DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus The Generation Gap in American Politics

http://www.people-press.org/2018/03/01/the-generation-gap-in-american-politics/

The article is somewhat long, and has a lot of useful graphs, so please follow the link. But I thought the research had a lot of interesting information on demographics, specifically how it doesn't seem like millenials are turning more conservative as they age yet (or maybe ever?). The old adage of "if you are young and conservative you have no heart, old and liberal have no brain" might not be as true as we assumed it was?

J/C

I say this with no scientific evidence, simply things I have noticed in my circle or surrounding area - so I am not saying it at all.

But I was actually saying the other day to my wife that I was noticing a lot more younger people being republican. In my day, if you were, you dare not admit it. You would be chastised by our teachers, friends, etc. as the area I lived was pretty left leaning. I have seen on facebook a lot younger people posting pro-trump comments etc. It actually surprised me a bit. So its funny a little bit that you posted this, as its obviously in direct opposition to what I noticed.

I personally changed to R rather young. I was about 25-26 when I started to lean right. This would have been around 2011-2012. I voted for and against Obama.

Once they rise up from mom and dad's basement to get a couch of their own, they look around at the screwed up mess the Liberal/Progressives have made of our Society and they act out of instinct for self survival.

take a look at this part of the article:



to me, this is the huge, and it also has to do with my generation growing up with the boom of the internet as we were heavily influenced by it. we're the generation who got to be exposed to the world through the web.

combined with that plus the stats from your article, it's so different between us because we're all growing up with each other. i mean i just watch my daughters going to school, and even in the burbs, there are a ton of white kids, but there's also a ton of blacks and latinos. everybody is kicking it with each other.

i just think of the debates i have with race, and its so obvious; i hardly disagree with people in my own generation about race, whether its white, black, etc. typically, the heated debates about race comes against baby boomers and early Gen X'ers.

look (gage i dunno how old you are so my bad) but look at the clique on the board:

Rocket, CHS, Swish.

white dude, latino dude, and black/mixed as all hell dude. and we are more often than not in agreement on race and other socio-political issues because we've all grown up with different people and/or been exposed to different groups through internet and other forms.

baby boomers and them can't really say the same thing. so there's way more tribalism from the older generation than us millennials and whatever the hell the current group of teenagers are called.

i've repeatedly heard the older guys make that statement of becoming conservative the older you get, or more conservative the more money you get.

nope. not for me, or anybody i've rolled with. my wife is the same age as me, and she was already a hard lefty european to begin with, and that hasn't changed a bit. i'm the one who's conservative in the household, but i'm an american liberal so...

we even buy our sports cars with the idea that its still newer tech that helps the environment. we talk about plastics in the office and are far more vocal about other environmental concerns than past generations. thats certainly a left/liberal thing.

or how we are way more tolerant or willing to actually understand racial dynamics in regards to our political and criminal systems of america. older generations really dislike that, and maybe part of that is because we seem to be far more united and pushing progressive ideas than they were? i dunno.

all i know is we get a lot of hate, and not only the fact that we're diverse, but that we embrace it way better than older generations do, has a lot to do with that gap.

From what I have noticed, millennial are staying at home longer, have massive amounts of student debt to the likes we have never seen, and have not had many job opportunities worth the salt in the last 5-8 years.

I think this has an effect on them staying left leaning. When you are beholden to the government to keep you financially alive, are always going to vote that way. You don't bite the hand that feeds you, so to say. So the longer that millennial are in a hardship, the longer they will vote left.

Except my girlfriend, one raised in a center-right household, has no student debt yet she’s liberal. She’s also a successful teacher with a steady job.

She’s traveled to many third world countries, and the world has shown her what reality is.

