Posted on 04/21/2015 2:33:23 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The 2016 presidential race is shaping up as an epic struggle between generations.
On one side are the ageing baby boomers who came of age in the 1960s and whose generation now is heading toward retirement - Democrat Hillary Clinton, who would be 69 on Election Day and the second oldest president ever, and Republican Jeb Bush, who would turn 64 soon after becoming president.
On the other is a wave of younger faces who came of age in the 1980s, including Republicans Marco Rubio, 43; Ted Cruz, 44; Scott Walker, 47; Chris Christie and Rand Paul, each 52.
It’s not just the candidates who make this a generational battle. It’s voters. Younger people see the world differently. They’re far more willing to embrace social changes and to communicate electronically. Older voters, though, are hardly fading away. They remain determined to see a secure Social Security and Medicare system, a more efficient healthcare operation and more direct aid to help struggling workers.
Rubio, who would be the third-youngest person ever to be sworn in as president, summoned the need to hand the baton to his generation when he kicked off his campaign by telling a Miami audience that the generation before him “put us at a disadvantage by taxing, borrowing and regulating like it’s 1999”. As he spoke to New Hampshire activists last Friday, supporters passed out signs saying, “Marco Rubio A New American Century”.
Clinton’s announcement video and tours of Iowa and New Hampshire in recent days tried to assure younger people, particularly the racial minorities who make up an important part of the Democratic Party’s base, that with government’s help they could lead fulfilling middle-class lives while their parents are assured of being comfortable. But her appeal was far less targeted to that generation. She spoke in broader strokes, stressing the crying need for economic fairness.
Republicans are going out on riskier limbs. Christie last week offered a detailed plan to revamp Social Security and Medicare, including raising the eligibility ages and phasing out Social Security benefits for those earning more than $80,000 from other sources.
Few serious presidential candidates would have dared to tinker with those programmes even a few years ago. Today, such blueprints are a potentially effective strategy for mobilising a new wave of voters, those born during and after the Reagan administration.
Those younger voters tend to be more conservative and less loyal to any specific political party, said Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, director of Massachusetts-based CIRCLE, which studies young voter trends.
“Young people would like to be interactive with government,” said Kawashima-Ginsberg. “They want to see politicians being responsive.”
Older voters also want responsiveness, but of a different sort. The elderly population is expected to more than double by 2050, with most growth between now and 2030, according to the Census Bureau.
“We are facing an unprecedented age dependency,” people who will rely on Social Security and Medicare, said William Frey, a senior fellow and demographics expert at Washington’s Brookings Institution.
Older people tend to vote in bigger numbers and have shown themselves more inclined to support Clinton or Bush.
The younger voters are a growing counterforce. Frey noted that “the most important element of our demographic transformation is the one occurring at younger ages.” Hispanics, blacks and others “will replace their aging white counterparts,” he said.
Frey estimated that in a dozen years, more than half the young adult labour force will be racial minorities.
A generational struggle?
How did he discover that angle? So it isn’t about anything but the age of everyone involved.
By the way, Rand Paul and Chris Christie, are also baby boomers.
New York Times
“”75 is the approximate number, in millions, of millennials that the United States will have this year. The total of millennials — those born from 1981 to 1997 — will reach 75.3 million, overtaking baby boomers (1946 to 1964)””
Well, I dunno about this "communicate electronically" thing. Never done it myself, don't think it has much of a future.
I really don’t think that age is much of a factor here.
There is no struggle. the Greatest Generation is pretty much dead. The silent generation are in their eighties. The boomers have one more cycle, then they are done.
Thank God and good riddance.
“Thank God and good riddance.”
Now that’s not nice.
.
Never mind that whole Size and Scope stuff.
Why must everything be analyzed from political angle?
Reforming Soc. Sec. and Medicare has to be done. Well, everything in government needs to be reformed. The waste is astronomical.
My vote goes to POGO. He knows who the enemy is and was not afraid to say it,”US”.
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Well, I dunno about this "communicate electronically" thing. Never done it myself, don't think it has much of a future.
The future?
The future is Now.
Narcissist's unite under a political umbrella of selfies posted on Facebook Linkedin for an ever expanding list of friends they will never meet. Superficial constructs of what they think other people want them to think, all expressed in 140 characters or less.
Lets see, I earn $80,001 from my IRA one year but only $79,999 the next year. Will my Social Security kick in and out? Christie is an A$$. With a little effort he could devise an IRS like form that would take a couple of accountants and an hour on turbo-tax to satisfy the gummint! Since Social Security is considered the "Third Rail" of politics Christie should go sit on it.JMHO
That was a bit of a joke. FR is electronic communication and we’ve been doing it since before many “young people” were born. You’re certainly correct about the 140 character limitation, too. We don’t have it here, although certain Mods have threatened to cut my posts off when
You almost had me.
My first reply was going to ask if you’re logged in?
A lot of that 1960s generation is still around, Mick Jagger, Jane Fonda, William Ayers, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Carly Simon, Van Morrison, Bob Seeger, Davy Jones, Pete Townshend, Mickey Dolenz, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck.
LOL!
I was thinking of the idiots in Congress. I enjoy the folks you listed. But at 70 something, how long is Paul Macartney going to be influencing anyone’s?
And Davy Jones is dead.
I just wanted to point out that a lot of the Silent generation is still around.
Boomers like Palin and Rand Paul will be around for quite a while.
I understand your point. But most of those you indicated are boomers, born in the mid to late 40’s.
John McCain is a Silent genner.
My point is simply that their impact on the political world is dismissing over the next cycle. The Silent Generation is the only recent generation that did not produce a single President. They are the younger siblings of the Greatest Gen, and they have always been in their shadow.
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