Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal (2004)

That was actually a very popular movie with silly single women like me here the US of A. I don't think that statement would be jarring to the ears of most of us.

And I DO agree that neither campaign is spending any time on us. Now, I'm voting Kerry, mainly because I believe Bush is an alien from the planet Zolton poised to suck out my soul, but it would be awfully nice to see some politician, somewhere, acknowledge the extremely high cost of living for single people in this country. I'm one of many here in the Bay Area who cannot possibly afford even a Bridget-Jones-sized condo unless I win the lottery. And don't get me started on the child tax credit...

Well, I think we've been called "Sex and the City" voters, as well, although I can't decide which is more trivial & offensive (and I actually enjoyed both fictional narratives).

No, politicians don't pay any attention to singles in general and single women in particular; in some ways it's rather liberating in that I know my interests are such a low political priority that I might as well vote for what I perceive as the greater good & hope that someday I might even benefit personally from good policies, even though no one would ever target me or my peers in creating them.

"The fact that Bridget Jones lives in Greater London, and is not a citizen of the United States but a subject of the Queen of England *might* be a reason that America's political campaigns pay her little attention."

But why oh why does Tony Blair pay Bridget so little attention?

Dear me. Even Helen Fielding (now a resident of L.A.) has moved on from Bridget to another key demographic: single female freelance journalists turned spies.

Oh, and Brad: it's 'citizen of the United Kingdom'; 'subject' went out with the British Nationality Act 1948, for those born in the UK of British parents:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_nationality_law

Maybe neither Bush nor Kerry appear to be appealing directly to "Bridget Jones"-identifying voters (single working women), but it occurs to me that a few issues might be teased out of the world of _Bridget Jones_ - single women who work, who occasionally have sex with a non-husband figure, and who live in larger urban areas (not to say people who fall outside one/more/all of these categories can't be "Bridget Jones" voters, but when I think of that movie, I think of those elements).

I'd guess that the interests of these voters include (among others): sex outside of marriage with the ability to avoid consequences like unwanted pregnancy/STDs/marriage, enforcement of sexual harassment laws and other gender/labor equity standards, city government that assures relatively safe spaces for work and play, and a variety of cultural/social activities that would entertain a diverse population.

It's possible to be ignorant of Bush or Kerry's position on some of these things (and I realize that most of those positions are implicit rather than explicitly stated in both campaigns), but the impression I get is that Bush's base is at least indifferent, if not specifically hostile, to most of those values. And I'm surprised that more people - I'm not sure if I can/should single out singletons here - don't realize this.

Of course, the only time BJ 'kinda wanted to vote' in the novel was back in 1997: she 'almost' voted for Tony Blair.

And the term "Queen of England" is even more archaic than the term "Manchester Guardian", which only went out in the 1960s. There hasn't been a Queen of England since Queen Anne signed the Act of Union in 1707.

Another similarity is that Brad DeLong has been told about both points before.

Yeah, yeah, we all know about the Act of Union and the British Nationality Act, but it's still much, much more funny to call Bridget Jones "a subject of the Queen of England" rather than "a citizen of the United Kingdom."

At least to Americans, anyway.

Um, okay. This is kinda dumb. They're clearly talking about 20/30-something single professional women. As opposed to soccer moms or nascar dads, two other over-broad generalizations.

There really isn't anything exclusively British to the character of Bridget Jones.

Hell, I identified with her to some extent, and I'm a 30-something single hetero American guy.

Now, you can criticize the shallowness of the coverage, but the British thing is not really an issue.

Brad,

I think the comments are better than the post, but hell, you did throw up a nice skeet.

Craig

Excellent topic question! Why indeed can't we have the kind of press sorps that digs? I remember Brad's great post about how the press should respond to questions about military service:
http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2004_archives/000714.html

I agree completely, and I'm sure Brad, as intellectually scrupulous, fair and consistent he is, maintains his position to this day. Let the chips fall where they may, the people have a right to know whether their leaders have lied about their military service! Kudos, Brad!