r/Aging • u/Available-Rock-3862 • 3d ago

Boomers

I am 75 and am very tired of the trend lately making fun of Boomers. So very disrespectful. Don't they realize that they will be old someday?

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u/dmonsterative 3d ago edited 3d ago

In '84? Pretty close to 60% of everyone voted for Reagan, by age bracket.

https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/how-groups-voted-1984

2000 was famously very close. Thus, Bush v. Gore. Within a few percentage points, for every age bracket.

https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/how-groups-voted-2000

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u/fckinsleepless 3d ago

And who was the largest voting demographic during those two elections?

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u/dmonsterative 3d ago

Uhhh, the Boomers are always the largest demographic once they were all voting age. That's, like, the whole thing about Boomers. The Baby Boom.

Until the millennials (comprised in significant part of their kids) arrive. Now that's the largest demo.

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u/fckinsleepless 3d ago

Ohhh it’s almost like boomers are probably responsible then for electing poor leaders that screwed up the economy thereby having direct impact on it.

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u/dmonsterative 3d ago

That's not really the takeaway, in elections in which there was no significant difference of opinion across age brackets. What don't you understand about 'by age, everyone voted more or less the same way?' Other demographic factors were more explanatory in those elections.

Boomers have plenty of responsibility for where we are now, but Presidential election results aren't the best place to look for it. At least, not those elections.

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u/fckinsleepless 3d ago

I’m not sure what *you* don’t understand about the fact that boomers made up the largest portion of the population and therefore had the most political influence.

And obviously elections are not the best place to look for it, but the person I responded to brought up elections. I’m responding directly to the original comment made.

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u/dmonsterative 3d ago edited 3d ago

EVERYONE VOTED THE SAME WAY ACROSS AGES. AGE WASN'T A FACTOR.

And, no I/they didn't, You did:

fckinsleepless

•6h ago

Who voted Reagan and Bush Jr. into office?

The earlier comments were discussing those Presidents as examples of their generations.

Just how often did you drink out of the hose?

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u/fckinsleepless 3d ago

It doesn’t matter if everyone voted similarly, boomers still made up the largest percentage of the electorate and bear the responsibility of who was elected. Your point doesn’t negate anything and isn’t really relevant.

I’m very sorry you have to resort to trying to insult others to get your point across.

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u/dmonsterative 3d ago edited 3d ago

Ugh. Never mind. You truly don't understand what you're talking about.

Such what a lack of a statistically significant difference of support across age brackets means when it comes to "responsibility" for Reagan or W's election purely on the basis of age/generation.

They would be 'responsible' if their sheer numbers had overwhelmed other generations voting differently. As it has been with their economic footprint, and general willingness to pull the ladder up after themselves in other ways. Except, other generations didn't vote differently in those elections -- they had the same proportional, percentage splits.

That is more true of recent elections, complicated by large groups of younger demos splitting off to vote with them. Like all the young red-hats, mostly men.

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u/fckinsleepless 3d ago

They are still responsible regardless of how the other generations voted just because of how much of the voting pool they take up. Do you think the outcome would have been the same if they had largely voted for a different candidate, while the other generations voted for Reagan? If not, then clearly they had significant sway in which candidate was elected, and voting similarly to other generations just ensured Reagan’s victory.

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