Younger generations tend to be more liberal than older ones.
On the Democratic side this election has a cohort of younger (and predominantly White) who are strongly supporting a message of economic progressiveness.
Overall how much more liberal are younger voters than older voters?
Do voters become more economically conservative as they age?
Do voters vote more according to their views on the economic or the social axes?
Pew data on the first question. (Some quotes from one link in.)
The younger cohort has fewer “Steadfast Conservatives” and fewer “Business Conservatives” but more of the “Young Outsiders — GOP leaners who favor limited government but are socially liberal” and the most “Bystanders — not registered to vote, don’t follow politics and generally the least politically engaged.” There are marginally more Solid Liberals, more “Next Generation Left, who tilt more to the Democrats but are wary of social-welfare programs.” Fewer “Faith and Family Left” who “lean Democratic, based on their confidence in government and support for federal programs to address the nation’s problem” but are religious and “uncomfortable with the pace of societal change, including the acceptance of homosexuality and non-traditional family structures.” Perhaps most interestingly, relatively fewer “Hard Pressed Skeptics”, those “battered by the struggling economy, and their difficult financial circumstances have left them resentful of both government and business.”
Bottom line, “the relationship is considerably more complex than young=liberal and old=conservative.” More who are divergent on different axes if anything. And few among the younger voters who are the resentful because of being battered by the economy … which one would think would be the group most focused on a revolution of economic structures.
Some who were romantics in '96 grew into stodgy businessmen, pursy-lipped and suspicious, some remained radical fools until the day they died. It was natural for the fat safe timid elderly bourgeois to vote for the comforting surety of the Prince-President — just as they would flock to Clinton now ( although she’s more of a Thiers, always there and always despicable ); and it was just as natural that an ass like Hugo would move steadily leftwards until he would fall off a cliff.
The plump sweetness of a bud in no way presages the blown flower.
Don’t know if I’d agree with this. I was very right wing when I was in my 20s and thought liberalism was responsible for all of what plagued society.
I think age has probably made me more rigid in the opinions that I have fully formed, meaning that once they are set, I probably won’t reverse myself. But I’m talking about attitudes more than opinions about specific laws or policies.
But despite lower birth rates the Millennial generation is larger than even the Boomers. (Impact of immigration.) And while individuals may indeed on average become marginally more Conservative (as defined in by the U.K. parties, which does not overlap exactly into American politics), there are also significant differences based on events that occur to generations and from other non-age demographic shifts and what occurs that impacts those specific demographics.
The recession thus may have lasting impact on political preferences even if there is a gradual shift moderating that impact, just as my parent’s generation was impacted by the events of WW2.
