"The boomers elected Reagan"? Uh, no.

[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.
---------------

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.
-------------
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.

[fasttense]

1. I never voted for a RepubliCON in my entire life. Some of us Boomers are smarter than the

average bear. I never will vote for a RepubliCON.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. I voted for ONE, Mark Hatfield for Senate in Oregon

He'd be considered a liberal Democrat today, given his enthusiastic support for transit and other environmental issues and his opposition to the interventions in Central America.

I can declare proudly, however, that I never voted for Bob Packwood, even though some of my friends did, given his pro-choice record. (The Dem was pro-choice, too, and better on everything else.)

[Spike89]

31. Hard to equate those Oregon Republicans with today's party

Seriously, I've always been a strong liberal, but the facts are that Hatfield, Packwood, McCall and many other republicans of the 50s, 60s and into the 70s were not crazy and actually were working for the good of the country. You had considerable variance of opinion and ideology within both parties. To be fair, most democratic politicians of that era were fairly moderate to conservative on many issues. Both parties have pulled away from the middle and become more ideologically "pure".

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

17. Same here.

[raccoon]

19. I did. May God/Goddess forgive me. I didn't know what I was doing. nt

[KansDem]

24. I voted for Anderson in 1980--a Republican turned Independent

Does that count?

[hifiguy]

41. Same here

I was disappointed in Carter's presidency, though I had voted for him enthusiastically in '76, despised Reagan and actually agreed with Anderson on many issues and liked him as a candidate. Since I figured Raygun would win anyway, I voted Anderson.

[KansDem]

42. "...disappointed in Carter's presidency"

My feelings exactly. And I dislike Reagan since his days as governor of California (I grew up in the Long Beach/Lakewood area: 1954-79), and attended SDSU (graduated 1975). In fact, there were some students at the time who were ready to graduate prior to 1975 that put it off until Reagan was out of office so his name wouldn't appear on their diplomas!

I have Jerry's signature on mine! :D

[OnionPatch]

47. Neither did I. And I voted in every election.

I'm a boomer and I always knew better than voting for ANY Republican. Never even considered it once.

[Strelnikov_]

63. Virgin here also and plan on staying that way

No intention of getting Republifucked, especially now that they have all jumped on the crazy train.

[Zorra]

78. The thought of voting for a republican has never crossed my mind..

Given a choice between a brain damaged dog and a republican, I'd vote for the dog every time.

[Le Taz Hot]

2. K & R

in the hopes that MAYBE this old canard can finally be put to rest.

[Appenzell Wars]

3. Um you numbers showed boomers voted for Reagan

and Carter in pretty much even numbers in 1980 and voted overwhelming for him in 1984...

not exactly a smoking gun here....

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. Yes, but if you put together the numbers for Carter and Anderson,

more boomers voted AGAINST Reagan than for him.

It was the old folks who went for him overwhelmingly. I know my grandmother came close to voting for him because she had heard that Carter was "pro-abortion."

I explained to her that abortion was legal, and all Carter was saying was that if Medicaid covered other legal medical procedures, it should cover abortion too.

[reggie the dog]

52. what about the boomers born in 45 46 47 48 49 and 50?

my dad and uncles were born in 47 to 50, they are all boomers, you have to count part of the next age group as boomers as well in 1980.

[hlthe2b]

4. Thank you for debunking this... And yes, it is intentionally spread

as a means to foment inter generational hostility. Bookmarked for later reference.

[WinkyDink]

5. The "Reagan Democrats" were, and still are, of my father's WWII generation.

You know: "The Greatest" one.

[raccoon]

21. That's what His Majesty (not) Tom Brokaw called them.

Doesn't make it so...

[patrice]

27. The truth is really so much more complex, as anyone with parents or children knows.

How can you really love anyone if you lie to yourself about who they actually are? You don't, you "love" a cheap plaster saint instead, a saint, in many cases, who sought/seeks to make subsequent generations prove to them that their own sacrifices to ________________ were not in vain. And doing that is the opposite of the freedom that makes any sacrifice worthy.

[patrice]

25. 1+

[xchrom]

6. Recommend - though I believe this should be re-posted now and again. Nt

[Frances]

7. I was born in 1941 and voted for Carter

But the people I knew in my mother's generation voted for Reagan. I even heard someone in that age bracket say, "Now we have a President we can all like." I think they saw Reagan as a vindication of their values.

