Elderly voters the biggest push behind the GOP wave

The Washington Independent ^ | 8 November 2010 | Jesse Zwick

[Racehorse]

The election post-mortems keep rolling in. Politico's Byron Tau's report on the remarkable shift in voting patterns among America's oldest voters goes a long way to explain why last week's contest became such a rout for Republicans. Voters over 65, he writes, favored Republicans by a 21-point margin after breaking narrowly for Democrats in 2006, and in some key races the margin was even more lopsided:

In New Hampshire, for instance, seniors backed GOP Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte over her Democratic challenger by 33 points. In the narrow Illinois Senate contest, Republican Mark Kirk won older voters by 22 points. And In Delaware, they were the only age group to back tea party favorite Christine O'Donnell, by an 11-point margin.

"I've been saying since August 2009, that there was a tsunami — in this case a senior citizen tsunami — headed towards Capitol Hill," said Jim Martin, chairman of the 60 Plus Association, a conservative campaign group targeted toward older voters. "That tsunami came ashore."

[ansel12]

Here is a number of 8% from an article in politico.

"Voters over 65 favored Republicans last week by a 21-point margin after flirting with Democrats in the 2006 midterm elections and favoring John McCain by a relatively narrow 8-point margin in 2008."
Read more:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/44802.html#ixzz14i1wH1zU

Here is a chart from New York Times exit polls that makes the same point with different figures about the senior vote. In the chart it includes five years of non-seniors which lowers the percentage.

[Elwood P. Doud]

Where were they in 2008 when they could have done some real good?

[Madame Dufarge]

[Oldpuppymax]

Anyone still wonder about the REAL purpose of those death panels??!!

[Outlaw Woman]

That’s ok...I read it with interest. Very well written. :)

[Rashputin]

The elderly and the boomer generation needs to vote Tea Party the rest of their lives and walk on their bloody knees to the pools every election as penance for electing these fascist bastards for decades.

[ansel12]

The boomers have been a fairly conservative vote all of their lives, how do you think things started moving right as the boomers moved into American life starting in the late 1980s? In 1972 the 18-29 year old vote went Republican, 52% to 46%, and today boomers range in age of 46 to 64, and we have made huge gains against liberalism in the last 20 years or more.

[SeeSac]

Well...plenty of them voted ‘for’ the piece of crap that now resides in the WH. I’d like to see those figures

Seniors voted for McCain over Obama in 2008.

[Logic n' Reason]

Maybe so....maybe so.

One can remember in the very recent past how loud and long the demand was for "turnout". We could carry the day if we could just get turnout. Turnout...turnout...turnout.

Well....it appears that after the screaming stopped, the demanding fell off, the fires in the hair were put out...that the voter turnout for this mid-term election was only marginally (very marginally) higher than for the 2006 midterms (40.5% vs 41.5%).

One can only imagine the results had the turnout been 50% or higher. The blacks stayed away from the polls as did the youth. The old folk turned out (as they usually do) as did the white middle-age folk.

But not in high enough percentages to provide the margin of victory. It's at least a very good guess that if the turnout (much ballyhooed, much vaunted) had been just 6% or 7% higher, the results would have been truly astounding.

To be sure, it was a victory...historical, even.

But with sound senatorial candidates in NV, DE, and CO (to name a few) and a 7% higher voter turnout...the results would have been truly breathtaking!!

[Outlaw Woman]

Not by a huge margin.

[Rashputin]

I must have run afoul of a nest of stupid ones, then, because around here folks my age are still in shock over the Republicans taking the House and worried that their favorite arts and bullcrap programs will be cut.

Thanks for the info, though, it’s refreshing to hear.

Regards

[SeeSac]

The elderly and the boomer generation needs to vote Tea Party the rest of their lives and walk on their bloody knees to the pools every election as penance for electing these fascist bastards for decades.

Seniors voted for McCain over Obama in 2008.

[dalereed]

How the hell do any of these people know how seinors voted?

I sure as hell don’t answer any stinking surveys!

[dalereed]

“The boomers have been a fairly conservative vote all of their lives”

You’re full of shit!!!

[dalereed]

“The boomers have been a fairly conservative vote all of their lives”

You’re full of shit!!!

[mojitojoe]

I agree. I think the 50+ generation may be the last truly patriotic generation.... the generation that sees Communism and Socialism for what they are. The government run schools have done a fine job of brainwashing the next generations. Thank God my kids listen to me and not the schools. All 3 are solid conservatives and vote a straight R ticket. Unfortunately, most kids don’t.

This is what is happening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlpODYhnPEo&feature=related

[mojitojoe]

You got it. I truly believe 50 years after we are all gone, this country will be controlled by Communists or Islam.

[shield]

Is this why AARP came out the other day saying it made a mistake in supporting Obamacare?

[rmlew]

This worries me. The left, thanks to our suicidal stupidity, controls the youth. We get the old people, who will
1. Die off.
2. get hysterical about necessary social security and medicare reform.

[ansel12]

You are evidently not only ignorant, but a nasty little fool as well, that wasn’t a post you made, but an idiots childish outburst.