Global Trumpism Lecture explaining the Turnings

[Eric the Green]

(04-15-2019, 12:16 PM)Snowflake1996 Wrote: You seem to have a very rosy view of the baby boomer generation. They’re objectively more conservative than Gen X according to pretty much every single Pew research questionnaire. The only issue Gen X is to “the right” of them on is regarding the optimism of whether or not social security will be there when they retire (although I’m not sure this even counts as a politically conservative; it’s more so just cynicism). I don’t think race and ethnicity explains this 100% either since even when Pew adjusted for race, white millenials and white Xers were still more left wing than white boomers.

The baby boomers were the most supportive of the Vietnam war: 




Also looking at how groups voted in 1976-1988 according to Roper: boomers were barely to the left of their GI/Silent parents in the 1970’s. By 1980 the divide vanishes with every boomer cohort except those aged 18-21. By 1984 the divide is gone among all groups even among the teenagers. Did it really only take Reagan’s initial election for boomers to completely embrace Reaganomics?

EVen in 1992 Bill Clinton’s best group were those aged 65+. He did worse with middle aged boomers despite himself being a baby boomer. He did better with GI’s despite running against a GI WWII veteran.


Boomers were never the hippie left wing caricature the media portrayed them as. They are and have always been a mixed bag in youth and quite conservative leaning after age 35.

Pretty much every survey I've seen and posted here in years past says the boomer generation was more liberal, especially in their voting record, in youth, than Generation X in youth. Today the two generations are about the same, and their voting record is only slightly conservative, not "quite conservative." I am not rosy about the current baby boomers, but I know that some of us have remained true to our awakening, while others have lost it.

White Millennials seem not so much further left than white Boomers, but I'm sure they are to a small degree. They are about 50-50, and so are Boomers as a whole, who are mostly white. I just remember the polls and voting exit polls I have seen and posted here before.

The Boomers led the opposition to the war and the McCarthy and McGovern candidacies (I know since I was involved). I doubt the numbers in your graph, but gallup seems to be the only poll on this. Without boomers there would have been no anti-war movement, and no ecology movement, which together spawned the largest demonstrations in history up until the Trump era. These are what the Boomers should be remembered for, not the Trump or Reagan eras.

The hippie and anti-war cultures were very huge and involved millions all over the country. It's true there were many who were not influenced by them, and it was a mixed bag, but the size of the sixties movements should not be discounted by folks who were born long after and didn't experience these movements at all. If the silent majority included boomers, they were not the ones who spoke up or took action or led any cultural movements. It's true that the Boomer Left was most powerful in places like California, where they gave McGovern his huge victory in the CA primary in 1972. Those who defended the war were mostly GIs, led by Bob Hope and Martha Raye.

Boomers never did anything like "fully embrace Reaganomics." It was always divided on this, as are white millennials and Xers today. Boomers didn't create Reaganomics, and the overall view that it only consists of concern for inflation is incorrect.

It's you guys who have embraced a media caricature of boomers as a lump term for all the mistakes of all the older generations.