ANOTHER POLITICAL RANT
Why “OK Boomer” Should Now Be Seen as a Compliment
If you want to blame an older generation for the coming Trump-tastrophe, the Gen-Xers totally sh*t the bed this year.
Will Leitch’s thought-provoking article about Generation X’s strong support for Donald Trump blew my mind.
His source was a tweet from Philip Klein that showed early exit poll stats where Harris beat Trump in every age demographic except for Gen-X. They went for Trump by 53% to Harris’ 45%.
Here’s a more detailed graphic of those demographics.
There are some remarkable changes compared to the 2020 election demographics.
In 2020, Biden destroyed Trump in the 18–29 age group by 24% (60 to 36). This year, Trump conned enough of them that Harris only won this group by 13% (55 to 42).
The 30–46 age group held constant. Only 46% supported Trump. Harris got 1% less support than Biden (51% vs 52%). Was that 1% decrease a result of voter suppression or the reluctance of some men to vote for a woman?
But the Gen-Xers, the largest voting group by age, turned the election upside down. In 2020, Trump won by 1% (50 to 49). In 2024, he won by 8% (53–45). How could so many middle-aged people develop amnesia after watching Trump the first time around?
Boomers, however, showed that you can teach an old dog new tricks.
At least if you kill them the way Trump did with his mishandling of the Covid pandemic.
Or maybe he killed off too many of his supporters who denied the existence of the disease, refused to wear a mask, or believed his idea of using disinfectants inside the body and other quack remedies.
In 2020, Trump won the 65 & over demographic by 7% (52–45). In 2024, Harris won by 1% (50 to 49), an 8-point turnaround.
They were the only group not conned by the greatest showman since PT Barnum.
So, the next time you see me yelling at clouds, wise the fuck up. Those are ominous clouds on the horizon.
Maybe you better renew your passport and pack a bug-out bag. All those jokes you made on social media about January 6th and Republican traitors might come back to bite you.
How can we explain these voting changes based on the experiences of each age group?
In Leitch’s article, he pointed out that the generation of the ’90s had the privilege to drop out, look inward, and — unlike the Me Generation of the 1970s, which explored self-actualization through meditation and spirituality — focus solely on their own materialistic needs.
As a child traumatized by the assassination of three national heroes — John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Bobbie Kennedy — and then confronted with an immoral war in Vietnam, I have some thoughts about how major events can shape a generation.
Generation-X spent their formative years hypnotized by images of “It’s Morning Again in America.”
There is something about the words “Again” and “America” together in a political campaign. Because we all want to go back to a time when minorities couldn’t vote, and a woman’s place was only in the bedroom and the kitchen, right?
1980 was the first time a bad actor pretended to be a president. Gen-Xers had no idea about all the terrible things Ronald Reagan did to the economy, to unions, and to the vulnerable.
There was no underlying national trauma to make you feel like “We the People” was more important than how to buy beer with that fake ID or when you would get laid.
The privileged can choose to drop out, focus on building wealth, or follow in their activist parents’ footsteps. And nobody in their right mind would follow their parents, right?
Millennials were old enough to know better.
The 30–44 age group came of age during the then-worst recession since the Great Depression.
They saw the first Gulf War and almost ten years of UN Inspectors telling us that Saddam Hussein had no WMDs, no infrastructure, and no resources.
They saw 9/11, wanted to punish the perpetrators, and remember when W did an about-face and said he was “not concerned about hunting down Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.”
Is it any wonder they didn’t fall for Trump’s bullshit?
But I fear for Generation Z.
This generation was traumatized by terrorism, and then encouraged to go shopping to show America can’t be beaten. Like the Reagan generation, they watched the media normalize George W Bush’s ignorance and incompetence.
Even though a large majority voted for Harris, that 13% turnaround will be a huge concern going forward as this generation ages and naturally becomes more conservative to protect their jobs and their family.
Are we too late to save the country?
Unfortunately, hitting rock bottom is the only way for most people to realize they have lived in an illusion.
Get ready for a lot of bottom-hitting in the next two years if Agent Orange is competent enough to push through his agenda of tariffs, deportations, and retribution.
The big question is whether we will even have the choice to change our leaders in the future.
Here’s to a better democracy.
More political warnings you all ignored.
