Apologies for yesterday post insinuating that most boomers voted Reagan

[Duncanpup]

My mouth runs before my brain and well I can be a ass in thinking. It was not my intent to offend I was just venting, to me it all started with saint Reagan and the evangelical repigs.

[left-of-center2012]

1. I never saw it

So many posts here that I assume most people see and read only a portion.

But, what the heck.

Thanks anyway.

[secondwind]

2. I didn't see it either.

But I admit I voted for him the first time, what a mistake!

Never voted Republican again….

[Layzeebeaver]

3. I'm a boomer.

1980 was my first chance to vote.

I still lacked essential critical thinking skills at that time. I voted for ray-gun.

I have since forgiven myself, but not him. May he burn in hell.

I bet there are many of us who fell into that trap.

[lagomorph777]

23. I blew my first chance in 1980. It never occurred to me that idiot would win.

I was a harried, impoverished student, and didn't "get around to" voting.

I have never missed a vote since.

[RocRizzo55]

4. For what it's worth

I never voted for that rat. Never would. Saw his bullshit coming, and it's because of him that things are so awful today.

[gab13by13]

5. I'm a boomer,

never ever voted Republican, proud union man, I proudly voted for McGovern. Fuck Rayguns he screwed the working class.

[PJMcK]

6. I saw your post, Duncanpup

It seemed over-the-top so I kind of ignored it.

Keep in mind that Reagan won re-election by winning 49 states, a feat that no one else has ever accomplished. Accordingly, it wasn't just so-called "boomers" who voted for him. Not by a long shot.

Give yourself break, bro. Was your post alerted on? I wouldn't lose any more sleep over it.

[Jim G.]

7. That's Not What You Said At All...

Your quote "Every boomer that voted for Reagan screwed Gen x" (~my bold).

Anyone who saw that as saying "most boomers" misread it.

[cate94]

14. +1 n/t

[Tom Rinaldo]

25. That is correct. But even more correct would be EVERYONE who voted for Reagan...

...screwed Generation X. I think it was the singling out of Boomers that probably ruffled some feathers. Boomers were out in the street fighting Reagan when he was Governor of California. Then again there were some Boomers who voted for him even then. Generations are huge buckets to lump people into. Gen X has some racists, as do Boomers. Sadly every generation does. That's just how it is. I'm a Boomer and my biggest sweeping criticism of my generation is the degree to which we got sucked into materialism, the entire "Yuppie" thing. But that too isn't unique to my generation.

I saw the original OP but didn't read it. I understood where the frustration was coming from and didn't take it personally. Still it was thoughtful of the poster to clarify his feelings with this follow up OP.

[betsuni]

8. My first election was Carter/Reagan.

All adults I knew said Reagan wouldn't tax them and that's why they were voting for him. I didn't know anything about politics, but a small child could look at Reagan for less than a minute and know he was a fucking idiot. I couldn't bear his voice. Even worse than Trump because Trump wasn't a professional actor with decades of experience giving speaking tours. Anyway, idiots.

[True Blue American]

19. B Movie Actor

Fake!

[love_katz]

9. Thank you for the apology.

I have never voted for a Republican and cannot picture that I ever will. They and their agenda are wholly owned by their billionaire donors, They are using fear and propaganda to divide people who need to stand together, and to distract us so that we don't recognize who the REAL enemy is. Dividing us against one another helps them, not us. I am not saying that we can't call the supporters of the foul agendas of the RepuQues out, but I know that my generation does not bear the full responsibility for the horrible agenda of the fundy fanatic wrong wing Not Moral minority. We have a huge task in front of us, to prevent the supporters of TFG from succeeding in destroying our democracy and installing the Nazi theocracy that they so fervently desire. All this, while dealing with the current and looming problems of our time, while many of us struggle daily just to earn enough to get food and shelter. It's daunting, to say the least. With all this on our plates, we need to help each other in any way that we can. Thank you again for your apology.

[Freddie]

10. My 1st vote was for Carter, v Ford in 1976

Have never voted for a Repug in my life, although I admit I sat out a number of local elections before I knew better. Don’t know what “wave” feminist I am, but I saw the BS my generation and the ones before me had to deal with (my mom was forced to resign her teaching job in the 50s when she was pregnant) and I knew that Reagan was anti-choice and that sealed it for me.
Millennials can actually blame boomers’ parents, the Greatest Generation, for Reagan. Most of them still hated “hippies” and anything smacking of anti-establishment, and Reagan fed into that.

