There is a massive infidelity divide between Democrats and Republicans, with the former far more likely to support unfaithfulness in marriage, both in word and deed, than the latter.
A revealing new analysis from the American Enterprise Institute showed that the share of Republicans who say having an extramarital affair is “always wrong” sits around 80 percent as of 2022 — and has for more than two decades.
The share of Democrats agreeing that extramarital affairs is “always wrong” used to sit at just under 80 percent; however, it started taking a dip around 2014 and now sits around 55 percent, as highlighted Wednesday by American Enterprise Institute fellow Brad Wilcox.
Articles like this help explain why support for classic fidelity norm in marriage has tanked among Ds since the “Great Awokening” (@ 2014) https://t.co/K7JpbhCfbE pic.twitter.com/ts0dfiuRKP
— Brad Wilcox (@BradWilcoxIFS) December 25, 2024
The divide is particularly clear when religion is added to the equation. Wilcox noted that the share of secular Democratic women who say extramarital sex is “always wrong” is below 50 percent, while the share of religious Republican women who say the same is above 90 percent.
Especially among more secular Ds pic.twitter.com/GKDQvCSkTW
— Brad Wilcox (@BradWilcoxIFS) December 25, 2024
The data are equally shocking with respect to men.
Are you surprised by the difference between Democrats’ and Republicans’ sexual attitudes?
An opinion piece co-authored by Wilcox, who is also a fellow at the Institute for Family Studies, showed that the share of Republican men who see extramarital sex as “always wrong” is 81 percent, versus 53 percent of Democratic men who agree.
Democratic men are more likely to act on those beliefs: 18 percent of Democratic men who have been married have cheated on their spouses, while 13 percent of Republican men said the same.
“It turns out that Republican husbands, especially religious ones, are less likely to cheat on their wives than Democratic husbands,” Wilcox wrote.
“Republican ever-married men are less likely to report having strayed,” he continued. “Democratic husbands are more likely to indicate they have had extramarital sex than Republican husbands.”
There are a number of implications from this stark divide.
For one, something happened to Democrats around 2014 that completely obliterated many of their professed commitments to marriage and family.
That was around the time in which the “Great Awokening” started in our culture and institutions. The implications of this cultural Marxist insurgence appear to extend far beyond views of relations among different racial groups to impact even relations between wives and husbands.
The transgender phenomenon gained mainstream traction around that time. If even male and female are fluid categories in the minds of many Democrats, then how could their commitment to the marriage covenant, which is built on those realities, remain solid?
For another, the data also dispel the notion that religious conservative men are the villains in our culture.
While there are plenty of Republican men who shamefully cheat on their spouses, the religious ones are far more likely than any other group of men to stay with their wives and build intact families, which are the bedrock of our society.
In other words, the group which is most likely to foster stability in our culture are the ones singled out for condemnation by our elites in the media, the universities, and beyond.
Maybe they should check their facts.
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