"Forget 2012: Long-Term Demographic Trends Favorable to Republicans"

[babylonsister]

Holy Shit!!!


Forget 2012: Long-Term Demographic Trends Favorable to Republicans
Nov 28, 2012 4:45 AM EST
Democrats may have won this time, but they shouldn’t celebrate for too long—America is growing older fast, and older folks reliably vote Republican. Michael Medved reports.


Bwawk Bwawk Bwawk, or as Will Pitt coined,

DERP DERP DERP!!

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/28/forget-2012-long-term-demographic-trends-favorable-to-republicans.html



Sorry, but I couldn't bear to post a thing!

[elleng]

1. Right, but who's having babies??? and how many???

[hatrack]

41. Well, the Duggars have certainly been busy, but they're SO not enough . . .

Michael Medved - smoking crack and getting paid to do so since 1983.

[geckosfeet]

2. Hopefully - a bunch of old hippies voting to lower the ages for SSI and medicare!

I am not going there either...

[Jackpine Radical]

21. And legalizing weed.

Funny--I think I've gotten more radical with age.

I'm 68 now & consider Bernie Sanders a little to the right of the middle of the road.

[SheilaT]

39. Same here.

I'm 64 and I likewise get more aggressively liberal/radical as I get older.

As far as I'm concerned, NPR became a tool of the right back in 1992. I recall all too well listening to Cokie Roberts explain early in that year why no Democrat could possibly win the White House that year, least of all Bill Clinton. She, and others at NPR, kept that up until whenever it was on Election Day that it was clear Clinton had won.

There are many other examples, but the idea that the media is left-wing or liberal has been absolutely wrong (with some individual exceptions) for a very long time now.

The NYTimes used to be a liberal newspaper. So was the Washington Post. I think it was the election of Reagan that made them change and move to the right. Truly sad. If we actually had a NYT or a WP the way those two papers were over the Pentagon Papers and Watergate, things would be a lot different.

[coalition_unwilling]

51. NPR lost my financial support and my ears back in 1989-90 with its pro-military

fellatio with regard to Operation Desert Shield\Desert Storm.

Coke-head Roberts is a joke.

I don't think it's any coincidence that the NYTimes and WP are each experiencing severe finanical difficulties. Each was party to the Big Lie(s) that led to Operation Shocking and Awful and neither has had to answer before the bar of history for its perfidy.

[geckosfeet]

40. Agreed. Funny how that happens - the radicalization. Happening with me too.

[coalition_unwilling]

50. Hah! That's good. The real debate in this country should occur between

Obama's proxies and Sanders' proxies, with the Rape-publi-scum relegated to permanent rump status.

Wife laughed when I passed along your comment about Sanders. She's a big Sanders fan, as am I.

[patrice]

3. That's stupid. on edit: That's so stupid, it's hard to know where to begin. nt

[babylonsister]

8. No joke. I'm floored! nt

[patrice]

17. William is correct, "derp" . . .

That's so completely screwed up, there's no place to even begin. At least with folks like Limbaugh, one can get a grip on their hate and take their screwed-upness to task by beginning there.

This is beyond that.

[Still Sensible]

4. It's the Medved Theory!

What a dipshit!

[JaneyVee]

5. LOLZZzzzzzzzzz. Sorry but my generation won't be voting "reliably republican" when we're Seniors.

No No No.

[iemitsu]

54. Besides, people don't get more conservative as they age

unless they faking and were never liberal in the first place.
My parents did not become conservative thinkers or voters as they aged and it hasn't happened to me either (or to my wife).
That "old saying" is not a reference to changing political affiliations, it refers to youthful participation in social behaviors and physical activities that older folk are likely to consider fool-hearty and condemn. The reference is to ideas and behaviors we out-grow. That is why, "we become more conservative as we age" seems verified by what many experience.
I believe that people are more inclined to be consistent, over time, in their thought patterns, and their political, social, and economic attitudes than they are to dramatically change them.
People can change, of course, but since it takes effort to accomplish, few ever do it. Otherwise the changes we observe as we age are probably attributable to wisdom or knowledge gained, over time, through experience.
Fox News and the Republican Party would like us to generalize the notion that we become more conservative with age and follow suit politically, as individuals. I'm sure their hope is, that through constant repetition they can make the idea a self-fulfilling prophesy, that our subscription to that idea will make us become more conservative.
But, people's political attitudes are fundamental aspects of their personalities and, I suspect, are formed pretty early in life.
As a result, those who identify as "conservatives" will not disappear in the future any more than liberal thinkers or those who spend little or no time considering anything political or intellectual.
But whether or not what I say is valid, the demographic trend republicans need to worry about is not the increasing numbers of old people, it is the youth, they don't look like the old people.
Somehow it seems unlikely that we, a generation who has gotten what we wanted, will vote to end or diminish benefits that we earned and that we need so that the rich can live like kings (on the profits of our labor). And since the increasing numbers of ethnic Americans seem disinclined to vote republican, I think we can assume that the future is not bright for the ideas and policies promoted by the Republican Party.
No, republicans, we are not going to become like you as we get older. And worst of all, your conservative children, and their children will have to live in a world where we, and the increasingly brown kids and grand-kids we spawn, are in charge.