[cate94]

13. +1000 n/t

[True Blue American]

17. Woah, bud!

I am one notch above that Greatest Generation. My Future Husband was wounded on Normandy BeachThe whole big family were die hard Democrats.

They watched the TVA being built!

[Freddie]

27. My parents (Greatest Gen.) were Democrats too

Teacher’s union. Mom eventually went back to teaching and PA settled a lawsuit brought by women like her and gave them retirement credit for the years they did not work after being forced to resign due to pregnancy. At one time PA was a pretty progressive state til the Pennsyltucky folks gerrymandered the state legislature into the RWNJ zone.

[True Blue American]

33. So was Ohio

Until John Boehner got his fingers on Redistricting that ends this year. We voted in an unbiased committee.

Ohio put Obama over the top.

[EYESORE 9001]

11. Do you still feel that way about an entire generation?

Or are you sorry for speaking the quiet part out loud? If it’s a deeply-held belief, then I have to turn my back on you. It’s certainly not a unique opinion, and those who profess it aren’t likely to alter their core beliefs.

[Martin Eden]

12. Born in 1957, I voted Republican only once

In 1980 I voted for John Anderson in the primary. I liked him and couldn't stand Reagan.

Voted for Carter in the General election.

[True Blue American]

15. You have nothing to apologize for.

I lived it, you are absolutely right. Many ate up that Shining City on the Hill.

They also ignored how Bush went to Iran, and a deal to hold the hostages until Reagan was sworn in. I listened to one of the hostages in Boston and another is the brother of my neighbor.

Then Reagan also started his campaign in the city where little girls were slain, bringing us the Souther strategy.

[twodogsbarking]

16. That wasn't a joke?

Reagan was. On many episodes of Laugh In. It was a boomer show. Imagine that.

[Trex666]

18. Boomers were young in 1980

Of course they didn’t vote for Reagan.

Most Boomers did vote for Trump, though.

[viva la]

21. Actually, a bare majority of over 65s voted for Trump-51%

And that included nonboomers (over 75). Include younger boomers, and I'm not sure a majority would be Trump voters.




https://www.statista.com/statistics/1184426/presidential-election-exit-polls-share-votes-age-us/

[marble falls]

29. Boomers were too young to vote for Reagan??? Boomers started being in 1946 ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomers

Baby boomers

Baby boomers are the demographic cohort following the Silent Generation and preceding Generation X. The generation is generally defined as people born from 1946 to 1964, during the post–World War II baby boom. The term is also used outside the United States but the dates, the demographic context and the cultural identifiers may vary.

Trailing-edge boomers (also known as Generation Jones) came of age in the "malaise era" of the 1970s with events such as the Watergate scandal, the 1973–1975 recession, the 1973 oil crisis, the United States Bicentennial, and the Iran hostage crisis. Politically, early boomers in the United States tend to be Democrats, while later boomers tend to be Republicans.[107]

So, the youngest boomers definitely could have voted for Reagan's decond term.

And as a group were most likely to voted Democratic, even if of Boomers, white males were more likely to have voted for Trump.


This generational stuff is counter productive and wastes energy needed to clean up Congress.

[Trex666]

39. And how much of the 18-34 vote did Raygun get?

I doubt it was very high.

[Rhiannon12866]

42. Not me!

No big surprise! Welcome to DU!

[marble falls]

44. According to the what I cited, later boomers tended to vote Republican. My end of the boomer ...

...cycle tended to vote Democratic. There are footnotes for this statement that would lead you to the specific demographics.

[Crunchy Frog]

51. Many late boomers voted for Mondale at the same time that early Xers were voting for Reagan.

All of them voting in their first presidential elections. There were loads of young Gen X campus Republicans at the time. I remember them.

The broad brush sweeping categorization of people into neat little classifications misses the complexity of the real world, but is great for dividing and conquering.

[marble falls]

52. Like I said, most early boomers went Democratic, most late boomers went GOP ...

... no generation ever is 100% anything, so how about we stop this intergenerational bullshit.

That's been my stand all along.

[Crunchy Frog]

53. I would bet that most early Xers also went GOP.

This is a group of people who all attended college and reached voting age within the same general time frame. Not that easy to draw a sharp delineation between them.

