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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWow, "If it wasn't for Gen-Z, there would have been a red wave."
Last edited Wed Nov 9, 2022, 01:19 PM - Edit history (1)
The polling shows that OUR generation voted for Democrats more than any other age group. WE are the reason Democracy will stand.
We now have a seat at the table. Time to start listening.
One thing I know already.
If not for voters under 30 ... tonight WOULD have been a Red Wave.
CNN National House Exit Poll
R+ 13 65+
R+ 11 45-64
D +2 30-44
D +28 18-29
#GenZ did their job.
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Elessar Zappa
(16,385 posts)weren’t more strongly Democratic. I figured Dems would win my demographic big time.
LeftInTX
(34,560 posts)I got my son to vote.
My other son votes in presidential elections
My daughter does not vote. She's very strong willed and is in a power struggle with me for everything. Politics turns her off because I'm in it. I used to be a master gardener and she berated me for it. But guess who she is into now? What can I do? She does the opposite of me.
All three work alot of hours.
Fritz67
(369 posts)...and completely relate.
R+ 11 45-64
People my age are stupid too.
AnnaLee
(1,401 posts)I don't know why some older people seem to believe they should try to place a brick wall in front of the younger generation. Look at the Supreme Court they have to live with for years to come and they had little choice in its constitution or ideology. We should always leave things subject to change and growth to satisfy the needs of the future generations. Brick walling needs to become a thing of America's past.
AntivaxHunters
(3,234 posts)We'll be here all damn day.
Sick & tired of people ignoring the plight of young voters. And I'm beyond fed up!
Probatim
(3,290 posts)They're lazy, cell phone buying, avocado toast eating snowflakes.
No other generation has been as lazy and entitled as that group - except for the previous 40 generations, who were the laziest and most entitled to that point.
Anything to create division.
Response to Probatim (Reply #27)
AntivaxHunters This message was self-deleted by its author.
LeftInTX
(34,560 posts)There are numerous reasons. Political parties have limited data on young people. I couldn't call/text them because I knew they were on their parents' plans. (Wrong number) So, I went to their parents' home and asked them to text their kids etc. Of course, their parents are Democrats. If their parents are GOP, I didn't attempt.
honest.abe
(9,238 posts)Also, the polls didnt pick up these young voters who wont answer calls from anyone they dont know.
Genki Hikari
(1,766 posts)Keep telling you that IT DOES NOT MATTER IF POTENTIAL POLLING SUBJECTS DON'T ANSWER A COLD CALL.
Pollsters aren't morons. They now leave voice mails and text messages to contact people for polling, which will get past even the most aggressive screening. They leave information to get back to them.
This is how I was contacted. Once by a reputable pollster--to which I responded, and once by a not-so-reputable one, which I didn't.
I realize that people love to cling to their BS delusions about how they "think" things work, but that doesn't make the BS any less delusional.
TheBlackAdder
(29,981 posts)LeftInTX
(34,560 posts)This was not an "exciting" election. However, it's a great lesson in civic duty.
JUST DO IT!!
tanyev
(49,426 posts)
catrose
(5,371 posts)
Farmer-Rick
(12,726 posts)GOP voters. Didn't they learn anything from the Vietnam war and the draft?
Obviously not. If these GOPers were in control during the Vietnam war, we would still be there. And more of them would be dead. But not Trump cause he's a coward and laughed at those who went to fight and die in war.
Genki Hikari
(1,766 posts)The Vietnam generation weren't the Borg. In fact, most of the young people of the 60s weren't all that liberal. The vast majority of them were either moderate or conservative.
They were the ones who didn't take part in protests. The ones who were students, college and high school, hated how their classes got disrupted by protests. They respected their elders and authority, and found it appalling to treat them like the enemy.
Many of them went straight from high school to jobs, getting married and having families--the average marriage/becoming a parent age was much--MUCH--younger then. They were working and shopping in the stores where we shopped, and providing services we called upon. They did all the "traditional" American things like having cookouts with friends/family, taking part in local sports and going to parades--all the rah rah baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Mom stuff. They bought American--cars and everything else.
They were the clean-cut kids with short hair, button-down shirts and slacks for men (jeans were okay for SOME things, particularly work), while the women wore knee-length dresses and bouffant hair. They didn't listen to rock music, but to "clean cut" pop, country, lounge music, American songbook, and so on.