Of course, I can never forgive Reagan for going to Mississippi and, in effect, aligning himself with the people whose silence enabled the murder of 3 young civil rights workers there. I was living in Alabama at the time and remember how most whites sympathized with the murderers because the civil rights workers "should not have been stirring things up."

I also remember how Reagan argued that government was the problem. He said that corporations would police themselves because it was in their interest to do so. We all know how that worked out. What was good for GE was NOT good for the country.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

10. That part about going to Mississippi was probably the reason

that African-Americans voted overwhelmingly AGAINST Reagan. According to the Time article I quoted, 91% voted for Mondale in 1984.

[rfranklin]

12. I was part of that 91% and I'm not even black!

Just honorary.

[Zorra]

9. Great post, thanks n rec'd

[Chris_Texas]

13. The claim in the other thread was that Gen X elected Reagan

The counter claim was that more boomers (than Gen Xers) voted for Reagan. While many Gen X kids might have LIKED Reagan (the majority of the nation did) it's ludicrous to blame his election on pre-teens and teens.

Interesting information none the less, thank you for posting it.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

15. No, I was saying that he was more popular among the GenX students I taught

than among the Boomer professors I worked with.

[JVS]

30. You were at Yale, no? Maybe that has more to do with your students being a bunch of rich kids...

and not their generation. If you had been teaching at Steel Valley High School, you'd probably have seen a bit more discontent.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

32. No, I was at Oregon State in 1984

Yale was much more polarized politically. People were either old-money conservative or fairly radical.

[Hannah Bell]

55. gen xers voted more conservatively than boomers; they were more likely to vote for reagan than

boomers.

[reggie the dog]

71. i agree, as a gen xer

who was 1 and 5 for these elections i dont think my opinion of reagan at the time counted for much and i dont even know if i had an opinion of him. now the dukes of hazzard and the A team,,, i had opinions about those things, and scooby doo and hulk hogan;)

[teamster633]

14. For those who are too young to remember,

it also deserves mentioning that to a large degree, it was the Ayatollah who elected Reagan. Jimmy Carter would never have lost that election if the hostages were not an issue. Considering that there is every reason to believe that The October Surprise was the result of backroom deals negotiated by Bush the Elder which assured that those hostages would not be released until after the election, many of those votes were not "for Reagan" but, rather, against Carter.

[socialist_n_TN]

16. Yeah thanks for this Lydia........

However, that thread just made me sad. Some people wittingly or unwittingly are repeating the exploiting class talking points to divide "the rest of us" and then seem to HAVE NO IDEA THEY'RE EVEN DOING THE BIDDING OF THE EXPLOITERS.

A small correction; if they're doing it UNWITTINGLY then it makes me sad. If they're doing it WITTINGLY, it makes me angry.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

18. By the way, for those who are too young to remember John Anderson, he

was a Rockefeller Republican who advocated placing a $1/gallon tax on gasoline to encourage conservation and fund alternative energy and mass transit. He also stated in a debate that the vote he regretted most in his life was his vote for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, the one that authorized LBJ to go all out in Vietnam.

Some think that he cost Carter the election, but polls of Anderson supporters revealed that they were just as likely to have Reagan as their second choice as to have Carter as their second choice.

[teamster633]

23. "Too young to remember" or so old I forgot all about him ;-)

[PATRICK]

20. The "new" Conservatism

reeked of the New Nixon. Boomers lived through that crap with more critical eyes than their own oldest and youngest generation. An opportunity to not be fooled twice that liberals especially might have taken advantage of. The young of course, and generally disgruntled eldest of all stripes were more swayed by the media enablement of the new lies and "popular" image. And yes, mediocrity, compromise and miserable incompetency are a common plague of moderate parties before a slick, ruthless opposition.

In reality the "glamor" of evil is pretty pathetic, but it works. Dems(president/Congress?) always seem to have a "burn the base" retrenchment nodding to the worst of the status quo once they win.

Personally, I began to dislike Reagan when he replaced the Old Ranger for the constant reruns of the GE childishly mythological western history show. Down Borateem, up GE.