The entire exercise is bullshit IMO.

[marble falls]

54. And according to my link and it documentation, that was not so.

[Crunchy Frog]

56. So the people born in '64 mostly voted Reagan and the ones born in '65 voted Mondale?

I'd be interested in seeing that documentation, if it actually exists.

In any event, I don't accept any generational blame for my late boomer Mondale vote.

[marble falls]

58. See below ...

In the US, the generation can be segmented into two broadly defined cohorts: the "Leading-Edge Baby Boomers" are individuals born between 1946 and 1955, those who came of age during the Vietnam War and Civil Rights eras.[44] This group represents slightly more than half of the generation, or roughly 38,002,000 people of all races. The other half of the generation, usually called “Generation Jones”, but sometimes also called names like the "Late Boomers" or "Trailing-Edge Boomers", was born between 1956 and 1964, and came of age after Vietnam and the Watergate scandal.[45][46] This second cohort includes about 37,818,000 individuals, according to Live Births by Age and Mother and Race, 1933–98, published by the Centers for Disease Control's National Center for Health Statistics.[47]

-snip-

Trailing-edge boomers (also known as Generation Jones) came of age in the "malaise era" of the 1970s with events such as the Watergate scandal, the 1973–1975 recession, the 1973 oil crisis, the United States Bicentennial, and the Iran hostage crisis. Politically, early boomers in the United States tend to be Democrats, while later boomers tend to be Republicans.[107]

107 "The Whys and Hows of Generations Research" Archived February 25, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. Pew Center. September 3, 2015

[Crunchy Frog]

62. So you can't answer my questions about what, if any,

political differences exist between very late boomers and very early Xers. I'm talking about people who would have been in college at the same time, and were first eligible to vote in the same presidential election.

Lots and lots of information about things I didn't ask about.

And in spite of my birth cohort, I'm not a Republican and I never voted for Reagan. And I went to school with Xers who certainly did vote for Reagan.

[Treefrog]

34. Do you know what boomers are?

Geez, do some math.

[Vinca]

20. I read the post and didn't get that impression. I thought you made it clear by saying something

like "those who voted for Reagan." Vent away, Duncanpup, vent away.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

22. They did tho. Boomer-age voters broke for Reagan in both 1980 and 1984.

[Tarc]

24. Nothing to apologize for, you were right

Most of them got theirs, and then erected barriers to us in the later generations getting the same.

[Treefrog]

26. This boomer didn't.

[Hekate]

28. He was governor of California before he was POTUS. Next to RR, Ahnold was a genius w heart...

I remember Reagan’s years as Gov — His cavalier brushoff on the environment: “If you’ve seen one redwood, you’ve seen them all.” The closure of the state mental hospitals without following up on the promise to fund a network of halfway houses. All that shit. As I said about 30 years ago to a somewhat younger person who doubted my recollections, “I was sentient then.”

And I was, sentient that is. I was only 18 when he was elected Gov, too young to vote & new to the state & briefly swallowed the half-assed opinions of a charismatic 19-year old who thought Pat Brown was no good so why not elect the actor. I very shortly learned better — being full of radically progressive ideals like the young red-beard is no substitute for keeping one’s wits and realizing that supporting a GOPer (or a Green, for that matter) will not “send a message” to the Dems.

RR’s presidency was orders of magnitude worse than his governorship, and hell no, I never voted for Reagan.

ETA: This is addressed more to some of the other posters than to you.

[XanaDUer2]

30. Reagan ruined the average Americans life

no worries about your post. It was true

[Demsrule86]

31. I didn't see it... but who cares? Have

A nice day.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

32. It really would have been the so-called "Greatest Generation"

who voted for Reagan. Not the Boomers, most of whom weren't yet old enough to vote.

[Treefrog]

35. Boomers were most certainly old enough to vote in that election.

Math, dude, math.

I’m a late boomer and certainly was of age to vote.

[11 Bravo]

37. Dude, this Boomer voted for McGovern and Jimmy Carter before Bonzo ...

came along (at which time I voted for President Carter again, and then Mondale).

I'm not sure you know what constitutes a "Boomer".

[11 Bravo]

36. This Boomer saw yesterday's post and didn't take it that way at all.

No apology necessary.