They were right there in front of you, and you dismissed them as "squares," while not noticing how many of them existed out there. But they were there, anyway, and seething with resentment at how a bunch of loud, and rude long-haired "freaks" were getting all of the attention.
I'm not saying they were right to see the world that way, but I do know that's how they saw it. And I know how there were a hell of a lot more of them than there were the long haired hippies, who simply weren't all that common. If you thought the radicals were more common, it's called confirmation bias--seeing what you wanted to see. But the reality is that the radicals were not all that high of a percentage of the population. It's sort of what radical means--an extreme, not the norm.
Farmer-Rick
(12,726 posts)Was that a large percentage of the people I knew were very liberal and still are. But some became conservative through the years, as they got more comfortable and prosperous.
Yes, there were a lot of squares. We saw them but they hid their antisemitism, racism and misogyny.
What I saw with people who were on the fence, mostly liberal because they hated the war and the draft, but not committed to equality and liberal values. They were the ones who became crazy conservatives, GOP voters.
As they got luckier and richer, they got more conservative. When you're lucky and stumble onto a wealth you never expected, you think this happens to everyone. You start losing your compassion for those less lucky then you. In 2008, they lost a lot of their prosperity. But by then, hate radio had been around for awhile.
When the internet, Fox, Limpballs and hate radio came, they turned those squares and people on the fence. That hate became addictive and freeing. They could express their worse inner hatred and dump it on people different from them. They could blame others for their insecurities and loss of wealth.
I got caught up in that hate radio crap. I watched Fox when it first came out. It was fun to watch and elicited a hatred that pushed away all your worries. It was like I was being hypnotized. But I caught myself. I realized the hate didn't end after the program. It colored my day and my behavior. So, I just stopped listening to it and stopped watching Fox.
I found DU, liberal radio, Richard Wolff and Thom Hartmann. I was able to reevaluate the propaganda fed to me by corporate media everywhere I turned.
The GOPers are still caught up in that hatred and it's consuming their lives. But they can't see it.
What mildly surprises me is that they haven't stopped feeding their hate.
Tommymac
(7,334 posts) 
appalachiablue
(44,104 posts)Yavin4
(37,182 posts)The '60s counter culture's was really a minority among the boomers. Most boomers were moderate to very conservative. They delivered landslide victories for Nixon and later Reagan.
malthaussen
(18,594 posts)It's like they were living in a drug-filled haze and have no clear memory of how things actually were when we were younger.
-- Mal
Elessar Zappa
(16,385 posts)Please.
peppertree
(23,402 posts)"And you (almost) never saw any gays!"
Farmer-Rick
(12,726 posts)And I knew it and loved them.
And through them, I met a lot of other gay people.
It wasn't until I went into the military that I realized others found it offensive. And that attitude struck me as very strange and invasive.
peppertree
(23,402 posts)Which is funny, coming from people who always caterwaul about "gettin' gummint out of my business."
By which they mean, freedom for me - but not for thee.
Sky Jewels
(9,148 posts)I entered high school in the fall of '80 and my classmates were largely preppy Reagan Youth. *gag me with a spoon* A lot of them never let go of their fascist fantasies.
50 Shades Of Blue
(11,445 posts)
FakeNoose
(41,977 posts)Gen-Z's seat at the table was always there for them, but they hadn't been showing much interest for way too long. It's time they finally started waking up. If racism and sexism are ever going to end in this country, the Gen-Z group need to step up. I believe they will do that in the next few years, and we Boomers should be ready to step back. It's the only way.
DonCoquixote
(13,971 posts)er, that si the problem, they won't, though no one would mind them if they did not all of a sudden trurn right wing to feed their wallets..OH GeN X, my generation, you deserve double scorn for allowing the GOP to throw you some kerbals all feel bad ass. Yeah South Park, Yeahpunk rockers turned GOP, I do mean you.
FakeNoose
(41,977 posts)... have shown amazing leadership and political savvy. I'm talking about David Hogg and the other kids. No doubt they were coached into leading an anti-assault rifle crusade, but that's OK.
It's sad that they had to experience the horror of the assault rifle massacre at such a young age. However it made the rest of the nation shut up and take notice, am I right? Those kids seized the opportunity to promote their crusade against assault rifles and it will make a difference as more start listening.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but I believe the Gen-Z-ers are starting to wake up and figure things out on their own. How can that be a bad thing?
