Posted on 09/02/2003 4:51:44 PM PDT by Timesink
GALLUP TUESDAY BRIEFING
Government & Public Affairs
September 2, 2003
A special analysis* of Gallup data on the politics of Americans between the ages of 25 and 38 -- post-baby boomers who correspond roughly to "Generation X" -- points toward a more conservative ideology than one might expect, given their relatively young age. Two survey questions focusing on respondents' stances on social and economic issues shed light on where Gen Xers stand ideologically.
Socially Balanced
The famous 1960's admonition to "never trust anybody over 30" alluded to people's penchant to grow more conservative as they get older. Gallup's data suggest that this transition toward conservatism may occur closer to age 40 than age 30.
When asked about their views on social issues, the youngest American adults (18- to 24-year-olds) skew slightly liberal, with 36% saying they are liberal on social issues, compared to 27% who say they are conservative (another 36% say they are moderate on social issues). Gen Xers are more ideologically balanced: 31% identify themselves as liberal, 33% as conservative, and 34% as moderates.
That shift toward conservative thought on social issues plays out among Gen Xers' elders: among those aged 39 and older, just 19% say they are liberal on social issues, while 40% are conservative and 38% say they are moderates.
Conservatism Rooted in the Economy
Americans' earning power and responsibility levels tend to increase with age. With more at stake than their younger counterparts, 25- to 38-year-olds are more conservative when it comes to economics, although not as conservative as older Americans.
The ideology pattern regarding economic issues is similar to that observed on social issues. Members of the youngest age group (18- to 24-year-olds) are the most likely of the age groups to identify themselves as economically liberal (26%), though more in this age group say they are economically conservative (33%) or moderate (40%). The group loosely corresponding to Generation X is somewhat more conservative on economic issues. One in five Gen Xers identify as economically liberal, compared to 39% who are economically conservative and 39% who are moderate.
The trend toward economic conservatism rises sharply after age 38, as 47% of Americans aged 39 and older say they are conservative on economic issues, compared to 12% who say they are liberal, and 38% who call themselves moderate.
Bottom Line
Gen Xers are more likely than those under 25 to identify themselves as conservatives, although many Gen X conservatives say they are political independents rather than Republicans. This dichotomy may be driven by the differentiation between Gen Xers' social and economic ideologies. On social issues, people in this group are fairly ideologically balanced, while on economic issues, they're more likely to skew conservative. Gen Xers are still very much the "middle generation" in American society.
*Results based on an aggregate of telephone interviews with 3,028 American adults, aged 18 and older, taken from polls conducted each May from 2001 through 2003. For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±2 percentage points.
For the sample of 285 18- to 24-year-olds, the maximum margin of sampling error is ±6 percentage points.
For the sample of 733 25- to 38-year-olds, the maximum margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.
For the sample of 1,983 Americans 39 and older, the maximum margin of sampling error is ±2 percentage points.
Same here--I'm 40 and take anyone to task that calls me a baby boomer.
They must be p*ssed that their kids are not adopting their "values."
(I can just hear the talk at the dinner table:
Son, How could you do this to us? Your mother and I didn't work two jobs, put you in daycare, divorce, cohabitate, remarry, and vote Democratic, so that you would grow up and become a Conservative! Haven't we teached you anything?!)
I grew up in a family that was genetically encoded democrat. I remember my mother crying when Carter lost that election. Four years later, I cast my first vote for president....for Ronald Reagan. I think that was the first time anyone in my family voted for a Republican....I think we all vote that way now.
Of course we are winning the younger generations!We are the ones with the new ideas. We are fighting terror, repealing taxes, killing bad foreign treaties such as Kyoto, ABM, and the International Criminal Court (no appeal, no juries, no Miranda rights). We are the ones who want to hand out private school choice vouchers.
Furthermore, technology such as new 3d and 4d sonagrams are convincing more and more people that fetuses really are living babies (imagine that).
In contrast, the Democrats have no new ideas. We've heard their gibberish about enviro-nonsense since before they banned DDT and condemned entire continents to epidemics and plagues. We've heard their pro-choice views since before Roe v Wade. We've heard their healthcare nationalization ideas since before Hillary was in the White House.
