ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 12, 1996 TAG: 9601120039
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
AND HERE'S the happy bounding flea -
You cannot tell the he from she.
The sexes look alike, you see;
But she can tell, and so can he.
- Roland Young
There's now a way that even we
Can tell the he flea from the she.
When in the voting booth they be,
The he pulls "R," the she flea "D."
- Us
The traditional gender gap between Democrats and Republicans is widening, pollsters tell us - though, we admit, we have taken poetic license here and cannot say with any certainty that our parasitic insect friends are similarly divided.
Among just us folks, the split has never been more marked.
A Wall Street Journal/NBC News Poll last month brought the differences to the surface like fleas in a cat dip. While American men were evenly divided between Republican Sen. Bob Dole and Democratic President Bill Clinton, women preferred Clinton to Dole 54 percent to 36 percent.
Poll numbers climb and fall with daily news events, of course, but what the survey made clear were the different priorities governing the political leanings of the sexes, priorities that won't be changed by glib soundbites or political gaffes. The soundbites, however, can be tailored to particular voters' priorities.
Men, the poll showed, see the budget deficit and government spending as the country's main issues; women are more worried about social issues like poverty and education.
As the parties have sharpened their philosophical differences, the differences between what men and women need and expect from government also have been clarified. Women, including women who head their households, earn less than men. Women continue to be the primary caretakers of children and elderly parents. Women themselves will live longer than men, and depend longer on Social Security.
Another tradition in politics is that people vote their pocketbooks. That's true of he fleas, and of shes.
LENGTH: Short : 50 linesby CNB