Celerity
(54,685 posts)and now, likely 2022.
Far more than previous cohorts at the same age, and we also voted vastly more Blue as well, staggeringly so compared to Boomers and above in those elections.
Yet for years, since I joined the board in summer 2018, we have been consistently attacked by a vocal minority on here.
I am bloody well sick of it.
Elessar Zappa
(16,385 posts)the ageism against Millennials was horrible. It hasn’t gotten better for Gen Z here either.
Celerity
(54,685 posts)but the first year or two, Gen Z was not THAT attacked.
In fact they were used as a cudgel against Millennials by some.
But that has changed the past 2 years, IMHO.
Millennials still get the most shit (especially the first ten years of the cohort, born 1981 to 1990), but Gen Z (some who will be 26 like me in just 7 or so weeks, I missed being Gen Z by around 10 weeks) are now getting dragged as well.
Some of the student loan threads over the past 2 years or so have been so nasty, for instance.
Gen Alpha (born 2013 to 2028 or so) will start to get their turn in the barrel in the late 2020's.
Elessar Zappa
(16,385 posts)Lazy, entitled, can’t do anything without a cell phone, etc. It’s all bullshit.
Mariana
(15,629 posts)Because these 10 - 25 year olds haven't "stepped up" to put an end to it, according to a poster in this thread.
GenThePerservering
(3,514 posts)I recall far too well getting shit on by the so-called 'greatest generation' (my old dad said the only thing great about his generation was the amount of trouble they caused with wars and stupid handling of the economy causing a huge depression) and with the same rubbish I hear my contemporaries and GenX calling younger generations. I ask them if they remember hearing the same nonsense when we were kids? Apparently not. Or maybe they weren't listening.
There was a thread on here that made me want to ralf - mooning on about how in THEIR day kids didn't disrupt classrooms, respected elders blah blah. I mostly lurk and don't post much (I've been discouraged on here) but I had to answer that. I'm almost 70 and remember fights in the school hallways, mouthy kids, etc., and I grew up in small towns!
So, I'm sorry for that - not all of us are "OK, Boomer" - a lot are proud and feel great hope for the future because of younger generations. I was not a radical as a kid - just a regular small town kid, but I've always hated prejudice because I don't understand it and this is just more prejudice.
Oh, I use these categories even though they're mostly broad brush thinking - not sure how else to express this.
Celerity
(54,685 posts)And I have seen the main pushback on the youth bash threads come from Boomers and up.
There are VERY few regular posters here in the 18-29yo cohort, just go look at the 'how old are you' DU polls.
Hell, I am not even in the 25yo and under group used on some of them now, lol.
here is one example
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216442990
Mariana
(15,629 posts)Reminds me of the poster a few months ago who was angry at a couple of 21 year old women who were protesting the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, saying they probably didn't vote in 2016 (when they were 15 years old).
FakeNoose
(41,977 posts)Is that correct?
FakeNoose
(41,977 posts)So it's about 14 years since you've joined.
And yet you replied to me that you're "not even 25 years old."
OK I'm supposed to assume you're 24 then?
You joined DU when you were 10, is that correct?
You know what - Don't even bother to reply.
Just put me on full ignore, because that's what I plan to do with you.
Mariana
(15,629 posts)I didn't post that, genius. Neither did anyone else. What the other person posted was: "Hell, I am not even in the 25yo and under group used on some of them now, lol." That means that poster is over 25. Reading is FUNdamental.
If keeping track of who posts what in a thread is so confusing for you, I guess it's not such a surprise that you blame children for problems like racism and sexism in this country.
Sky Jewels
(9,148 posts)My kids are in their early-mid 20s and I absolutely love their friends and your generation as a whole. You’ve been given a raw deal and you’ve shown up politically and then you get scorn heaped on you by Boomers and members of my suckass (in general) age cohort, old Gen Xers. I’m angry on your behalf!
Mariana
(15,629 posts)Gen Z's range in age from 10 to 25. Half of them are literally children. Are you seriously blaming them for not "stepping up" and stopping racism and sexism in this country? Most of them aren't even old enough to vote, so to say "Gen-Z's seat at the table was always there for them" is an absolute lie.
Sky Jewels
(9,148 posts)They saved our asses in 2018, 2020, and last night.
