Who Are You Voting For?

Sometime later this week my third post with parents.com about the election will run. My job is to represent the middle way, the moderates, the people who might just vote for a Republican or a Democrat. People like me. And so perhaps it comes as no surprise that I find the arguments espoused by both of my fellow bloggers, Sharon Lerner (the liberal) and Suzanne Venker (the conservative), quite compelling.

First, Sharon posted a well-reported portrait of the impact of Bain Capital on the families of one company in her essay, “The Workers Who Didn’t Matter in Mitt Romney’s World.” She begins:

“Do you have to cheat to be rich?”

The question came from the chocolate-smeared lips of my six-year-old son,Sam, as we licked fudgesicles at the end of another steamy day.

In the simplest sense, the answer is no, of course. But you can forgive a child–or an adult, for that matter– for having such a thought in this particular election cycle.

And she goes on to spell out the details.

Then Suzanne wrote Obama’s Class and Gender Warfare is Destroying the American Family, which begins:

The summer heat is squelching. Here in the Midwest, things are so bad our A/C won’t register below 78. My family hates–really hates–the heat. We’d rather be hiking Mount Tom in Vermont with perfect sixty-eight degree temperatures.

That’s what we were doing earlier this summer, when we took our first long vacation–a two-weeker. It began with a drive to see family in Pittsburgh and ended with a house rental in Vermont. From there it was a visit to see friends in the Boston area and then a quick jaunt (okay, detour) to Niagara Falls before heading home.

It was the quintessential American vacation–family travels cross-country by car while younger child asks “Are we there yet?” a gazillion times–taken by an old-fashioned American family: a mom, a dad, and a couple of kids. We felt like the Griswolds from National Lampoon’s Vacation. I even called my husband Clark.

We don’t talk much about the American family these days; we’re more focused on the economy. But according to a new report from the Social Trends Institute, a non-profit, international research center that studies the effects of emerging social trends on society,  the wealth of nations depends in large part on the health of the family. They’re two sides of the same coin.

Both of these women have made me think more deeply about who I’ll be voting for come November 6th. How about you?