[bluestate10]

6. Medved seems to be off.

Many of the newer retirees come from the flower child era, they will tend to be more progressive than people 10-20 years older. Republicans have a big problem as the 70-100 age americans die off, their advantage among old people will vanish. Meanwhile, they will get hammered on the youth end due to more diverse youth and more minority and mixed race youth, all of whom favor democrats.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

16. This old Hippie ain't gonna help em.

His wife ain't gonna help either. Not the wifes kids, not the grandkids, maybe the great grandkids but I wouldn't put money on it. Not the wifes brother or his kids and grandkids, not her 90 yo mother. Not any of our friends.

This is not to say we don't have a few ignorant teabags in the family but they are in Oklahoma, Louisiana and Fresno and I think there is something in the water but they are vastly outnumbered.

[Dawson Leery]

7. The silent generation is dying off. They are much smaller

than either the Boomers(80 million-swing vote generation) or Millenials(80-million progressive vote generation).

[leftlibdem420]

20. my grandparents are reliable silent generation liberals

Harper and Romney are swear words in their house.

[ChoppinBroccoli]

9. And What ELSE Do Older People Tend To Do?

They DIE. Which means they no longer vote Republican. That's why I'd like to thank the Republican Party for alienating such a huge slice of the new, young voters in this country.

[Bigmack]

10. Medved...? I wouldn't piss on him if he was on fire!

Smarmy, condescending, pseudo-rational...

I run out of terms to describe him..

I actually believe he knows better, and just pumps out those lies to stay on the air.

Limbaugh and Hannity are laughable... cruel, damaging, and laughable.

Medved exudes a phony, seemingly educated air that does more damage.

Limbaugh says outrageous things... Medved calmly explains to you stupid peons why up is actually down, and that black is actually white. And his listeners eat it up.

Wait...I came up with another term for Medved.

Goat fellator.

[fearnobush]

11. Well, I do know one thing. My 87 yr old Mother in law voted for Obama.

And she never trusted people of color until she voted for him in 08. She voted for him again because of SSI and Medicare. She, like millions of other seniors who get it, doesn't want to see her grand kids lose out on what she has.

[Warpy]

12. Damn, if there's any point to miss, Medved will miss it

He will also get everything wrong. I can't imagine how much research that man does to be able to get so much so consistently wrong.

[HughBeaumont]

13. He must be high on some dangerous shit if he thinks that.

The racists, taxophobes, Reaganomics lapdogs and people with no bullshit detector whatsoever are dying in droves. The world is moving on. More and more people each day are convinced that 32 years of dereg, laissez-fail, whiskey-throttle speculative bubbles and Wall Street Governance sold them up a river and left them out to dry.

[Enrique]

14. "forget 2012"

if I had written this book, I would want people to forget 2012 as well

[madinmaryland]

15. "Michael Medved reports"

More bullshit from the Reich Wing Echo Chamber.

[calimary]

29. That was the giveaway! michael medved. Okaaaaaaaayyyyy...

That prissy CONservative cluck. That and a dime will get you a few minutes on a parking meter.

[LisaLynne]

22. Wow, she just always looks deranged. nt

[LisaLynne]

24. That was soooo scary.

I would rather believe Son of Diebold did it.

[Ikonoklast]

44. And there is a reason for that. "Crazy Eyes" is not just a baseless perception.

It has been posited and studied that the more white that is visible around the iris of the eye, especially above the iris, the larger the chance that the person exhibiting that physical characteristic will also exhibit psychotic behavior.

[Blue_In_AK]

25. Oh, that's funny.

Do they forget that the new "older folks" are aging hippies, feminists, civil rights activists, etc. etc.?

[mykpart]

38. Exactly!

The children of the 60s are now in their 60s. And we vote Democratic.

[ProSense]

26. Mitt by a landslide!

Please proceed!