Interesting. I’m 45. Haven’t lived at home with my folks since 3 days after my 18th birthday. I’ve been employed since I was 15. Paid my way through college. Paid off my student loans on my own. Purchased every car I’ve owned without my parents help (except one when my car died mid nursing school, 1997. My folks got me into a high mileage 1985(?) Buick Regal. It lasted about a year, but it saw me into my first nursing job. I’ve since paid them back.) I’m a home owner in an expensive west coast city. Yet...still liberal. So maybe your presumption that liberals live with their parents until they’re in their 30’s, etc, is as much garbage as the thought that if you pay taxes or other such nonsense you suddenly become conservative.
FYI my dad is far religious right republican. My mom was never political until this past election where she voted against trump. So I come from a mix bag background. All four of my siblings are liberal. All over the age of 35. All pretty much raised the same as me. All home owners.
So how’s that work again with the ‘once you’re not lliving in your parents basement’ nonsense?

I don't know if you missed where I said "from what I noticed" or before that when I said "no scientific evidence" and literally stated it was purely my opinion. I swear you guys try to pick fights on here instead of having a rational conversation.

Thanks for the post Swish. Also, I'm five months older than LeBron

Thanks will. I know on my wife's side they are very conservative. She is from Southwest PA originally so we're talking god/guns/coal/steel/hunting, maybe not always in that order! Her cousins our age are definitely Republicans and voted Trump. I think you mentioned living in that area or maybe the burgh ...

Either way, until the millennials vote, it doesn't really matter what we think (imho).

Wasn't meant to sound combative. Just giving my own anecdotal experience.

I'm a Gen X'er and the older I get the more left and the more Socialist I lean.

I am Gen X and the older I get the more Libertarian I get.

Just leave e alone and all will be cool.....

X2

I grew up by the airport, literally 5 min from there in a small liberal leaning town. I now live in WV about 30 min away from there -45 from downtown Pittsburgh.

For all the 60's snowflakes, all is not lost. Testosterone replacement therapy can help you. Don't give up. We're all pulling for you.

j/c:

The older I get the more I hate the radical left and right. And many of you are more radical than you would like to admit.

Thanks! And I hear walk-in lobotomies are available for people like you, so win-win! That can help you. Don't give up. We're all pulling for you.

From October 2016 (note: Millennials are sometimes called Gen Y. Naturally, Gen Z comes after that): https://www.lifezette.com/polizette/poll-trump-dominates-with-generation-z/

Poll: Trump Dominates with Generation Z

First-time voters and high schoolers too young to cast ballots overwhelmingly go GOP

Republican Donald Trump has performed poorly in polling among young voters, but a comprehensive survey released Thursday suggests he is dominating Democrat Hillary Clinton among high school students.

The survey of high school students across the country, a joint project of My College Options and the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, indicates that members of the so-called Generation Z have markedly different political views than the slightly older, famously left-leaning millennials.

“Our findings shocked us and clearly state that the Trump effect was not only felt by adults and can have an impact going forward with Generation Z.”

Among those old enough to vote for the first time in next month’s election, Trump leads Clinton 46 percent to 31 percent. Another 11 percent picked a third-party candidate, while 6 percent said they would write in a candidate. Some 54,000 students in 47 states have filled out paper ballots distributed in schools, and organizers said they expect a total of 100,000 by the time they finish polling.

“Our findings shocked us and clearly state that the Trump effect was not only felt by adults and can have an impact going forward with Generation Z,” Hispanic Heritage Foundation President Jose Antonio Tijerino said in a prepared statement. “It’s also an important message that youth can’t be taken for granted as to how they lean politically by either side of the aisle.”

The first-time voters are an overwhelmingly pessimistic lot — just 11 percent say the country is moving in a positive direction, while 56 percent disagreed. Their top issue is the economy, followed by education, gun rights, and health care.

Trump also was the top choice of the entire group, ages 14 through 18. He won support from 34 percent, compared with 20 percent of Clinton. Third-party and write-in candidates got 13 percent, while nearly a third said they would not vote if they had the chance. While Trump struggles mightily with female voters in the electorate, among high school respondents, Trump leads with both genders.

Broken down by state, Trump was the top choice of youth in 31 states. Clinton was first in only one — Louisiana. In the rest of the states surveyed, the top choice was “I would choose not to vote in this election.”