The GOP always seems to cobble together a base of ignorance, hence the necessary control MSM and schools, fostering of false divisions and hatreds, and economic rivalries among the working class, the diversion of personal morals and mores over the social compact. The Dems lean toward their money corruption to hobble themselves and take incredible pollyanna optimism for granted in the wrong outdated way and at the wrong time. Which are the strangest creatures? Why should anyone in their right mind think any of them(both parties) should be near control of the government and their dough?

[KoKo]

22. K&R.

[KansDem]

26. The boomers elected Reagan just as surely as Reagan won the Cold War!!!

:rofl:

[patrice]

28. 1++++++++++++ for: things just REALLY are not as simple as we are told they are. nt

[hfojvt]

29. As a Gen Xer born in 1962

I reject that "Gen Xers were not old enough to vote in 1980"

An inept campaign in 1984?

As I remember it, Reagan was the heavy favorite. But I did not remember a contentious primary between Mondale and Hart, which probably did not help. Then Mondale tried to throw a "Hail Mary" by picking the first woman on a major ticket. Because Ferraro sorta came out of nowhere, it seemed like a cheap stunt and it back-fired imo. That veep pick contributed as much to the shellacking as anything else in the campaign.

Of course, I did not follow the campaign that closely. I didn't even watch the news, except when I was home during the summer because dad was watching it. During the fall, I was reading the Minneapolis Star-Tribune every day and watched all the debates. Reagan did so badly in one debate that he lost my support, but I still had a visceral dislike of Mondale. He just seemed like a scowling unpleasant person with a grating voice.

[Pithlet]

48. You aren't a gen-xer n/t

[Exilednight]

102. Gen X starts in 1965.

[southernyankeebelle]

33. Am a boomer and I voted for Carter. I was telling my husband this morning the only good thing

Reagan did was put pride back into the military and that was it. He destroyed everything else.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

34. But with his intervention in Grenada and illegal subversion of Nicaragua

and support for right-wing dictators in El Salvador and Guatemala, he relaunched the military on its course of being more an agent of economic imperialism than a defender of freedom. (Officially there were no U.S. combat troops in El Salvador, but I know someone who was one of those "advisers" and actually participated in combat operations--something for which he is painfully remorseful.)

[MrScorpio]

35. I'm a boomer was born in 1961

I voted for Carter. It was my very first vote.

In Detroit that's how my fellow boomers rolled.

[etherealtruth]

64. Born in '62, voted for Carter

Lived (born and raised)in Macomb County .... sadly, you know how my county "rolled"

[Greybnk48]

36. I didn't vote for the SOB. The second time he ran they

called the election before I got a chance to vote after work! I took a nap and got up at 7p.m. to vote and they called it on T.V. for that fucker--liberal media indeed!!

[OwnedByFerrets]

37. Why does it matter? We, as a nation, fucked up. At least it

wasn't stolen like in 2000 and 2004.

[Aerows]

38. I wasn't old enough to vote for him

And I have no doubts that I wouldn't have had I been old enough to do so!

[Bluenorthwest]

39. The Reagan voters were Republicans and 'moderate centrist'

Democrats who crossed over to vote for Dutch. They were called Reagan Democrats at that time, now they are just 'moderates'.

[diane in sf]

40. You are right,I worked for a political market research company at the time analyzing voter attitudes

and it was old people who primarily voted for Reagan for the reasons you state.

[girl gone mad]

43. From your numbers it looks like boomers did vote for Reagan..

pretty overwhelmingly, particularly boomers over 30.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

46. In 1980 the 30-year-olds are lumped in with people born as early

as 1936.

[Exilednight]

104. So what you're saying is that there is no way to figure out if

a majority of boomers voted for Reagan or not from the data that is posted in the OP.

[stevedeshazer]

44. Spot on.

As a 25 year old at the time I voted for Jimmy. All my friends had no interest in Reagan. It was the old fogies.

I agree that it was backlash from the social changes of the previous generation.

Great post, it needed to be said.

[socialist_n_TN]

45. In '80, the boomers split between Reagan and Carter.......

about evenly true, but a good percentage of them also voted for Anderson, who was the middle ground between Carter and Reagan. So in '80 the MAJORITY of boomers did NOT vote for Reagan.

Now in '84, you are correct. The majority of voters voted for Reagan. I however was not one of them.

[tsuki]

49. None of my Boomer friends voted for Reagan. I am an older

boomer.

