Tying the Knot With 'Big Daddy'

Townhall.com ^ | December 7, 2012 | Suzanne Fields

[Kaslin]

My son, age 42, finally got married. His bride, in a shimmering turquoise maternity dress, walked down a red carpet with rose petals scattered by his 8-year-old twin nieces, to join a cantor who sang the Jewish blessings under a chuppah, a canopy held by a man on each corner, in a quasi-traditional wedding ceremony.

The bridegroom broke the traditional glass under his foot, the guests cheered, and a jazz combo struck up syncopated rhythms heralding the happy couple.

If that sounds more quasi- than traditional, the bridegroom gets credit for breaking through a social trend. More than 23 percent of American men between 35 and 44 have never married. (My son just made it, just.) The bride runs against a rising tide of unmarried women, which increased 9 whole percentage points in the years since 1970, from 38 percent to 47 percent. There are 1.8 million more single women now than just two years ago. They make up one of the nation's fastest-growing demographic groups.

The expectant mother also leaves the ranks of women -- one in five -- who forgo having children. As the numbers of single women multiply, families with children are getting smaller. My two daughters, each the mother of two, fit neatly in the latest data on fertility rates; in 2009, the number of children per mother was two, but according to the National Center for Health Statistics, the figure for 2012 was close to 1.9 per mother.

My family statistics are of small consequence but illustrate trends of considerable consequence, both politically and culturally. The marriage gap played a significant part in President Obama's election to a second term. Singles broke decisively for him and for very specific reasons.

"The real news wasn't how the singles (numbers) broke," writes Jonathan Last in The Weekly Standard, it was that their share of the total vote increased by a whopping 6 percentage points." Since nearly three of every four of all single women are white, they look a lot like the Julia, the cartoonish character Mr. Obama appealed to in a campaign commercial, bragging that his policies take care of her from toddler to retirement, and his opponent's prescriptions wouldn't. His "gifts" balloon the deficit, too, but that's beside the demographic point.

Before the welfare reform Republicans pressured Bill Clinton to sign into law in 1996, it was a staple of conservative rhetoric that welfare as it existed had encouraged generations of poor women to depend on the government in a way women once depended on men. The reform turned that around. It's a remarkable irony that Obama and the Democrats are encouraging and fostering dependency for middle-class women. The safety net has become middle-class entitlement.

Conservatives, who were offended by the president's "Life of Julia" commercial because it promoted female dependency, were wrong about its appeal. "Julia" was looked on by millions of single women as worthy of imitation.

Single feminists of earlier times who railed against dependency on "the Man" now hail the government of Big Daddy, though such dependency is ultimately likely to be worse. Unlike the 56 percent of married women who voted for Mitt Romney, they're satisfied with their relationship with a faceless bureaucrat as long as he sends the checks for Head Start, college and health care. They admire Sandra Fluke as campaigner for government-supplied condoms.

President Obama didn't pull Julia out of his imagination as a social model worthy of admiration, as many conservatives said -- he had read the latest statistics on marriage. Nor was it an oversight that Julia had a baby with no husband in sight. Men are abandoning responsibility. Women rely on them less. It is not so much "The End of Men," as Hanna Rosin colorfully puts it in the title of her new book, but the end of men as we have expected them to be. It may also be the "end of women" as we have expected them to act.

My parents would have been shocked at my son's unconventional wedding with a pregnant bride, but the newly wedded couple may stand in transition to more radical customs worldwide. Fewer men and women are marrying at all.

Joel Kotkin, in a widely circulated report titled "The Rise of Post-Familialism: Humanity's Future?" describes the way the family model for most of human history -- defined by parents, children and extended kin -- is undergoing radical change. For now a new model dominated by singletons is concentrated in urban centers of North America, Europe and East Asia. Though reasons are different in different countries, the upending of traditional values among secularist societies is written in a minor key. The question is whether it will become the dominant theme.

"The current weak global economy, now in its fifth year, also threatens to further slow family formation," writes Joel Kotkin. "Child-rearing requires a strong hope that life will be better for the next generation." We can all hope.

[GeronL]

its easy in muzzieland the bride would be 8

[tbpiper]

His bride, in a shimmering turquoise maternity dress..

Parade order: cart then horse.........

[easternsky]

Crap, thought this was going to be a story about,
The Swamp Rat, Big Daddy Don Garlits.

[momtothree]

“parade order: cart then horse”.

I agree. However, at least they got married. I know.. the glass is half full type of philosophy. I actually have heard of one wedding that took place AFTER an abortion. Why? The bride didn’t want to look “all fat and stuff” on HER big day.

[Nowhere Man]

Agreed, but at least they are getting hitched, which given the circumstances, is the right choice.

[OneVike]

As a nation, we have slipped comfortably into our new role as a follower of bad habits and lifestyle.

No longer will we lead the way.

No longer will we free the enslaved.

No longer will we be the example of success.

No longer will we be the big guy on the block everyone can count on to keep them safe and free.

NO, America is not what is was when I was born and raised. So I advise you all to accept our lot in life. Just another society in a long line of once great societies historians will one day write books about.

I advise you all to pay attention closely to world affairs. The next 20 years reveal the last great Nimrod who will lead the world into it's final stage. That is when humanity's apocalyptic final between good and evil will culminate in the Jezreel Valley where Megiddo is located.(below)


Click on either photo to see a larger image

[tumblindice]

Here you go:

[easternsky]

THANKS made my day

[smokingfrog]

Is that a Hemi?

[tumblindice]

Does it have hemispherical combustion chambers? Yes, it does.
I forged them in my backyard using the `lost wax’ process.

[smokingfrog]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgFh4RHgn0A

[utahagen]

Bring back the shotgun wedding! I’m not kidding about this. When having babies out of wedlock was frowned upon, shotgun weddings happened and most of them turned out fine. Better late than never!

[The_Reader_David]

At least she didn’t go for massive virginal-white frills to hide her state.

[Night Hides Not]

At least her dress was more appropriate for the occasion than this:

[Pikachu_Dad]

And take away the sugar for having broken marriages

[Pikachu_Dad]

And take away the sugar for having broken marriages

[EDINVA]

Do you get the feeling Suzanne isn’t thrilled about her children’s life choices?