"The boomers elected Reagan"? Uh, no. [View All]

[Lydia Leftcoast]

A poster on another thread repeated the oft-heard attempt to foment intergenerational hostility that says that the boomers were the ones who elected Reagan. This was my response to that thread, but since the lie is often repeated, I thought it deserves to be an OP.
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By the way, here are the figures from 1980, according to the Wikipedia article, when none of the GenXers were old enough to vote.

Ages 18-21, born between 1959 and 1962--44/43/11 (Carter, Reagan, Anderson)
Ages 22-29, born between 1951 and 1958--43/43/11 (Carter, Reagan, Anderson)
Ages 30-44, born between 1950 and 1936--37/54/7 (Carter, Reagan, Anderson)
Ages 45-59, born between 1935 and 1921--39/55/6 (Carter, Reagan, Anderson)
Age 60 or older, born before 1920-------49/54/4 (Carter, Reagan, Anderson)

Here are the splits Reagan/Mondale in 1984, according to an article in Time from November 19, 1984

Voters under 25, i.e. born after 1959--60/40 in favor of Reagan
Voters 25-34 (i.e. boomers at that time)--56/40 in favor of Reagan
(It doesn't say anything about voters ages 34-65, who would be the oldest boomers and the silent generation)
Voters over 65-- 61/39 in favor of Reagan.

In 1980, 54% of boomers voted for someone other than Reagan. It was the Silent Generation and the seniors who were most enthusiastic about him.

In 1984, thanks to an inept campaign (so inept that I seriously wondered at the time if the Dems were trying to throw the election), Reagan won all age groups, but more younger people and seniors than boomers.
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Remember these figures the next time someone tries to blame the boomers for Reagan.

As one who was already an adult for the election of 1980, I see his popularity among older voters as a backlash against the cultural changes of the 1960s and 1970s. Reagan was a popular TV personality in the 1950s and I think that to many voters, he represented a more socially conservative time.