THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 27, 1996 TAG: 9610270310
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ELIZABETH SIMPSON
LENGTH: 63 lines
The Angry White Male is passe.
Tree Huggers? Get out.
The Silent Majority, yesterday's news.
The latest demographic term to pop up on the political radar screen is - drum roll, please - Soccer Mom.
Yes, it's true. A platoon of women in minivans and Volvo station wagons is supposed to be a swing vote in the election next month, giving them clout in determining America's future.
Gee, and I thought they were just trying to get to the game on time.
But the political pundits say a wide swath of suburban female voters will be a key in the presidential election, largely because of the gender gap between Bill Clinton and Bob Dole.
Soccer Moms can view this ``voting bloc of the moment'' two different ways: They can be flattered that politicians are finally taking family issues seriously. Or they can be insulted that time-starved mothers are being reduced to one oversimplified, patronizing, pat phrase.
Do candidates assume these mothers will all be swayed by the same agenda, or that they even have time to listen to the rhetoric? I mean, let's get real. What can you pitch to a Soccer Mom that would force her foot off the accelerator pedal for the nanosecond it takes to make the left-turn lane? Socialized maid service? A special lane on highways for mothers who are late picking up their kids from day care/school/soccer practice?
Not even that.
If you don't believe me on this, ask Roz Klein.
``What are they calling us?'' she asked me the other night on the telephone. ``What kind of moms?''
Soccer Moms.
Ahh, yes. Well, she can't deny the title. She is a Norfolk mother who has three soccer players and one husband in her household. She knows the demands of work, family and the soccer schedule like the back or her hand, or rather, like the dashboard of her car.
In a typical week, her 10-year-old daughter, Laura, has gymnastics practice three times and soccer practice twice. Twelve-year-old daughter Shelley and 15-year-old Kathryn have soccer practice twice a week. And Kathryn has basketball practice every weeknight.
Oh yes, and did I mention that Klein works? Yep, as a technology coordinator at Norfolk Collegiate. So by the time she's done working, ferrying around daughters, managing a soccer team, having dinner with her family, doing laundry, getting ready for the next day, she's more inclined to leap for the bed than the position papers of Dole and Clinton.
Maybe she doesn't hang on the latest campaign promises because she's pretty well taken the bull by the horns. She's arranged for a flex-time job that allows her to leave work at the same time her children, who attend the same school, finish their classes. Her kids are too busy in athletics to get into the trouble that politicos say is wrecking the youth of America. And those frantic commutes that would drive most people to the brink of insanity?
She likes them.
``You'd be surprised what you learn from your kids driving them places,'' she said. ``They think you can't drive and listen at the same time.''
Swinging elections? Kids' stuff. Determining the future of America? For lightweights. Bringing Clinton and Dole to their knees? So what.
Finding out your teen-age daughters' innermost thoughts while cruising along at 55 mph?
OK, now we're talking power. by CNB