[hunter]

38. I worked my young ass for Jimmy Carter.

Too many people I grew up with in affluent white world didn't recognize the devil in Reagan.

[myccrider]

40. You could have done the math!

We boomers were between 34 and about 15 years old in 1980. Many of us were hippies and were involved in the civil rights, anti-war and environmental movements. We were about 1/3 of the electorate. We were pretty much the only age groups that didn’t vote for him by over 50%. There were still too dang many of us who did (over 40%), but we weren’t the ones who gave him his huge victory!

I'm a boomer and grew up in California...and knew what kind of idiot he was as governor.

I have never voted for any right-winger. My parents, part of the Silent Generation, voted for him, although they had been solid Democrats until that time. I voted for Carter!

[ShazzieB]

48. Thanks for this!

"We boomers were between 34 and about 15 years old in 1980. Many of us were hippies and were involved in the civil rights, anti-war and environmental movements. We were about 1/3 of the electorate. We were pretty much the only age groups that didn’t vote for him by over 50%. There were still too dang many of us who did (over 40%), but we weren’t the ones who gave him his huge victory!"

I am quoting your first paragraph, with part of it underlined, because there are still people in this thread claiming that most boomers voted for RR and it needs to STOP!

I was 30 in 1980. I marched against the Vietnam War, supported the Civil Rights movement, took part in the very first Earth Day ever in 1970, and DID NOT vote for Reagan, but I didn't know the actual statistics about how many of us boomers did until now. So like I said, THANKS!

[myccrider]

50. You're welcome.

I understand the frustration younger people can feel toward the older generations, I certainly felt it back in the 60s & 70s. The "kids" of today just aren’t thinking it through. Who do they think did those things they admire from that era?

As irritated as I was by my parents’ and grandparents’ opinions (wrt racism in particular-we’re from the South ), I also respected that between 1900 and 1950 they had lived through one or two World Wars, a pandemic, a huge workers’ rights movement and the Great Depression...they did change the world mostly for the better, they just hadn’t done as much as I would have liked them to do.

TBH, I had to look up the Reagan statistics. I was devastated that he won, but only vaguely remembered that us younger folks were the only ones who didn’t give him a majority.

[electric_blue68]

41. apology accepted 👍 Never Ray-gun!

Between Ronnie & Neeeewt - ugh!

[JI7]

43. Most White People voted for Reagan and every other Republican

that ran for president ever since after LBJ .

There isn't much of a generational divide. The divide is more about race and other similar things. Younger age groups have higher percentages of non whites which is why things can appear to look like it's about age but it's actually about race.

[marble falls]

45. Bubba, you're alright in my book! The last of the 'silent generation' who's politics screwed ...

... all of us economically (think of Reagan's Bradley Fighting Vehicle, the F-35 which is only now starting to be operational), also beat the poop out of Fascism.

We fought the Silent Generation's wars, Gen X fought ours, all on down the line.

We have more in common as Democrats than we do Generation whatever. That's what counts.

[retread]

46. I it started with those in my generation voting for Nixon. Read "Children of the Silent

Majority".

"Nixon’s surprising effort established a model for a youth campaign that successfully shaped GOP strategy and operations throughout the 1980s."

"...describes how conservatives organized young voters to support policies of law and order, Christian evangelism, and foreign policy interventionism in the shadow of 1968."

[NNadir]

47. I saw it and as a Boomer, I had no problem with it.

I'm personally unimpressed with my generation, and I'm not entirely sure that your remark was untrue.

[ShazzieB]

49. I was one of those who took it badly, and I ❤ this apology!

I think even then I realized on some level what you were trying to say, but I let my reaction to HOW you said it get the better of me. So thanks for this...and I apologize if my reaction at the time was harsh.

[Spider Jerusalem]

55. They did though?

It's not your fault if people are too thin-skinned or ignorant to admit the truth.

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

[Crunchy Frog]

57. How many members of "Antifa" voted for Reagan?

Given the tendency on this board to equate "Antifa" to anyone who fought against the Axis powers in WWII.

[srose58089]

59. I am a boomer

Have never voted for a republican in my life and I have voted every election federal, state and local
By the way I did not see the original post

[panader0]

60. Boom boom boom: John Lee Hooker. (A few generations of Democrats here).

Hope all is well at your place.

[boston bean]

61. My first presidential vote was for Dukakis and Bentsen.

Gen xer here!