The left is on the verge of extinction – conservatives continue to have children

In large parts of the Western world, birth rates are at record low levels. However, this does not apply to all groups – while left-liberals are having fewer and fewer children, the decline is not as dramatic among conservatives.

A few days ago, new figures showed that birth rates in the UK have dropped to record low levels. Thus, they join other countries in the same situation, such as the USA, France, and Italy.

Concerns about declining birth rates have long been seen as something only the conservative right has cared about but are now spreading. A group that continues to avoid the subject is the left. For left-liberals, concern about birth rates is a conservative concern. At the same time, it seems that the left itself is heralding a more conservative future.

Often, it is the “climate” that people on the left use to justify their childlessness. However, according to an American study, declining birth rates will have a negligible impact on global temperatures, which left-liberals often claim to be so concerned about, and will come too late to affect climate goals. In the worst case, the net effect will be to slow down progress and put the planet on a dirtier and warmer path.

At the same time, other studies show that the left’s lack of concern about declining birth rates is likely to drive societies in a more conservative direction – from the USA to Europe and beyond, people who identify as conservative are having almost as many children as they did decades ago.

Further to the right with each generation

The decline is overwhelmingly among the left, which in practice pushes each generation’s politics further to the right than it would otherwise have done.

Journalist John Burn-Murdoch at Financial Times summarizes:

The best trick the right ever pulled was convincing the left that talking about families and children is conservative. Instead of worrying about increasing the carbon footprint, perhaps progressives should embrace the opportunity to raise the people who invent the technologies or choose the governments that deliver net-zero emissions.