Gen X here. I was told I would be a Republican when I got older. I'm still not a Republican and still an atheist in my late 40s... and yet it seems like a lot of Gen Xers, despite living through Reagan, both Bushes and Trump, still vote Republican. I don't get it.
If you look at the poll in that article apparently every generation leans Democrat, so why aren't they winning?
A big factor is that gerrymandering means in a given state a majority of voters will vote Democrat but Republicans will get a majority of seats.
Same with national elections, it's good to remember that Trump didn't win the popular vote when he "won" the first time.
And each state getting two senators regardless of population means that lesser populated states have an outsized influence, and they're usually Republican.
So all that to say, it doesn't mean there's more of "them" than "us."
The U.S. should go to proportional ranked choice voting, which would not only avoid gerrymandering it would allow has to vote for third party candidates without throwing our vote away.
The U.S. should go to proportional ranked choice voting, which would not only avoid gerrymandering it would allow has to vote for third party candidates without throwing our vote away.
We should, but there is a reason the #GOP has started outlawing RCV in states they control.
This right here is the answer to all questions about this.
The republicans have a much smaller base than it seems. In addition to the gerrymandering we also have the fence sitters who let perfect be the enemy of good and either fall for the bullshit from the likes of Trump or they vote for a 3rd party because they don't like either of the main candidates.
I wish we lived in a world where I could carefully examine every candidates views, plans for the future and history and vote regardless of the letter beside their name but we have to vote straight party line because even the worst on the left is better than the best on the right and the left is quick to throw out the trash even before it's actually rotten.
Don't forget we also had Russia and probably China and others manipulating the most gullible on social media and influencing fox and the outlets that make fox look almost progressive. Without that this time around (hopefully) we will probably see Biden get a larger chunk of the vote.
We definitely need to make some changes. Especially in the senator count. It should be based on population and we could still keep a minimum of two per state to simplify the transition. We also need a national grassroots movement to get another party in power starting at the city level and slowly moving up to the state and federal.
To everyone here who doesn't want Biden because of his age and/or he's not progressive enough, etc. If you don't hold your nose and vote blue down the line you could be the reason why Trump gets a second term and the rest of the maggats gain even more control.
We need a popular voting system.
Yes, this nation is progressive on the issues. Because of a system which values cons over progressives we keep having minority rule though.
Same! If anything, I've gotten more liberal as I've gotten older.
It's similar to father's that abuse their children because they've been abused. We must all suffer together instead of let life for the next generation be easier.
Same.
I was a card-carrying Libertarian at 20. Now I want to quite literally outlaw billionaires.
John-Burn Murdoch wrote an article about this (you may have to access it via Google or an Archive, I believe FT has a soft paywall), but this graph from the article is basically the tl;dr. The same applies to a couple of other wealthy nations, but I only remember Norway (I think he posted an addendum to the article on Twitter), but it's certainly not the trend in every country in the "west".
A wee behind you (recently heard someone refer to my ‘generation’ as the Oregon Trail generation) but I’m with you.. if anything age has me not just leaning but charging headlong to the left.
We're Xennials, sir/ma'am. Best microgeneration! And I agree, in fact when I was younger I was more conservative, now in my very early 40s I'm a filthy progressive, especially in the social sense.
You must be one of the lucky few to not be contaminated with lead.
It must be regional, Gen x Republicans seem practically non-existent in California. At least, outside of a few enclaves like redding, crescent City, and some desert towns.
Yours is a different experience to mine then. I've noticed a fair share in the foothill and valley communities. Plus, pew research center says they're affiliated with Rs at ~30% in CA.
Why would anyone with half a brain continue to support this awful system?
Know what makes democrats? Getting out of your insulated social bubble and seeing that everyone is the same and just trying to get by.
Go travel see the world!
Not sure that makes Democrats specifically but it stops Republicans from being formed. When you ask "Why?" and you're not satisfied with the first answer given, you probably won't be roped in by the people whose first and last answer is "Because god."
Why? Indoctrination and lack of education.
And then there's people like me. I'm a millennial; I was super Republican in high school, and over the course of my first few years as an adult I moved pretty quickly to just right of center; largely because I met people who weren't like me. I stopped voting straight-ticket and even voted for my first Democrat (down-ballot) in college.
Between college graduation and Trump, I stayed pretty much where I was politically while the GOP ran full-tilt to the right of me; to the point where I wasn't really comfortable voting Republican nationally anymore after about 2013 or so; Mitt Romney was the last Republican I ever voted for on the Presidential ballot.
Then Trump happened. I was immediately a never-Trumper, basically at day one. But as I was researching candidates and seeing what they were all saying, cross-referencing things, knowing and understanding what was reality and what was spin, I discovered how much of the right was just a rickety facade of lies held up by a willing right-wing media and being used to cover up corporate malfeasance and actual fascism.
Almost right away, my political affiliation slammed to the left; at first I was happy to be a Democrat, but I've been moving left as the GOP has been showing off what that side stands for. Now, at almost 39, I'm to the point where I wouldn't necessarily be uncomfortable with the "socialist" label.
