America’s Defining Divide Isn’t Left vs. Right. It’s Old vs. Young.

[dukkha]

he U.S. electorate is the oldest it’s ever been and will keep getting older for at least four more decades.

Researchers call it the “demographic transition.” Americans over 65 are now the fastest-growing age group in the country. The U.S. Census projects that by 2035, the population past retirement age will outnumber the population under 18 for the first time in history. While younger, more diverse generations have captured the media narrative about U.S. politics, its defining feature in the future may be its oldest participants.

“As much as diversity is growing in the U.S., the baby boomer generation still has a lot of financial power, political power and consumer power,” said William Frey, a demographer and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “There’s a lot of focus in the media on the younger generations, but in fact, the younger population is growing more slowly than seniors.”

America’s current demographic makeup, Frey said, is unprecedented. Due to rising longevity, falling birth rates and the sheer number of baby boomers (currently between 55 and 73 years old), today’s older Americans have held onto power longer than any previous generation. In 1950, as the boom began, just 8 percent of Americans were over 65; the United States had more people under 25 than over 45. By 2010, when the boomers began to retire, those numbers had flipped and the share of the population over retirement age had increased by 50 percent.

Their power goes beyond raw numbers. Older Americans are more likely to vote than millennials and Gen Xers, particularly in midterm and primary elections. They are three times more likely to donate to political campaigns. Plus, they are clustered in rural and sparsely populated states, giving them disproportionately large Senate and Electoral College representation. This partly explains why the average member of Congress is now 58.6 years old, roughly a decade older than they were in 1981 and two decades older than the population at large.

Without a dramatic increase in immigration or a sudden doubling of the birth rate, this is likely to be a permanent shift. The elderly population will continue to grow until at least 2026⁠. By 2050, demographers expect the number of Americans over 65 to roughly triple and the number of Americans in their 20s to decline.




his creates a paradox for the candidates vying for the presidential nomination in 2020 and beyond. Though the most high-profile policy ideas ― subsidized childcare, paid leave, universal health care ― address the concerns of younger generations, the election itself may be determined by voters unlikely to reap their benefits and wary of paying their costs.

“To a great extent, older voters are still setting the agenda,” said Andrea Campbell, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology political scientist. “They’re incredibly important to both parties’ coalitions. Politicians remain reluctant to run afoul of older voters.”

And it’s likely to stay that way for a very long time.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ameri...b0ed0a00136b0c

[NiftyNiblick]

Those are very pertinent facts, but I wouldn't diminish the left vs. right divide either.

We have huge segments of society whose values are completely repugnant to one another.
Coastal Americans and Middle Americans will not be happy with the same government.

Coastal types are more progressively liberal and much more secular.
We resent Middle Americans for keeping our nation socially regressive.
They resent us for pushing modernity of thought.

Nobody has suggested a viable solution so far, so unity is not in America's near future.

[dukkha]

i thought it was interesting considering all the coverage on kid's stuff

[Centerleftfl]

Total bullshit! The BINARY mind of the RIGHT WING.

I'm not even going to explain. As WE've said a million times before, the world isn't black and white. Never was. SIMPLETONS will never get it.

[Micawber]

Wrong, biggest fissure is urban v rural

[Micawber]

Those are very pertinent facts, but I wouldn't diminish the left vs. right divide either.

We have huge segments of society whose values are completely repugnant to one another.
Coastal Americans and Middle Americans will not be happy with the same government.

Coastal types are more progressively liberal and much more secular.
We resent Middle Americans for keeping our nation socially regressive.
They resent us for pushing modernity of thought.

Nobody has suggested a viable solution so far, so unity is not in America's near future.

A divide Russia is happy to exaggerate using idiots like Trump

[dukkha]

Total bullshit!

I'm not even going to explain.

so now demographics are "bullshit"