New Research: People - DON'T - Get More Conservative as They Get Older

[kpete]

People Don't Get More Conservative as They Get Older

"Amidst the bipartisan banter of election season, there persists an enduring belief that people get more conservative as they age -- making older people more likely to vote for Republican candidates," according to Discovery News.

"Ongoing research, however, fails to back up the stereotype... In fact, studies show that people may actually get more liberal over time when it comes to certain kinds of beliefs. That suggests that we are not pre-determined to get stodgy, set in our ways or otherwise more inflexible in our retirement years."

http://news.discovery.com/human/voter-conservative-aging-liberal-120119.html
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/01/24/people_dont_get_more_conservative_as_they_get_older.html

take that tea-nutters...
kpete

[GoneOffShore]

1. Certainly went that way for me.

I used to be just mildly pink in university.

I'm now a full blown lefty/hippie/commie f**k.

And I've been collecting Social Security for two years.

[kestrel91316]

2. I have noticed for years that the older I get, the lefter I lean.

Conservatism is a trait of SELFISH CHILDREN.

[DrDan]

3. I agree with that - of course there are a lot here who like to pin that label on seniors

I find a lot of seniors become much more open minded as they age.

[Blue_Tires]

4. dad went moderate right as a senior

mom's liberal views have never changed...

I was mostly moderate until 2000, and the Bush years pushed me waaayyy to the left

[Liberal Veteran]

5. I think it's a wash.

Some folks get more conservative, some more liberal, some folks stay the same.

It is kinda logical that older folks are less likely to follow and pursue the latest fads which might make them appear hidebound, but that has little bearing on such things as attitudes about human rights, etc.

[serqet]

6. awesome news...can't wait

to post to my facebook page! Thanks for posting!

[Schema Thing]

7. assuming that even a tiny bit of wisdom comes with age, then this is self-evident :)

[unblock]

8. the only profound change i've observed is that dementia/senility seems to trigger a lurch rightward.

also bigotry. DAMN i've heard some nasty things from people in the last few years of their lives that they would have NEVER said prior to the mind melt.

[Odin2005]

11. I think it's because dementia destroys self control.

[southernyankeebelle]

9. Am 64 yrs old and I have always considered myself a social democrat like my mom.

[Odin2005]

10. That myth comes from the early 60s, when...

When there was a quite conservative generation in the 65+ age group (Eisenhower's WW1 Generation).

[hifiguy]

12. I was a Kennedy-style liberal Dem in my college days

Thirty years later I am a Social Democrat and a structural Marxist.

I must have lost the memo.

[redqueen]

13. Excellent...

good to see this particular bit of nonsense getting a long-deserved debunking.

[jwirr]

14. I think that makes a lot sense and where you see it happening as with the Tbaggers I think fear

plays a major role. Fear and listening to the wrong media.

[DLine]

15. I voted for Bush in 2000...

That was when I was 22 years old. Im now 34 and my push to the left was from making my political judgements based on facts and knowledge rather than emotional knee jerk reactions to one side of a story.

[Zorra]

16. If I get any farther gone beyond left

I'm afraid I may fall off the universe.

The last 30 years have caused me to go from radical liberal to regarding hard core communists as moderates/centrists.

It was Dems not getting it done when we had huge majorities in Congress and the WH that totally spun me.

I realized then, beyond all doubt, that only non-violent revolution is going save the planet from the predations of the 1%.

?☮?☮ccupy

http://occupii.org/

[TBF]

17. That makes sense to me - folks gather actual experience and change.

I come from a strong labor family - both parents belonged to unions when I was young. I actually was a little more conservative coming out of college (Reagan years) even with the union background. After a few years in the working world, and especially when I got to the managerial level, everything my parents had said made much more sense. Now I'm even further left than they were because I know for sure what is discussed in the board room.

[Tom Ripley]

18. So many people have assumed that Churchill's self-serving quip was the truth for all

[MisterP]

19. I think that stereotype came from the 60s and 70s:

the older generations (the Greatest Generation in charge then) were overall more conservative than the radicals (excluding the 30s' New Dealers and Lincoln Brigade members, of course), including the Cold War Liberals (who themselves began splitting up as JFK moved away from the Cold War, Eisenhower denounced the MIC, and LBJ grew his hair out); in the 70s and 80s, many of the Boomers went conservative; 1976 saw the libertarian/business/televangelist/militarist Reagan coalition come together and start snowballing, as it would until 1984-87

all of these generational and political changes were generalized into a belief that people got conservative as they got older, or had kids, or what-have-you

[Solly Mack]

20. I know I haven't.

I'm just not built that way.