Meanwhile, starting in college, I started becoming more religious. From being nominally Christian in high school (though I talked a big game), I started really taking my faith seriously in college; and as each year went on, I found myself getting deeper and deeper into it. Yes, a lot of it was watching in anger at people who claimed my faith showed that they didn't actually know what it meant (a feeling that remains), but as I'm staring down the barrel of 40 years old next year, I'm actually taking Christ and the Bible more seriously than I ever have before, though I'm reading it for myself--and realizing that the bill of goods that the "Christian" Nationalists tried to sell me in high school was absolute hogwash.
Seems like an unusual course in life, so thanks for sharing that!
Just turned 53. I was a bit conservative in my late-30s/early-40s, or thought I was, mainly because I listened to a lot of talk radio in my car. Caught myself one day thinking, "Dad would be ashamed of you, taking all your news and opinion from one side." Started reading news like CNN and found it wasn't blathering idiocy. Lots more to talk about on that.
Unlike you, I had been edging further and further away from Christianity. Even though I was a regular Sunday school kid, an every-Sunday church kid until my late teens, it never set right with me, never made sense. (Talking white-bread Presbyterians, no snake handling or anything nuts.) I kept backing up the truck, and long story short, I finally gave up around 40 and admitted to myself that I simply didn't believe in anything supernatural. Went from deist -> agnostic -> atheist, with a lot of fine tuning in between. Took two decades+ chewing on it all.
How about all that? People don't tend to fit well in preconceived boxes. Ain't that something?
Unusual course to say the least! Your dad sounds like a smart guy.
Yeah, I recognize that a deepening faith doesn't usually go along with a leftward political slide; but every year I find myself more authentically me, less conflicted between my labels and my values, and always more thoughtful about the world. I'm not claiming to be some genius that figured it all out, but I do like knowing that, like yours is or would be, my dad is proud of me.
A poll released last month by the Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School found that young Americans appear less likely to vote in 2024 than they did in 2020, a record-setting year for young-voter turnout.
This may become the determining factor in this year's election. If Democrats actually show up to vote, they'll win almost every time, at least of the national level. Unfortunately, they don't show up as consistently as conservatives.
Before the 2020 election, 57% of Americans ages 18 to 29 said they were planning to vote. The number is now 49%, a figure many analysts say reflects disinterest in the likelihood of a Biden-Trump rematch.
It seems like this is going to be a continuing battle for all time. Republican gets elected, Republican fucks shit up big time, young people take notice and vote in a Democrat, Democrat starts unfucking shit up, young people become apathetic, rinse and repeat.
Didn't get everything they want politically immediately, better stay home and tacitly support fascism instead.
young people seem less likely to feel obligated or cowed into voting for someone just because he has a suit on and speaks properly and because the ads say you have to. i don't think i've seen anyone younger than 40 happier with his support of genocide
i don't think i've seen anyone younger than 40 happier with his support of genocide
Thing is that not voting just helps Trump. And Trump's agenda is pretty much the opposite of what the majority of young voters want.
but there are still plenty of morons, who were raised by morons, and so on, all of whom are exactly the sort of person to have coNneCtiOns to the point where they'll get to impose their will anyway
Not just morons, racist morons.
And every other type
Well, and we have a system that lets the minority rule over the majority. Between the problems of having small states having just as much representation as a huge state like California and the slave-state era EC, the backwards get to rule over the progressive.
If they get out and vote more we might actually be able to see some real change in our lifetime. That and/or overthrow the government, whatever works.
Weird that the age group that conservatives shit on the most don't particularly care for conservatism. Maybe the Republicans should again double-down on alienating everyone who isn't an old, white, Christian man? That seems to be a genius strategy.
The GOP has neatly painted themselves into a corner. They dare not reach out to anyone who isn't an old, white, Christian man. I've seen them fail over and over and over again, even with the tiniest shred of rhetoric.
While my old ass had enjoyed watching them tank themselves, it's not so funny anymore. They're lashing out hard. Beating up the LGBT folks, restricting the vote for POC, going full steam on religion in government, hell, many loudmouths talked raising the voting age! (Which requires a Constitutional amendment, so I applaud the waste of energy.)
Some younger person will come along and scream, "They've always been like that!!!" No. They haven't. The last 8-10 years has been radical.
I'm 40. I was protesting Iraq deux when I was 18. All the years have been radical, with varying success, on the right. The Democrats have, in modern history, been a centrist or right leaning party depending on who you ask.
Absolutely scream from the rooftops the electoral plight of gerrymandering, suppression of black and latino votes, hatred of different sexualities and gender identities, and the god damn electoral college.
It's never been funny and it's been going on for a lot longer than 8-10 years.
Yeah, they've distilled their party into the most hateful, intolerant, closed-minded, nationalistic, know-nothing extremists. Those people have long found a home in the GOP, but now they're the driving force of the party.
Those who remain affiliated are either fascists or those who think (incorrectly) they can wrangle them, which makes them collaborators in my book.
Because Democrats don't vote. VOTE VOTE VOTE!
Aren't the nones already something like 1/3 of the population? Talk about an underserved group...we keep getting these xtianist loons that wear their Belief Systems (BS) right out there on their sleeve, as if their little book club has anything to do with proper governance in secular nation.
Thank you, that will be nice
I'm pretty sure that trend started with Gen X.
FROM current young adult demographic, SELECT title
std::string youngAdult() {
switch (datetime.year()) {
case "2002" return "millennial"; case "2018" return "zoomers"; case "2030" return "alpha";}
}
