Seniors doin’ it Democratically
Published by punkass marc August 25th, 2007 in Politics, another fucking sex postMaybe it’s coincidence. Maybe it’s proof of a correlation between getting laid and voting Democratic.
How these pieces of evidence relate to each other is up for debate, but we do know two things:
1) Of all age groups in 2004, 70-80 year olds were by far the most likely to vote Democrat.
My ageism revealed itself as I learned that little fact. While I knew there was bound to be some old-school loyalty to the days of FDR out there, I had no idea the Democrats possessed such a pronounced lead among the elderly. I figured there’d be a lot of cane-shaking at the tree-hugging hippies and Plan B hoochie-mamas (see what I mean about the ageism?) despite avowed Democratic support for Medicare and Social Security. Obviously, I was wrong.
It’s also interesting to note that the only ages won by the Republicans in 2004 were the 30-40 year olds. The generation of wannabe Alex P. Keatons sucks.
2) Along with voting Dem, old folks are getting laid, people:
The first comprehensive national survey of the sexual attitudes, behaviors and problems of U.S. adults age 57 and older finds many are having sex often. In fact, the frequency of sexual activity dropped only slightly between the late 50s up to the early 70s.
And more than half of those in the oldest age group — 75 to 85 — who were sexually active reported having sex at least two to three times per month, and 23 percent reported having sex at least once a week.
Approximately 47 forms of cancer run rampant through my family lineage, so I have little hope for reaching 75 (much less 85), but if I do, I pray that I’m able to make with the boom-boom as often as your typical senior citizen.
A very annoying relative once said to me that if you aren’t a Democrat when you’re 20, you have no heart, but if you aren’t a Republican by age 40, you have no brain. It appears, though, that the only majority stupid enough to be duped by the Republicans are people in their 30s, i.e. folks who are more likely to be knee deep in debt, children, and job frustration than those in their early 20s or late 70s. Anyone want to bet they’re also suffering more sexual frustration than their younger and older counterparts?
However you slice it, here’s to the generation I sorely underestimated when it came to sex and party politics. May you teach your annoying Republican children the value of free love and national health care.
Congratulations on conquering your presumptions against older folks. But then you ripped on my whole generation (I’m 34 and have never voted Republican) as if we’re all “Alex P. Keaton wannabes”.
From the article:
“But younger Baby Boomers and those in Generation X (roughly ages 30-44) are somewhat more Republican.
The parties are virtually even among the youngest cohort of citizens today. “
“Somewhat more Republican”. And your generation is “virtually even”. Give yourself a few years and see what your generation does, then come back and judge us.
Remember: we’re the ones who put Clinton in office in 1992.
A very annoying relative once said to me that if you aren’t a Democrats when you’re 20, you have no heart, but if you aren’t a Republican by age 40, you have no brain.
Are they assigned that line in the handbook? I’ve heard it from a bunch of Republican men and they all gloat like they thought of it themselves.
Eh, Beta. I doubt he was trying to say all, since he’s 31 and I’m 30.
I will say when I first got into blogging, I was perturbed by the fact that the majority of right wing bloggers are my generation—seriously, check out their profiles. The 25-45 cohort dominates the right wing blogs in a way it just doesn’t on the left. My assumption has been that it was two factors: 1) Reactionaries, pretty much by definition, are inflexible in their thinking so the only ones who were willing to use computers are the ones who grew up with them and 2) A lot of right wing bloggers got going post-dot com bust, when they lost their jobs. Not all, but a significant enough percentage, of computer programmers are social misfit misogynists who are drawn to calling themselves “libertarians” and were both unable to process 9/11 and slightly aroused by Bush’s codpiece. Unemployed, emasculated, able to use computers: It was a recipe for creating a right wing blogging juggernaut.
Eh, Beta. I doubt he was trying to say all, since he’s 31 and I’m 30.
Hard to tell, since he called my generation “they” while calling us all “stupid” and saying we “suck”. Gee, I can’t imagine why that made me feel “othered”. Silly me!
Point of info: before 40, so-called “generational trends” actually have little to do with what year you were born and more to do with which decade of life you’re in: generally, people in their 20s think they’re going to fix the world, and in their thirties they realize they can’t. Most people in their thirties choose to give up and focus only on their own comfort, and this is true in every generation, like it or not.
Actually, I said the only “majority” stupid enough to be duped. I am 31 and do not fall into that majority. You also do not fall into it. Ergo, not stupid.
[And also probably getting laid.]
And to be clear, the generation of Alex P Keatons *does* suck — just like the generation of Little Nixons and the generation of Neocons, etc. That does not mean all people of that age group are wannabe Alex P Keatons or any of those other groups, but there is a large group of people spanning the generation that fall into that category. If I was down on everyone age 30-44, I would say “that generation sucks.” Saying the generation of Alex P Keatons sucks doesn’t strike me as the same thing. Sorry if I was being unclear.
A very annoying relative once said to me that if you aren’t a Democrats when you’re 20, you have no heart, but if you aren’t a Republican by age 40, you have no brain.
I’ve heard that from my ex-hippie “I burned my bra with the other feminists in the sixties” mother, squished between a goddamn-illegalz rant and a slice of “Of course I understand how you think - I was the same way at your age!” condescension. Although with her it was liberal/conservative and not Democrat/Republican. It’s a wonderful way for conservatives to pretend that their positions are intrinsically brainier without having to concede the moral high-ground to the liberals (since they, too, had “heart” back when they were young and foolish).
Thanks, Marc, for taking the time to clarify. As I read it (or maybe as I think of it) I am within the generation of Alex P. Keaton wannabes whether I wannabe him or not, so I took it as a general slam against everyone born in those years.
All my grandparents are/were democrats because they were seriously warped by the Depression. Just the other day my grandma was telling me that she saw a picture in the news paper of people with their furniture on the front lawn due to the recent housing loan problems and how it was like what she saw during the Depression. Scary.