Ah, Independence Day, 24 hours of fireworks, red tag sales and, oh yeah, democracy.

So what better time than now to discuss the connection between single women and politics?

Apparently, the newest demographic 2008 presidential hopefuls want to snag isn't the soccer mom or the NASCAR dad but the single anxious female, or SAFs.
 
Oh yes, ladies, like a girl with too many date offers for the prom, the candidates are courting us ..... sort of.

At first the term SAF affronted me. Anxious about what, I thought. Do the politicians assume we're only worried about getting married or having children?
Then I looked a little closer.

A May 28 New York Magazine piece about the single anxious female described her as primarily “young” (check one for me!), “white” (um, next), “unanchored” to one place (kinda), annually earn less than $30,000 (no comment), typically lack a college degree (sorry, I like school), and are “thoroughly pissed off about the direction of America,” specifically when it comes to the Iraq war, healthcare and equal pay (YES).

Obviously many of the single ladies out there, including yours truly, are minorities with college educations.

But I'll take whatever attention we can get.  I'd rather be anxious about the state of our world today than worry about my chances to land a husband.
Hillary Clinton is reportedly all over us, and Barack Obama's wife Michelle continues to pop up on the campaign stump.
 
And I can't help but ask why it took so long for the politicos and the electorate in general to get the message that we're out here? Why must the Oval Office be up for grabs before our elected officials start paying attention to our issues?

If they looked back at history, they might see how women have always helped shape the country's path: Women managed to (finally) get to vote for themselves in 1920 after decades of struggle; and they also helped to usher in a brief, albeit dreadful, era of prohibition outlawing alcohol. Talk about power!

Many of these revolutionaries were unmarried gals in an era that looked down on the so-called spinster. But they changed the world.

And more importantly, the concerns of today's single women aren't that different from the wants of the soccer moms who figured so much in the last election.

Every woman could have a partner, child or friend in Iraq. Every woman might want equal access to birth control.
Every woman was once single. I bet many even lived to tell about it.