[Warren DeMontague]

50. Okay, But someone elected him, and it wasn't Gen X.

I get tired of Gen X getting "blamed" for Reagan, which as you note, makes absolutely zero sense. The first Presidential election I could vote in, I voted for Dukakis.

[Hannah Bell]

56. gen xers were more likely to vote reagan than boomers. fact.

in 1984.

[Warren DeMontague]

59. You're talking just about 18-20 year olds, there, you know.

I'd like to see those statistics.

Beyond that, you're still talking about an extremely small slice of the overall electorate, and also an extremely small slice of "Gen X". How did the people born in 1946-1948 vote, I wonder?

It's friggin' idiotic to try to hang ANY of Reagan's Presidency on "Gen X". En Masse, it was OLDER people who voted for him. 18-20 year olds did not put him in the White House.

[Hannah Bell]

60. in 1984 gen x'ers eligible to vote = everyone born 1962-66, i.e. 18-22 years old.

"Voters under 25, i.e. born after 1959--60/40 in favor of Reagan"

1984: Boomers least likely to vote reagan, most likely to vote mondale:

18-24 (1960-1966) 39 mondale, 61 reagan
25-29 (1955-1959) 43 mondale, 57 reagan
30-49 (1935-1954) 42 mondale, 58 reagan
50-64 (1920-1934) 39 mondale, 61 reagan
65+ (pre-1920) 36 mondale, 64 reagan

http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/elections/how_groups_voted/voted_84.html


http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Hannah%20Bell/137

[Warren DeMontague]

65. I guess it depends on when you mark the start of Gen X, then, doesn't it.

The most commonly accepted start date I've seen is 1964 --- by most accounts, Obama is not Gen X. I guess, to you, he is? :shrug:

[Hannah Bell]

67. boomers = 46-61. gen x thus starts in 62.

obama was born in 61.

[reggie the dog]

70. and gen x ends in 1982

so in 1984 the 18 to 22 year old gen Xers could have voted for reagan but the rest of us gen xers fell in the 2 to 17 range. I was 1 and 5 for the elections. How can you claim that gen x supported reagan more than boomers if over 80% of us were too young to vote in 1984???

[Hannah Bell]

72. those that were able to vote voted more conservative. fact.

[reggie the dog]

88. and those able to vote represented less than 20% of gen xers

fact

plus what the hell difference does it make? i am gen x born in 1979 and i dont have a hell of a lot in common with gen X born in 63, boomers born in 45 dont have a lot in common with people born in 61

[Hannah Bell]

94. so why do you continue to make idiotic negative generalizations about 'boomers' then?

[Warren DeMontague]

74. Like I said, there is no universally agreed upon marker. Some start Gen X from as early as '61

Some as late as '65 or even '67.

No matter how you slice it, though, the "Gen X" contingent voting in the 1984 election was an extremely small slice of the electorate, and, again, it's ridiculous to try to hold that small cohort responsible for Reagan's election. By and large, it was people born prior to 1960 who put him in the White House.

I'm sure you're familiar with the concept of 'one person, one vote'. There simply weren't that many Gen X'ers of voting age in 1984.


It's not like theys were running around with a whole bunch of different identities, trying to be a whole bunch of different people. Ya Know? :think:

[Hannah Bell]

76. there is a general agreement that the baby boom started in 1946

and ends at the end of the 50s.

that means there is a general acceptance that gen x begins in the early 60s.

spin as you please; gen x'ers that voted in 1984 voted more conservative than boomers. the boomers voted *least* conservatively of all age groups in the reagan elections.

i noticed the tendency at the time. it was the disco/greed is good era, not to mention that each generation to some extent rebels/rejects what went before -- early gen x tended to reject "hippieism" and associated ideas. they tended to buy into the reagan rhetoric.

gen xers, in my experience, tend to have libertarian tendencies. their voting patterns in the bush elections also show them not to be remarkably "left". the boomers aged & aging = increased conservatism, but gen xers voted about like boomers but went more to perot.

the echo boomers that followed them tend to be more left.

at any rate, the idea that the boomers went for reagan is a myth.

[Warren DeMontague]

79. Maybe that was what you perceived. But it wasn't Gen X'ers who were filling the discos.

Wanna know what *I* saw? I saw a generation of boomers- particularly the latter part of the cohort- coming off a hangover from the 70s, cutting their hair, "settling down", and rapidly shifting into a culturally uptight mode as they, themselves, started to have kids.