Deep State Witch
(12,739 posts)The 45-64 group, is depressing. We grew up during the Reagan/Bush years, so I'm guessing that a lot of people are longing for the "good old days" of the 1980's. 
maxsolomon
(38,929 posts)It works. It didn't work on this Gen J SWM, but it works.
Genki Hikari
(1,766 posts)We grew up in the 60s and 70s.
We're the ones who get lumped in with the Baby Boomers, even though we have zilch in common with them. I was 7 when Woodstock happened.
Yeah. So much in common with the Boomers.
Deep State Witch
(12,739 posts)I was born in late 1964. I grew up in the late 60's, but don't remember it. My earliest political memory was Watergate.
Sky Jewels
(9,148 posts)I was into The Smiths, The Cure, REM, Talking Heads, Elvis Costello, The English Beat, etc., not the Grateful Dead, Canned Heat, Country Joe & the Fish, et al.
IronLionZion
(51,436 posts)they think the past was better than it actually was
LeftInTX
(34,560 posts)He graduated from high school in 1983.
Celerity
(54,685 posts)is part of the Xennial/Carter Baby micro gen (born 1977 to 1980 or 82)
Generation Jones is the social cohort of the latter half of the Baby boomer generation to the first years of Generation X. The term Generation Jones was first coined by the cultural commentator Jonathan Pontell, who identified the cohort as those born from 1954 to 1965 in the U.S., who were children during Watergate, the oil crisis, and stagflation rather than during the 1950s, but slightly before Gen X.
Unlike "leading-edge boomers", most of Generation Jones did not grow up with World War II veterans as fathers, and for them there was no compulsory military service and no defining political cause, as opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War had been for the older boomers. Therefore their parents' generation was sandwiched between the Greatest Generation and the Baby Boomers.
Also, by 1955, a majority of U.S. households had at least one television set, and so unlike Leading-Edge Boomers born in the 1940s, many members of Generation Jones (trailing-edge boomers) have never lived in a world without television—similar to how many members of Generation Z (1997- 2012) have never lived in a world without personal computers or the internet, or mobile phones. Generation Jones were children during the sexual revolution of the 1960s and '70s and were young adults when HIV became a threat.
momta
(4,197 posts)I was born just after the March on Washington, and just before Kennedy was assassinated.
Beetwasher.
(3,179 posts)n/t
maxsolomon
(38,929 posts)They grow more fearful and conservative as they age.
Don't sprain your arm patting yourself on the back, GenZ.
electric_blue68
(27,013 posts)maxsolomon
(38,929 posts)I'm aware that not all boomers became flaming repuke assholes - I'm 1963 and know plenty of Boomer libs.
As you said, it's a minority, particularly for Caucasoids.
electric_blue68
(27,013 posts)appalachiablue
(44,104 posts)Dutch and Nixon, both from Calif. and 2 term presidents were responsible for major damage to progress and American democracy.
🌎
electric_blue68
(27,013 posts)I marched down in DC for Labor after he broke the Air Controllers Union.
Then at least one or two Marches for Renewal Energies in the '80s as Global Warming was announced.
3 Choice Marches one in the '90s, two in the '00s.
I've traveled to DC 19 times since '76 (I live in NYC not So far when you have decent $$)
Half have been for fun -
I love 🧡 The 🌳National Mall🌳, and visiting The Smithsonian Museums, and others.
But almost the other Half were for demonstrations!
Plus my 🧡 sis 🧡 paid for me to go with her for Both of Obama's Inaugurations 🥰 🥳🥳 Sooo exciting!
Elessar Zappa
(16,385 posts)Millennials for the most part have kept their liberal attitudes well into their 30s. There’s plenty of evidence that the two younger generations will be far more liberal than their predecessors.
maxsolomon
(38,929 posts)It's a generalization, and the data isn't in on Millenials.
Elessar Zappa
(16,385 posts)there was a study posted here that suggested that this generation is more broadly liberal than any age group at any previous time.
maxsolomon
(38,929 posts)I hope it remains true. GQP propaganda is relentless, and they'll never run out of money to pump it into the brains of the poorly educated.
Response to maxsolomon (Reply #17)
Elessar Zappa This message was self-deleted by its author.
Tommymac
(7,334 posts)Personally I am 64, I did get 'slightly' more conservative for a year or so in the early 1990's because I had a very brief political crush on Ross Perot and his 'Great Sucking Sound'.
But I have always voted Democratic except twice when I lived in Colorado in a very small town where the 'Republican' 'mayor' (actually county board member) was a bar stool buddy of mine.
