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Friday, October 17, 2008

So much for the idea that baby boomers are just a bunch of Republican sellouts
Posted by Jill | 6:19 AM
I can't tell you how many conversations I've had with younger people from Gen-X to Millennials who insist that baby boomers had all the good drugs and all the good sex and then became greedy scumbag Reagan Republicans by 1980. I know that's a nice, convenient thing to believe, sort of like the notion that Barack Obama will "give the blacks all the power in the country" and "illegal immigrants are using up all the health care", but it's just not true, as a survey conducted for TVLand reveals:
Fifty percent of American adults age 40-59 – The Baby Boomers – feel that the government is doing too much to solve Wall Street’s problems, according to a new poll by TV Land. Twenty-five percent feel that the government is not doing enough about the Wall Street crisis and 25% don’t know if there should be more or less government involvement. This is just one of the findings in a new poll conducted by OTX on behalf of TV Land, a division of Viacom Inc.'s (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B) MTV Networks, as part of TV Land’s overall commitment to superserve this 40- and 50-something demographic.

The TV Land poll also shows 94% of Boomers – the country’s largest generation – plan to go to the polls next month, with 82% of those polled saying they are extremely likely to vote. The impact of this finding is enormous as this generation had the highest turnout of voters in the 2004 Presidential election. Obama voters are more determined to make their voices heard as 89% of his supporters say they are extremely likely to vote compared to 82% of McCain supporters and 58% of undecideds. The survey also shows that regardless of whom they are voting for, the majority of people in this demographic (54%) believe that Barack Obama will win the 2008 Presidential election this November. Twenty-five percent believe John McCain will win and 20% are unsure of the outcome of the November vote. The poll also found that if the election were held today, the country’s largest generation would elect Barack Obama to office capturing 48% of the vote. John McCain would get 40% of the Boomer vote and 12% of Boomers are either unsure or voting for someone else.

...

Although the candidates declined to criticize the readiness of their opposing Vice Presidential candidates in last night’s Presidential debate, when asked about the Vice President candidates, nearly two-thirds of people in their 40s and 50s (64%) say Joe Biden is prepared for the job of Vice President of the United States. Thirty-four percent feel Palin is prepared. Contrastingly, Sarah Palin is seen by 47% of the demo as not prepared for the job versus the 13% who think Biden isn’t prepared. The majority of Boomers (51%) say that Biden helped Obama’s chances of being elected and 45% say Palin helped McCain. Nearly one-fifth (18%) say Biden hurt Obama’s chances, while 34% say Palin hurt MCain.

While both candidates have a “change” platform, 48% of Boomer voters find Barack Obama more believable when he talks about “change” while 21% say John McCain is more believable. Nine percent say both candidates are believable when they talk about “change” and 18% say neither candidate. Only 4% of this generation doesn’t know which candidate is more believable. Nearly nine in ten Boomer voters (86%) say that things in this country are heading on the wrong track. Among Barack Obama supporters, that number jumps to 92% who say the country is on the wrong track. Twenty-three percent of McCain supporters say the country is on the right track, compared to only 8% of Obama supporters.


I would say that this distribution, with about half of baby boomers leaning left, slightly less leaning right, and the rest either inattentive or unsure, is probably representative of the way it's always been. The Greg Marmalards never got the press that the counterculture kids got, but they were always there. It's just that their Izod Lacoste shirts and plaid pants weren't as interesting to the media as a bunch of kids dancing around naked.

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1 Comments:
Blogger merlallen said...
I actually did have better drugs and way more sex. But I'm not a greedy Republican't.
10/17/08, 6:31 AM  
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