The Politics of Childfreedom: Do we Have an Ally?

While there is, of course, no single ideology that is aligned with childfreedom generally (I feel both major parties regularly disenfranchise us) I still notice a strong skew to the left among my childfree friends. On the most basic level, I attribute this to the fact that religiosity leads to both conservatism and parenting, the fact that free-thinking that leads one away from traditionally assumed values is necessary to decide not to parent.

But most centrally, the modern right aligns itself with family values in a way that is more antipathetic to childfreedom. While liberals would drain of us of our cash to support the wee ones, it is the right who are saying marriage must be defended as a procreative model It is conservatives that would deny us the very means to avoid having them, such as birth control and sex education.

Breaking it down even further; values are often divided into the economic and the social. Those who are to the left on both are liberal, to the right on both are conservative. Those who believe in liberal social policies and conservative economic policies are generally libertarian. I believe that conservative economic policies favor the childfree, by steering away from child tax credits and other redistributions toward parents. Liberal social policies favor the childfree, by increasing our ability to avoid pregnancy, and by steering from the notion that it is somehow an obligation or duty.

Of all the permutations possible, the harms visiting upon us by conservative social policies have the most direct effect, and strike closer to our interests.

But of course, this is a debatable point, and it is only one aspect of the political breakdown... which is why you get such a range of views in our community. Indeed I would theorize that the childfree have a high rate of independent views - positions that do not correlate well with one standard ideology.