There was a swing-back, absolutely, but it wasn't on the part of those of us born in the 60s, who spent the 70s as kids, aghast at the ennui, shitty music and fashion choices. The swing-back took place in the heads of the same people who had fancied themselves 'rebels' just a few years earlier.

In the 80s, for those of us who were paying attention, there was a VERY solid anti-Reagan protest movement on college campuses. Do you remember CISPES? The Rainforest Action Network? The Central America and anti-CIA protests that took place on college campuses in the late 80s, of which Amy Carter was a part? I do. How much good protest music came out of the Disco era? Not a whole hell of a lot. Whereas the 80s, when we were all supposed to be "Reagan Youth" eschewing sex for our MBA studies? We had a SHITLOAD of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM6fDpWdkyY

'Course, if you couldn't be bothered to listen to what was, then, called "college radio", you could be forgiven for not knowing about it.

Edit: I would say that Gen X'ers are certainly more socially libertarian, to the chagrin of the boomers who wanted to replace right-wing cultural authoritarianism with a left-wing version, in areas like censorship.

[Hannah Bell]

81. i'm telling you what voting patterns show. there is always activism on college campuses;

both left & right.

sorry, most gen xers weren't in cispes. and boomers created both cispes & ran.

mike roselle b. 1954

randy hayes = boomer:

[Warren DeMontague]

82. How would you know?

Were you in college in the 80s?

You keep making a lot of authoritative-sounding noises. I'd like to see your data. With links.

[Hannah Bell]

86. actually, i was living in seattle's university district in 1980.

i remember that election very well. i lived in a house with two women friends, one was in law school at uw & the other was in grad school. i was on campus quite a bit for various reasons -- i only lived a few blocks away. and i was not that far out of college myself, as i'd interrupted my studies for a couple years, then returned.

i took the day off work when reagan was elected in protest. it was the same year lennon was shot. i left the country a year later.

[Warren DeMontague]

87. And that qualifies you as an expert on the myriad deficiencies of Gen X?

Again, if Gen X invariably votes more conservatively than Boomers, how do you explain 2008?

http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/exit-polls.html

[Hannah Bell]

90. shows exactly what i claimed: despite the aging factor (age brings more conservative voting

patterns, with the boomers well into the most conservative years), there's just a 3-point difference between boomer (47-62) & gen x (27-48) voting patterns.

echo boomers (18-26) are noticeable more "left".

however, i was specifically referring to the bush 1 election in my post.

[Warren DeMontague]

93. Funny, I thought we were talking about Reagan, not Bush I, before.

And you still haven't provided your statistics.

And, you're also attempting to justify what is clearly MORE CONSERVATIVE VOTING by boomers than X'ers in the 2008 election, with 'age brings more conservative voting patterns'-- what kind of an excuse is that? Don't move the goalposts, just admit it: BOOMERS VOTED FOR MCCAIN, GEN X DIDN'T.

Own it.

[Hannah Bell]

95. funny, i talked about bush here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=986729&mesg_id=994851

"their voting patterns in the bush elections also show them not to be remarkably "left"."

gen x, even in their youthful phase, did not lean left. they still don't.

and even pushing 60, the period when *every* generation typically votes majority conservative, boomers didn't "vote for mccain". they split evenly.

whereas gen-xers 30-44 only went for obama by 3 points. so plenty of gen xers voted for mccain, don't kid yourself.

contrast that to the echo boomers, whose voting patterns are more democratic/left-leaning than either boomers or gen-xers at the equivalent age.

but obama has disappointed them; i expect a change in that pattern in the next election.

[Warren DeMontague]

96. Okay.... Demographic Breakdown for 1992 election, here:

http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/elections/how_groups_voted/voted_92.html

18-24 11% of the electorate, born between 1968-1974, undeniably ALL of them "Gen X".

46% Clinton, 33% Bush, 33% Perot.

25-29 10% of the electorate, born between 1967-1963, you claim Gen X Started in 1962, I say 1964, but let's let you have that point and say, this, too, is Gen X.

41% Clinton, 36% Bush, 23% Perot.

30-49 46% of the electorate, born between 1962-1943. The vast majority, then, "Boomers", excluding the ones born 1943,44, and 45.

