We'll consider a senior 65 and older.
Today's 65 year old voter was born in 1955.
On its face, you'd think this voter would be prime target for the Democrats because they came of age during massive social and cultural upheaval in the United States. By age ten, they had seen Kennedy's assassination, the beginning of Vietnam, the Civil Rights Act, and all that the 1960s had to offer. By 20, they had seen Vietnam devolve into a quagmire, protests, more civil rights and Watergate. By 30, they were right in the heart of the Reagan Era, a complete transformation of government away from the New Deal era that defined a bulk of their childhood.
But something happened around the time these people turned 30 - which is also around the time Americans really start buying into the voting process (take 2016's exit polls, 19% of voters were under 30. 65% of voters were between 30-64 years of age). Talk radio started demonizing the left. Ronald Reagan had started demonizing the left. Liberalism was now a bad word predicated on the idea of handouts, communism, freeloaders and taxes. These boomers also, around this time, likely became very distrustful of the government because of Watergate. Prior to Nixon, there wasn't an idolization of government but certainly there wasn't demonization we've seen since. There was this general principle, an idea, that while the government was flawed, it still generally used its resources to do good. I think Vietnam began to challenge this idea and Watergate all but killed it. Enter Ronald Reagan, who told Americans government was evil. As Reagan put it, "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help."
These people bought it and it carried over into the idea that was pushed by the modern GOP, despite the fact the GOP is just ingrained in using government power - just for different reasons. FDR, Truman, JFK and LBJ wanted to use it to better society - help the underprivileged, the poor and the minorities. The Republicans wanted to use it to help the military and the rich.
Democrats will tax you to death. Republicans won't.
For that 30 year old now entering the political landscape, that was the narrative that introduced them to politics.
At 40, it was right in the heart of the Clinton presidency. Maybe they voted for Clinton. Maybe they liked Clinton. But FOX News was just around the corner, and people like Rush Limbaugh were spreading hate and lies on talk radio at a level unseen in American culture. Oh, and despite how affable and funny and charismatic Clinton was, he kinda seemed untrustworthy. He didn't seem to tell the truth much.
At 50, we had just experienced terrorism, another war, and now a decade-ish of FOX News telling us liberals are to blame for everything. This voter probably supported Clinton in 1996, was turned off by the Lewinsky ordeal in 2000, voting for Bush, and likely just cast their support for Bush again a year prior - cementing their overall support for the GOP.
At 60, they probably voted for Romney. Maybe they supported Obama in 2008 on a whim but not in 2012. More FOX News indoctrination. More scare-mongering. More talk about freeloaders and healthcare changes and fear of immigrants. After all, they've been told, for 30 years now, that all this was bad, bad and bad.
In 2016, they voted Trump - and likely will vote Trump again in 2020.
Congratulations to our presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden!
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