives and provider of their future.

I think the author's conclusion - that the GOP has to encourage marriage and children, which can be done both by giving these things a positive image and by creating policies favoring marriage and children - is a good one, but the thing that will make it impossible is "gay marriage."

The reason that Obama and the Dems were so desperate to force this upon everyone is that it essentially destroys marriage and the family as cultural institutions and will have a repressive and destructive effect on religious practice that supports marriage and family (don't forget, it is only the church or the religious sphere that stands between the government and the individual and preserves the individual's right to moral autonomy). Thus, it will be impossible to create policies favoring marriage and family that can form the growth-and-future oriented society that they have encouraged throughout history. As the author points out, the concerns of single people (and I would include "married" gay people in this category) then become simply dealing with their immediate problems, getting a government that gives them what they think would be of immediate use to them, and to heck with the future. Sound familiar?

Very, very interesting points.

Single, did not vote for Obama here. It’s about time someone figured out that encouraging marriage - real marriage- is a net gain for the republican party.

Another factor to add is video games and the internet. Today's young men are different than those who proceeded them. They are stuck at the age of 14. They are not as eager to experience real life. In the 70’s and 80’s a young man had to leave the house in order to satisfy his animal spirits. He had to keep himself in decent physical shape for obvious reasons. Those animal spirits could only be satisfied by another person, a real person (the opposite sex for 98% of us). He had to go out and find her, and woo her affections. Today, the young man never leaves his families abode. Plays hours of video games to numb his mind. When the animal spirits arise, the Internet is right at his disposal. He doesn't even have to include a Playboy in a stack of Time, Newsweek, and National Review when dealing with a real life store clerk. Inevitably this leads to a softening of the body, leading to a metamorphosis of young man to slug. In the end, a slug will vote Democrat every time.

The reason that Obama and the Dems were so desperate to force this upon everyone is that it essentially destroys marriage and the family as cultural institutions and will have a repressive and destructive effect on religious practice that supports marriage and family (don't forget, it is only the church or the religious sphere that stands between the government and the individual and preserves the individual's right to moral autonomy).

The institution of marriage was destroyed by "no fault" divorce (mostly initiated by the wife) and family courts that leave husbands and fathers destitute. This happened long before gay marriage came about.

Men have little incentive and enormous risk to get married these days.

I think the author's conclusion - that the GOP has to encourage marriage and children, which can be done both by giving these things a positive image and by creating policies favoring marriage and children.

Eh, hectoring people to get married (even just being effusive in praise for marriage sends the message that there is "Something wrong with you" for the unmarried) and giving even more tax breaks to the married and those with children is going to annoy single/childless people even MORE, and probably just dig a bigger electoral hole for the GOP.

The party just needs a better message for the unmarried and/or childless.

“the GOP has to encourage marriage and children, which can be done both by giving these things a positive image and by creating policies favoring marriage and children”

I thought opposition to abortion and “gay marriage”, coupled with the child tax credit and Bush tax cuts, were doing that.