[Drunken Irishman]

27. This article assumes people just turn conservative the older they get.

I don't think they do. Those same people who are reliably Republican were younger during the Reagan Revolution and probably overwhelmingly voted Republican in '72, '80, '84 and '88.

The rock solid old Republicans today were Republicans 30 years ago. They didn't just change ideologically.

[LisaLynne]

28. I've gotten more liberal the older I've gotten.

I agree that I don't think it's a given that as you age you get more conservative. I think that happened with a certain generation, but it's not a fundamental truth or anything.

[Art_from_Ark]

43. A lot of people DO tend to get more conservative as they get older

For example, I have been very surprised at the number of former high school classmates I have hooked up with who are supporters of the GOP now but were Democrats when they voted in their first elections.

From my observation, the two most common reasons are 1) they have accumulated a bit of wealth and see the Republicans as the ones who will help them keep it, or 2) they realize they have already lived more than half of their lives and have become religious. As a result, they don't support some progressive causes that they might have supported when they were younger.

Just my dos centavos worth.

[Drunken Irishman]

46. I'm sure some do...

But no, I don't believe it's like you're suggesting. All those Nixon-Reagan-Bush voters had to go somewhere and today, they're the older generation. Reagan won the 18-29 vote by 19 points in 1984. That 29 year old who voted for Reagan in '84 would have been 57 in 2012 - and probably just as conservative, or as Republican, at least, as they were 28 years ago. Reagan won the 30-44 vote 57-42 and those 44 year olds in '84 are now 71 - a group Romney won by twelve (65+).

While I have no doubt some people become more conservative the older they get, voting patterns seem to stay the same as the age shifts. In the 90s-00s.

[Captain Stern]

30. What Mr Medved said makes perfect sense....

....as long as everyone magically turns conservative when they hit their 60th birthday.

I don't really know what to make of this article. Is this a pep-talk for the rubes, or does he honestly thing that all "old people" across all generations think the same? If it's the former, I get it. If it's the latter, his lack of understanding is stunning...yet amusing.

[Fire Walk With Me]

31. Someone watched "Idiocracy" and wrote an article. Nice.

[Kalidurga]

34. Idiocracy...

Scariest documentary I have ever seen.

[Vadem]

32. Come on! Michael Medved!!!!......n/t

[Populist_Prole]

33. At 40 I was a conservative, at 50 I'm a liberal and growing to loathe the GOP more every day

[Spirochete]

35. Just before I die

I want to change my registration to Republican. But that's only because I'd rather see a Republican die than a Democrat...

[TheKentuckian]

49. Truly classic!

[bluedigger]

36. Thanks for the laugh - I needed that!

Medved.

[Warren DeMontague]

37. And... cheesy moustaches! They're TOTALLY COMING BACK INTO STYLE!

THEY ARE!

[marmar]

42. Someone has had a complete break with reality.

nt

[DemocratSinceBirth]

45. The Fastest Growing Groups Are Latinos, African Americans, And Asians

There's no evidence that as they grow older they vote more Republican.

[Motown_Johnny]

47. The older folks that reliably vote Republican are dieing off and the new ones

just lived through the Bush Administration.

To assume that the voting habits of the 65+ crowd to stay the same, even though it will contain different people, is right up there with Rmoney winning in a landslide.

[Ya Basta]

48. Bwhahahaha! "older folks reliably vote Republican." Yeah right.

Even if that were true I think Michael Medved forgot two important demographic facts. MINORITIES! & WOMEN!

Hey Michael Medved. Suck it!

[cthulu2016]

55. 1) they do. 2) women inlcuded.

[clydefrand]

52. That may have been true just a few years ago,

but, I think even a lot of Republicans are getting tired of their congressional senators/representatives
and I don't think that applies to just the younger crowd, but to the seniors as well.
We will know by (probably long before) the 2014 elections. I really feel that a whole lot of republican representative are NOT going to get re-elected. (I just hope this isn't wishful thinking, but look at all the stuff we are hearing about the repubs leaving the god awful Grover N.)
I'm old enough to remember when a lot of republicans actually tried to help their electors. Now, is just me me me me for all of them. Then there are no-brainers (as in 'no brain') such as the old
'Boner....'.

[Progressive dog]

53. Even us white oldsters are gradually smartening up

I am becoming more liberal, not less, as I grow older. Bernie Sanders is my favorite senator.
How does this nut believe that they can continue to push more and more retirees down the income scale, deny them affordable health care, and expect to continue to receive their votes?