Instead of addressing the economic struggles at the root of falling birth rates, Republicans try to pass it off as an entirely cultural issue a product of our degenerate age. Notable Republican pundit Charlie Kirk summarizes the prevailing right-wing position when he blames falling birth rates on career-driven early-30-something women who have been infected with the Jezebel spirit. This hateful rhetoric plays into the broader Republican strategy of garnering male votes by blaming young mens struggles, like unwanted childlessness, on progressive women.
An Opportunity for Progressives
Regardless of what they say, Republicans have access to the same polling as everyone else. They know that 84% of Americans under 30 including progressive women either want kids or already have them. They know that when Pew Research Center pollsters ask people what would encourage them to have children, most answer with progressive social policies like free childcare and paid family leave not the conservative strategies of small tax incentives and one-time cash bonuses. They know that studies from AP-NORC found that two-thirds of Americans are already in favor of both the government providing free or low-cost childcare and requiring employers to offer paid family leave to new parents. They know that if progressives refocus the birthrate conversation from the culture war to concrete policy, Democrats will have the advantage.
However, Democrats cant just respond to Republican cries of civilizational collapse with dry economic policy, nor should they fail to highlight the often sexist aspects of Republican pronatalism by completely withdrawing from the cultural debate. Rather, Democrats must outdo Republicans by not only acknowledging but also addressing the financial hardships that have stolen millions of young Americans hopes of ever raising children. For those young people, a party that doesn't address those hardships isn't worth voting for. Progressives might not care whether or not people have kids, but they must make it clear that they do care whether people have the financial freedom to make that choice for themselves.
Right now, many Republicans are working hard to appeal to young peoples concerns by blaming the rise in childlessness on their regular scapegoats: single women, progressivism, and the Democratic Party. Unless Democrats want to hand a win to Republicans, they must take control of the issue by framing their own policies with equally effective rhetoric. They must speak to childless Americans in the language of birthrates, young families, and stolen futures just as Republicans do. Then Democrats, unlike Republicans, can actually offer real solutions in the form of those progressive social policies that are already overwhelmingly popular.
Democrats have an opportunity to undercut Republicans and get ahead of an increasingly important issue for young voters they shouldn't squander it.
Robert Weiner is the former spokesman in the Clinton & Bush administrations, Chief of Staff of the U.S. House Aging Committee, and senior staff for congressman Charles Rangel, Claude Pepper, John Conyers, Ed Koch, Sen. Ted Kennedy, and 4-Star Gen. Barry McCaffrey. Charles Rutledge is a Policy Analyst at Robert Weiner Associates and the Solutions for Change Foundation, and a current college student at The University of Chicago.
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