source: Wikipedia
The old wisdom says that "If You Are Not a Liberal When You Are Young, You Have No Heart, and If You Are Not a Conservative When Old, You Have No Brain". There are many variations of this quote, often wrongly attributed to Winston Churchill, but they all mean to say the same: young people are liberals, progressives or leftists because they're more radical, idealistic and sentimental, and old people are conservatives because they're more pragmatic. The mere notion that older people tend to vote for conservative parties is backed by the evidence of the polls and elections: in both America and Europe conservative parties lean on the support of the middle-aged and elderly. That's a double advantage, because not only are western societies aging, older people are more likely to vote as well.
Even biology and psychology seem to support this idea. Our brains develop well into our twenties, all the time connecting and reconnecting synapses, forming an ever changing and flexible connectome, which is a comprehensive map of neural connections in the brain. We never lose this flexibility in its entirety, but it becomes harder to make new connections as we get older. So it's only natural that we become more resistant against changes, and like for things to stay the same. It's not just our muscles and joints that become less flexible when we get older. We all know it, we all know that older member of the family who's set in their ways and whose mind is impossible to change.
But that begs the question: is the quote really true? If someone's a liberal during their brain's flexible period, aren't they set in their ways as well? Do you know anyone who's been a tolerant, progressive liberal all their life and suddenly became a bigoted conservative after passing the age of 35? I don't. So maybe there are other reasons why our ageing demographics tend to vote conservative. Maybe it has something to do with the generation they grew up in, with the socioeconomic circumstances in which they became adults and spent their professional careers. One giant piece of evidence against the quote's truth is the fact that the world is becoming more progressive over time. And that is a fact, no matter how much the GOP would like it not to be.
Let me share some of my personal experience here. I'm 54 years old now and a member of the Gen X generation that came right after the Baby Boomers; I believe that all generations after mine have had a harder time to gather individual wealth , save money, buy a house or find a lasting and secure job that pays well. In my parent's house, only my father worked, a simple factory job at that. But with that single income he paid for me and my sister to go to school, we went on vacation almost every year, and he had a new second-hand car every 5 or 6 years. In my own house my wive and I both have to work, we have only one son who's now renting a small room of his own, but we rarely have money to go anywhere. That's just one generation's difference, and I can't look my son in the eyes and promise him he'll have a better life than I have.
What I'm saying is this: older generations, born before or right after the Second World War, had a life in which wages still kept up with rising productivity, houses were much cheaper relative to their incomes, had the opportunity to build at least some measure of savings and wealth. They were also born in a time when casual racism wasn't frowned upon, when homosexuality was a taboo, when marriage was legal only between a man and a woman, in some regions only within their own race, when climate change wasn't threatening life as we know it, and I could go on here but I think you know what I mean. People tend to vote in their own interests (or think they do), and the generations who were able to gather personal wealth are more likely to vote against public spending and for tax cuts. They'll prioritize crime and traditional values over healthcare, education or a Green New Deal. And let's not talk about that racist uncle who longs for the days of segregation and open racism...
This process of generational replacement could be very important, because it implies that rightwing parties are fighting against the tide of history. On this argument, the Conservative electorate is effectively dying out.
source: The Guardian
Younger generations are far more tolerant and progressive, not because they're hopeless idealists, but because they grew up in a time when homosexuality, gender fluidity and inter-racial relationships have been normalized and same sex marriages are legalized. They start their professional careers with a massive debt hanging over their heads, their jobs don't pay enough to responsibly start a family and a house of their own seems forever out of their reach. In the meantime they've seen billionaires enrich themselves during a pandemic that had them tighten their belts, while their profits are prioritized over climate change, fair wages or equitable taxation. Sure, they'll one day be set in their ways too, but I doubt it'll be anything like the petrified conservative mindset the current GOP holds.
The above linked article isn't an endorsement of the opinion I share with you here; it concludes that "politicians of the right should perhaps worry less about appealing to younger voters, in the hope that they’ll stick with the same party as they age. Instead, the main concern should be ensuring the continued loyalty of their older voters." I don't agree, at least not in the long term. The immediate success of more progressive political parties will depend on young voters' willingness to go out and vote. But in the long run the progressive project will be victorious, not only because of what I've said in the previous paragraph, but because it's the only sensible route forward. Especially when it comes to economics, leftists are the ones using rational arguments for a more equitable and more just future. Billionaires, to give just one example, shouldn't exist. To be more precise, let's put it like this: if you have so much money that world leaders are compelled to sit down and negotiate with you, you've got too much money, because now you're a king when we're supposed to live in a democracy. That's just common sense, not arguing from emotion or idealism, and a perfect example of leftist reasoning.
That's it for today. I hope you'll take ten minutes to watch the below linked video, which was the inspiration, alongside the failure of the GOP to materialize their predicted "Red Wave" in the mid-term elections and Trump's announcement that he'll be running for the presidency in 2024. I only hope the young voters will be able to prevent another conservative president, whoever becomes the candidate for the GOP.
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