Something you’ve probably heard by now is that the Republican Party’s decision to decimate reproductive rights—and celebrate the overturning of Roe v. Wade like it was the greatest thing to ever happen to America—has not gone over great with voters. The 2022 midterm elections, which were supposed to be a red tsunami for the GOP, were anything but: Democrats picked up a seat in the Senate and Republicans just barely took back the House, with voters in critical states citing abortion as the most important issue of the day. A year later, the right to an abortion was enshrined in Ohio’s state constitution; Kentucky voters reelected pro-choice governor Andy Beshear; and Democrats took control of Virginia’s state legislature, preventing the GOP governor from limiting abortion moving forward, which he’d planned to do. The results were unambiguous: The American people want abortion rights.
Now, with the 2024 election less than a year away, what are Republicans running for higher office to do? According to GOP strategist and Donald Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, the answer is simple: make their campaign slogan something like, “Yeah, we took away your reproductive rights, but, hey, we’re letting you keep contraception, and that’s something!”
Potential problems with your theory are that old people voting percentage isn’t way higher than young people and that people tend to get more conservative as they age.
The boomers were the ones out protesting the Vietnam War and fighting for civil rights. Now they are the establishment and behaving the same as those who they protested in their youth.
Hopefully, the batshit craziness will die down, but there will be new conservatives to replace the ones who die off.
People tend to get more conservative as they gain wealth and have something to conserve, hence that trend not continuing for millennials as of yet
This is the real answer. And it makes sense too. Also, your formative years impact your beliefs. Gen X is increasingly conservative, even though they’re stuck in the same crap as millennials. They grew up in the “greed is good” 80s.
https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/first-read/poll-gen-x-gen-z-take-different-political-paths-rcna66264
Notice how millennials are the least conservative generation by far? That’s what comes from being shit on by the economy for years.
My father has been telling me this for decades. When I was 18, he said that I’d become a conservative at 21. In my 20’s, he said I’d become a conservative in my 30’s. In my 30’s, it was in my 40’s. Now that I’m 48, he says that I’ll become a conservative “when I get older.” (I guess he got tired of updating the date.)
Meanwhile, if anything, I’m getting more liberal. If you asked me in 2010 about gay marriage/marriage equality, I probably would have answered “marriage is for men and women, gay people should be allowed to have civil unions, though.” Obviously, that’s not my current position. Now, I think any two consenting adults should be allowed to marry (with very few exceptions - e.g. cases of incest). I didn’t get more conservative as I aged, I got more liberal.
Furthermore, if people get more conservative as they age, how does one explain Bernie Sanders?
Yes, some people get stuck in the past and can’t keep up, but there isn’t a hard and fast rule that says people move to the right as they age.
Same boat. I went from teenage Libertarian to European style Socialism please.
Neither of my parents did. Same goes for my step-father, even though he was a self-proclaimed “hippy” as a young man.
A lot of those neo-progressive protesters didn’t survive / keep voting rights into the 2020’s for various reasons, intentional & otherwise.
I don’t think that’s particularly accurate. I don’t think people radically change their political ideology after reaching adulthood. Rather, the political spectrum shifts around them.
I would say that today’s progressives are yesterday’s radicals, and tomorrow’s conservatives.
I like to think we have two progressive parties, just one is lagging the other by about 60 years.