41% Clinton, 38% Bush, 21% Perot.

So... let's break it down, shall we? Approximately half of the "Gen X" voters (slightly more, but who's counting) who voted in 1992 went 46-Clinton/33-Bush. The OTHER half went 41-Clinton/36 Bush.

So the approximate average voting pattern for Gen X Voters in the 1992 election was 43.5 Clinton/34.5 Bush.

There is no information available to separate out the numbers for the small slice of non-boomer voters included in those demographic statistics, but it's fairly inconceivable, especially given the "boom" factor in the Boomers' numbers, that the voters from '43, '44, and '45 would have made that significant a difference in the overall numbers for 30-49 yr. olds voting in 1992. So for "Boomers", you have 41 Clinton/38 Bush.

Let me repeat that:

1992 election.

Gen X 43.5 Clinton/34.5 Bush
Boomers 41 Clinton/38 Bush


So HOW do you get this cockamamie nonsense about how Gen X "didn't lean left" or has somehow been responsible for Republican presidencies? It's absurd.

If it makes you feel any better, I *like* a lot of Boomers. But I think the cultural trending you're talking about, that you had a problem with in the early 80s, was far more a function of the latter cohort of the Baby Boom than it was "Gen X".

[Hannah Bell]

98. In 1992 the oldest gen xers voted more or less like boomers.

main difference was 2% less for bush; that 2% went to the libertarian perot.

younger gen-xers (about half of gen-xers voting) gave clinton 5% more than boomers or older gen-xers.

30-49 = born 1962-1943 (mostly boomers) went 41% clinton, 38% bush, 21% perot.

25-29 = b. 1963-'67 (gen x): 41% clinton, 36% bush, 23% perot.

18-24 b. '68-'74 (gen x): 46% clinton, 33% bush, 21% perot.

http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/elections/how_groups_voted/voted_92.html


we can contrast this with the 76 (carter) election when the oldest boomers were 30:

22-29 age group (the oldest wave of the boomers) were the strongest carter voters (56%),

the youngest wave (18-21, b. 1955-58) mirrored the voting behavior of the "silent" generation, giving carter only 49% -- a huge difference.

http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/elections/how_groups_voted/voted_76.html

[Warren DeMontague]

99. You can't pick and choose like that. You want to generalize "Gen X", you want to blame all of Gen X

for the voting habits of people 18-21 or 22 in the 1984 election, but you also want to split Gen X in half and pretend it's irrelevant that, overall, Gen X voted in a significantly higher percentage for Clinton than the Baby Boomers.

And, errrr, you don't need to repost the numbers I already posted; I read them already- that's why I posted them.


Discussions about the 1976 election and Carter are wholly irrelevant to discussions about "Gen X". Not only is there NOT some linear progression by which people automatically become more conservative as they get older, but elections don't take place in a vacuum, cultural or otherwise. Let's not be facile and pretend that there weren't some significant cultural and political divisions in 1976, some of which broke pretty clearly on age. The folks who were 22-29 in 1976 were far more likely to have been directly impacted by the war in Vietnam.

Also, like I said, I think the right-wing, Reaganesque cultural trends you're complaining about uphtread
are far more attributable to the 2nd cohort of the baby boom (i.e., your Carter 49%'ers) than they are to Gen X.

:think:

You don't seem to care that Gen X has consistently voted in favor of Democrats in statistically significant numbers in most if not all elections since we became eligible to vote; you "know" what you "know" about Gen X (since you lived near a college in 1980, when the very first members of Gen X were 18, tops) and you know we brought you disco and greed.

So, whatever.

[Hannah Bell]

100. i thought it was obvious. average the two halves & they = 43.5% clinton.

just 2.5% difference from the boomers, i.e. insignificant difference, despite the age gap & the fact that the boomers are now in the years when every age group votes most conservatively.

i don't want to "blame" anything on gen-xers. unlike the folks spreading the meme that boomers were strong reagan supporters.

i simply want to dispute the meme that gen xers are strikingly liberal. they're not. they voted more conservatively than boomers at equivalent ages.

[Warren DeMontague]

105. Again, I think you're moving the goalposts.

So now it's that Gen X voted more liberal than Boomers in pretty much every election, just not more liberal enough?