As with older voters, Clinton is the overwhelming choice of minorities. Black students pick her over Trump by a 40-point margin, and she beats him by 19 points among Hispanics. But black and Hispanic students are also far more likely than white students to indicate they would not vote if given the choice.

Both minority groups also believe the country is heading in the wrong direction. Just 8 percent said it was positive. Hispanic students picked education as their top issue, while African-Americans were more likely to identify racism as a top issue.

The survey offers good news for Republicans, who have become accustomed to losing the youth vote by wide margins. If the attitudes of this year hold, it could give the GOP a boost in the 2020 election, when all of the participants will be eligible to vote. It also could call into question predictions that the GOP is doomed as the nation grows more diverse and younger people rise to voting age.

Officials at My College Options, which offers college counseling services to high school students, said the large number of participants make the survey unusually reliable. It claims a margin of error of just .6 percent.

"With unparalleled access to our nation's youth, we at My College Options believe it is our obligation to amplify their voices on issues that are so critical to our future," the organization's vice president, Ryan Munce, said in a prepared statement.

Most of my kids’ pals (14-18 yrs) all seem to voice favor towards Trump and GOP when they are over at the house. Find it odd that they talk about the topics as much as they do...which is good...just strange

I suppose you vote Democrat because you are against hateful stereotypes?

Please.... I'm capable of that myself, thank you very much-

lmao, I see what you did there. Tulsa better wash his hands.

Try to be nice and offer moral support for their mental handicaps and they try to project their vile fantasies on you.

Watch their next post be, "It rubs the lotion on it's skin".

Sicko's...

That matches my observations as well. I see plenty of proud young MAGA men out there. Heck the younger guys at the gym make me sound like a liberal.

exactly the point I was making - my wife works with a younger group of employees, and I was honestly shocked at the amount of Trump supporters there were in that age group. Like I said, my observation not scientific- but says something none the less.

I guess it all depends on the house they live in, the community they live in, the friends they have. My son is 17 and he has demonstrated & marched in support of BLM,plans to march on March 24th and is also very involved in various Equity groups/clubs at his high school. He is also very engaged and well read on local, state and national politics, history as well as international politics & history. All of his friends who come over are equally as engaged and involved in all of the above.

Curious, and an honest question, are his teachers openly political?

His political stance has very little to do with his teachers. He is only with them every other day for 90 min/9 months a year and they change each year. They don't make that much of an impression on him. We as a family regularly talk about politics at home, we watch a lot of documentaries, he has traveled and has seen the world outside of the USA, everyday he sees/walks past homeless people, drug addicts and mentally ill on his way to school and on his way home, he is aware of inequalities that exist, oppression and systemic racism because he reads and because his eyes are open to what is happening around him. Some teachers have opened a book for him and he has chosen to dive deeper but they are not the reason why he is socially engaged and politically aligned with the left. Even if we lived in a more red area...Ohio, for example, he would most likely be the same kid that he is today because of his parents, the house he was raised in and his life experiences that he has had thus far in his life. The foundation is firmly set.

Not trying to attack you or your son, so please don't think I am. I have seen many teachers in my lifetime preach and not teach. I have seen conservative teachers do it as well, and I disagree with them also.

I have no doubt that Gen Z will go Republican in the future. Youtube has such a strong grasp on our youth and many of them watch political videos on youtube, which is a predominantly right winged dominated. However, that Republican party will look slightly different to its current iteration. Gen Z's Republican party will believe in climate change as well as gay marriage. Everything else though will be the same.

I don't think that's a gen z thing, I think its more a religion thing.

I am a R. And some on this board have eluded me to being a "far right wing" guy.

Yet I could care less about gay marriage. I believe in climate change, I just don't think we can do anything about it, and I don't think we have the big impact that we are lead to believe we do (but those are for other threads).

My point is, less and less people are going to church, and less and less people are religious. Which will play more of a roll than Youtube, etc.