But I have gotten more and more progressive as I have aged. My wife is basically a true socialist, and she has pulled me from the President Bill Clinton Center to the Senator-elect Fetterman Progressive Left.
Just anecdotal, but I have known a lot of people just like me. And some like you speculate about too. Cie la Vie.
maxsolomon
(38,929 posts)My now 86-year-old dad voted for McGovern & Carter. He's voted for Repukes since 1980, including fucking carpetbagger JD Vance.
My generalization wasn't meant to be binary. I said MORE conservative, not ALL conservative.
Jspur
(798 posts)put Barack Obama in the white house. Let's see how consistent your generation is from this point forward. At one point of time the Millennials were super progressive and then eventually split once we hit our 30's. I think a lot of it had to do with no legislation being pushed through to help Millennials. Will your generation be the same way if they don't get the quick results they want or will they be different?
electric_blue68
(27,013 posts)Black people, and a sizable minority of liberal white women did what they've just about have always
done: which issss~........
Voting for Dems. 👍💙
Richard D
(10,018 posts) 
LaMouffette
(2,648 posts)is that it has resulted in increased political engagement in young voters.
Keep it up! We need you badly!
EnergizedLib
(3,086 posts)This 30-44 voter is happy to have been on the winning side, but Gen. Z really cleaned up.
Grins
(9,482 posts)Will the D ‘old guard’ address their needs, or do what they always do? And risk not getting their support next time?
inthewind21
(4,616 posts)Pretty sure Biden has done some great work on that already. Maybe, just maybe they didn't much like the payment they received from the supreme court for "sitting it out".
Mariana
(15,629 posts)You're not seriously blaming them for the current composition of the Supreme Court, are you? Almost all of them were ineligible to vote in 2016.
relayerbob
(7,437 posts)I’ll wait until the demographics of the turnout is published… we lost a lot of races we should have won yesterday
Dark n Stormy Knight
(10,484 posts)we'd have lost an election, it is always true that if not for other groups who also voted for Dems, we would have lost.
In this election, if all the Baby Boomers, for example, who voted Dem had voted R instead, the Rs would have won.
It's great that a high percentage af Gen-Z voted for Dems, but their votes alone would not have been sufficient for a Dem win.
Tommy Carcetti
(44,566 posts)...we'd all have a bowl of granola.
Just A Box Of Rain
(5,104 posts)my 18 year old voted--a straight Democratic ticket--and that he's carrying on a family tradition.
This boomer welcomes and encourages young Democrats. The future belongs to them.
Bernardo de La Paz
(60,320 posts)
NoMoreRepugs
(12,166 posts)good for them and I appreciate it.
iemanja
(57,771 posts)vote R.
Mariana
(15,629 posts)Actually, old Republican voters don't believe their benefits will ever be affected. Past SS benefit cuts only affected younger people who weren't yet receiving payments, and the old Republican voters expect that's how it will be done again. They will applaud while their children and grandchildren's future benefits are done away with.
Mz Pip
(28,491 posts)Still Johnson won. Go figure.
Mariana
(15,629 posts)to overcome the fact that the majority of older people vote Republican.
sdfernando
(6,091 posts)You (Gen-z) do have a seat at the table and this baby-boomer is happy to hand off the mantle....PLEASE SAVE OUR COUNTRY!
BlueCheeseAgain
(1,983 posts)And get more conservative as they get older. In 30 years, Generation ZZZ will be looking at Gen Z and wondering why they're all voting R.
What would be great is if the younger generation would vote more. It's great that the ones who do vote liberal, but there aren't enough of them.
kwolf68
(8,452 posts)Maybe people tended to get more conservative the older they get in the past, but the youth are decidedly PRO choice, PRO gay rights. They are not gonna wake up in 30 years and just start to decide to hate gay people. I think their Liberalism will stick for the most part.
Sure, some may stray to the religious dogma, but those are the youth we probably don't have anyway. Others may be enticed by Libertarian ideology, but not enough.
BlueCheeseAgain
(1,983 posts)... what are big social issues will be different by then. Just like integration and Vietnam aren't issues today. And today's youth will maybe find themselves on the other side of whatever the social issues are by then. Or, more likely, they'll have more money than they do now and be conservative just for that.
I hope you're right, though!
treestar
(82,383 posts)no group should be elevated above another. what a republican like idea.