And like I said, every election is different. There were far different demographic, cultural, and current events issues at play in the Carter-Ford election than in, say, the Reagan-Mondale or Bush-Clinton election.

I think part of the 'problem', if you want to call it that, is that Gen X and the Baby Boom generation tend to have a different definition of what constitutes 'liberal'. I would say that, for all the vaunted tolerance and open-mindedness on the part of the Baby Boom generation, it wasn't until Gen X came to the fore that you really started to see acceptance of, for instance, GLBT rights. Tremendous social progress has been made in that area in recent decades, and I think if you look at the polling, it's Gen X and Millenials who are the ones open to, for instance, gay marriage equality. Boomers tend to have more cultural resistance in that area.

[Hannah Bell]

106. there are no goalposts.

[Warren DeMontague]

107. First, there is a goalpost, then there is no goalpost, then there is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8utgCo86lpo


See? I told you I like boomers.

[reggie the dog]

73. you have stats only for 5 years of gen x

62 to 66, and have nothing for the rest of us, 67 to 82 so you cannot make your assertion. About 80 percent of us gen xers were too young to vote!

[Hannah Bell]

80. my assertion was that gen xers who voted in 84 went for reagan more strongly than boomers.

it's a fact, no matter how hard you try to spin it.

gen xers did not vote especially more liberally than boomers in the bush elections either, despite the "aging out" factor in regard to boomers (age = increased conservative voting).

gen xers tend to lean conservative/libertarian. conservative on economics. liberal on social issues, individualistic. "personal rights" = strong suit.

[Warren DeMontague]

83. If Gen X votes more conservatively than Boomers, how do you explain 2008?

http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/exit-polls.html

[Exilednight]

103. In 1984 the oldest Gen Xer was 19 years old. We're also the smallest of three most

active generations. Every boomer was old enough to vote, while only two years worth of Gen Xers were eligible to vote, and were about as reliable to vote as whale trying to live out of water.

[reggie the dog]

51. in 1980 54% of boomers, people in the 30 to 44 range

voted Reagan, and it was a tie for people born in the 50's at 43% each so your figures indeed show that the boomers supported reagan

[Hannah Bell]

57. bullshit, reggie. the boomer generation = 1946-1961.

The "30-44" group = people born during the 14-year period 1936-1950.

71% of those people weren't boomers.

furthermore, gen x was more likely to vote reagan than boomers in 1984.

[reggie the dog]

68. how? gen x was not old enough to vote in 80 or 84!

and the numbers used do not take into account the people who were born in 45 to 49, 5 full years of boomers who were part of the group listed as 30 to 44.

[Hannah Bell]

84. gen xers 18-22 in 1984 went 60% for reagan.

[Warren DeMontague]

85. Someone's got a friggin' axe to grind, that's how.

You damn Reagan Youth! You fucked it all up! :eyes:

[reggie the dog]

89. I like the Reagan Youth, hardcore punk at its best

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiN1QqOMHXE&feature=fvwrel



or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ_fge0folM&feature=related

;)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

62. In 1980, the 44-year-olds were not boomers

Someone who was 35-44 in 1980 would have been born before or during World War II.

[reggie the dog]

69. people born at the end of 45, 46, 47, 48 and 49 are boomers

and they are not inculded in the stats used to make the generalization that boomers didnt support reagan. you would need stats on these age groups to be sure.

[RebelOne]

92. I was in that age range and definitely did not vote for Reagan.n/t

[reggie the dog]

53. I can tell you why my dad and uncles voted Reagan

Johnson sent them to Vietnam, Nixon brought them home early. That was enough for many working class men to vote Reagan in 1980.

[Hannah Bell]

58. "brought them home early" = lol. what bullshit.

you don't know what you're talking about.

kind of in line with your repeated claims that boomers elected reagan.

[reggie the dog]

75. my father was a marine and he was brought home 3 weeks early

Nixon happend to be president. My 2 uncles also were brought home several weeks before their tours were scheduled to be over. My own father and my uncles have told my that they voted republican and liked nixon because johnson sent them to war and nixon brought them home before their tour ended.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

61. Nixon actually brought the troops home LATE

Kissinger was Nixon's rep at the Paris Peace Talks. The conditions he accepted in 1973 were EXACTLY the ones he could have accepted in 1969.