How can such tired old ideas be expected to sway younger generations?
In fact, to keep the younger generations from defecting en masse, the Democrats have been compelled to go further and further into Demonizations of Republicans. They have to label us as "haters," "anti-gay," "anti-choice," and even "Racist."
But even that sort of vicious demonization can't be expected to hold the loyalty of younger generations of voters.
Without new ideas of their own, such demonizations can do little more than reduce the overall level of interest in elections by those generations.
NO!!!!!
Please GO away
Your generation the baby boomers have done enough already.
That's one (of many) problems the me, me, me baby boomers have, They believe they are the most enlightened group of people ever to inhabit the earth and that only they can fix all the problems in world if just the other simpleton generations would just listen to them and embrace their brillance and do as they say (But of course not as they do/did) and give them everything they feel they are owed.
Of course to the rest of us, We know it was/is the baby boomers who caused/exacerbated 99% of the problems facing America today and despite their delusions of granduer America and the world will be a much better place once they are all gone.
Well yeah unfortunately the current crop of Republicans in power now are Baby Boomers,
Why should we expect just because some self absorbed, Self congratory, me, me, me, me baby boomer has an (R) after their name would mean they would act any different from the rest of that failure of a generation?
In my case, I've always had a rebel streak in me and it's why I'm not a liberal, since they are more apt to be for big government(at the power of a gun behind it). Not necessarily an in your face type of streak(although I am capable for it), just more apt to ignore it and do my own thing anyway.
That and also the fact that today a lot of the crap in schools is ridiculous. "This is so 'gay'". "This is Bull#%#@" Those were two of the more common things heard back in the day when our time was wasted. Still common today I'm sure.
In my case, I'm mostly conservative Republican with a strong (small l) libertarian streak. The problem with many my age is the attitude of "F@%@ em, they are all the same".
But they will know it; they will see it with their eyes. I saved articles, newspapers, and bought the video, 9/11. I want them to recognize how evil evil truly is, and why we must never become complacent, and why Grandpa now no longer chides Mommy for having a "bunker mentality."
Exactly. The idea that Conservatism=Religious is a pretty obviously false association, but I see it repeated often. My parents are extremely religious and they are serious lefty socialists. The issues should be orthogonal. I hardly know any GenX who are religious. I do think they are very sensitive to perceived propaganda, whether it is coming from the government, religious institutions, or the media. "Cynical" would be a good word, because their distrust of authority does not seem to be a kneejerk anti-establishment distrust.
All GenX really wants is for the government to leave them alone I think. It isn't that they have any strong propensities for 1960s style recklessly permissive behavior, they just don't want to be told what to do on principle, even if their lifestyles are largely conservative in practice. And if you think about it, that sounds a lot like the culture the Americas had right around the revolution.
I was talking about "small-L" libertarian, as in the adjective, not literally the party with that name. "Libertarian" means a small government that minds its own business, doesn't tell people what to do, and doesn't unduly burden the people it governs with taxes and such. Most GenX ARE pragmatic libertarians, "pragmatic" meaning they believe in the general principles of libertarianism ("mind your own business and keep your hands out of my wallet") without drinking the anarcho-capitalism KoolAid that some of the nutters in the LP have been downing by the quart.
There is nothing wrong with being a libertarian conservative, as opposed to the self-labeled "conservatives" who want the government involved in damn near everything (and there are a lot of these).
When my generation did it, they weren't 'hippies,' they were 'burnouts'--stupid morons who started smoking pot at 13 and didn't quit until they were 30 or more, only to find they were still 13 mentally. Blech. Fooking maroons.
God is not kind to those who flush their youths down a toilet.
My politics were formed when I was 13 and first read Lucy Dawidowitz's "The War Against The Jews." I'm not Jewish, but I picked up the theme instantly: whenever you declare one piece of the population to be less then human, you are declaring open season upon them, and they die in large numbers.
The year was 1973.
Of course, we really haven't come to terms with the lesson yet.
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