(By the time the North Vietnamese took Saigon in 1975, there were very few Americans left there, so maybe that's what your dad and uncles were thinking, but for the REAL story, see the documentary The Trials of Henry Kissinger--available on Netflix. Essentially, HALF the deaths of American troops in Vietnam took place during the time Kissinger was stalling.)

[reggie the dog]

I am not talking about all the troops

I am talking about men like my father and uncles who were counting down the days until the end of their tour and who got pulled out weeks earlier than they should have as a part of Nixon slowly winding down the war. It was Johnson who built up the troops in Vietnam and Nixon who was president when they were being brought home. The overall schedule may have been slower than announced but who knows if Johnson would have scaled down earlier or later. My father was never really good at school and for him being sent over to vietnam was traumatizing and he was happy as hell to be let out sooner than thought and as Nixon happend to be president he associated coming home early with Nixon, and going to hell (war) with Johnson. he had a shit lottery number, really early date so to get around 2 years active tour of duty in the army he joined the marines for their 1 year active tour of duty and only got 49 weeks into it before leaving. those 3 weeks were huge for him and i doubt he was the only person in the usa who had that happen, who talked to friends about it and who influenced others to support the republicans.

[reggie the dog]

77. I am not talking about all the troops

I am talking about men like my father and uncles who were counting down the days until the end of their tour and who got pulled out weeks earlier than they should have as a part of Nixon slowly winding down the war. It was Johnson who built up the troops in Vietnam and Nixon who was president when they were being brought home. The overall schedule may have been slower than announced but who knows if Johnson would have scaled down earlier or later. My father was never really good at school and for him being sent over to vietnam was traumatizing and he was happy as hell to be let out sooner than thought and as Nixon happend to be president he associated coming home early with Nixon, and going to hell (war) with Johnson. he had a shit lottery number, really early date so to get around 2 years active tour of duty in the army he joined the marines for their 1 year active tour of duty and only got 49 weeks into it before leaving. those 3 weeks were huge for him and i doubt he was the only person in the usa who had that happen, who talked to friends about it and who influenced others to support the republicans.

[Hannah Bell]

54. there's a certain person that repeats that canard over & over despite multiple corrections.

[bikebloke]

66. I voted for Barry Commoner.

[PufPuf23]

91. I am a 1953 Boomer.

Hated Reagan.

Was a undergrad at Cal (UC Berkeley) when Reagan was governor and brought grief to an esteemed institution.

Graduated with a diploma signed by Jerry Brown.

Aside: Brown is more conservative in his age but would make an excellent POTUS -- IMHO the most competent and ethical pol I have ever had the priviledge to vote into office.

Worked before and after Cal, June 1969 (Youth Opportunity Corp) to January 1986 as a professional in what was then considered a model of a progressive Federal agency. Reagan appointments and policies destroyed morale and process and played lip service to existing laws and implementing regulations. Under Reagan was elected. I set my quit date based upon post-grad education paid for by the Feds where I had signed a service time agreement.

Red Emmerson would have likely been bankrupt in the early 80s if not for Reagan and now Red is a Billionaire and the 2nd largest private owner of land to Ted Turner in the USA. Bet most of DU has no idea who Emmerson is and what is the name of his privately held company.

My Dad was born 1910 and a WWII vet that loved FDR to the degree my name is close and family and inner circle teased me as a child about my future Presidency.

We split politically over Vietnam. I was too young to have deferments but got over 300 in the 1971 lottery and had planned a non-religious CO.

He voted Reagan, Bush I, and Dole before passing away in 1995.

I am still close to many of his older friends but still living and they are GOP and listen to Faux news even though they revered FDR. From my experience one cannot make then see the cognative dissonance. Part of this I attribute to the extreme changes and hardship of the generation but also their fear of education and image of America.

For all the bad times I held to the vision of America but no longer but by circumstance here to be for the duration.

[BlueIris]

97. I resent the Boomers for a lot of things, but Reagan isn't one of them.

Mostly because I've never actually met one who voted for him, and most of them rightfully blame his election for the mess we are in today.

[Exilednight]

101. From the information presented, there is no way to tell if Boomers elected Reagan or not.

Boomers are those born between 1946-1964, according to your same source.


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) <----- falls in between the greatest generation and boomer generation.

[otohara]

108. True I Knew Many Who Saw $$$$

dollar signs and pulled the lever.