I'm curious about the age demographics in this Group - please vote!

Oh, crap. You're probly talking about chronological age. I just had my 56th annual 14th birthday last month.

Anyway, isn't it always the role of the old folks to impart wisdom to youth?

There's a lot to be said for remembering the post-war optimism and Roosevelt's long shadow, despite all the problems of those days. Not to mention the hippie era, when we thought we could change the world (and in some measure accomplished that). Having been through all that gives you a different sort of consciousness if you have no direct memories of the world before Reagan.

I think we skew toward the over-50 crowd.

Sad, nonetheless, that we don't have more engagement if my suspicions are correct about the board.

Is it true of our current society?

Go to any county party mtg & it looks like the rec room at the nursing home.

da hot dish.

--and all the staffers are young enough to sleep on the floor when necessary. Younger people like spending evenings looking for Mr/Ms Right, or Mr/Ms Right Now.

the 20s, 30s, 40s are usually people's busiest, obviously. Also too many people are unaware of online independent left news sites & the RW, corporate consolidation of 90% of mainstream media. I wish this was not the case. Yet I've also noticed a good number of active millennials on DU which is hopeful.

Much damage has been done by 20+ years of prolific RW Radio, esp. now, & TV heard all over the US for free in stores, offices, hotels, cars, trucks. If the left doesn't develop a quality, accessible Media outlet, on TV, Radio, online & in print soon, to try to combat this I don't know how we'll ever overcome the dominant widespread lies & misinformation on the right. I think the left underestimates this phenomenon favoring the internet which many people don't even know to use for alternative news.

I'd like to know HOW & WHEN folks came to DU? (I heard of it from Thom H. several yrs. ago).

brought here from a link on the old Democrats.com, whare I had taken refuge after the insane election results.

Been here, fulfilling my role as a general annoyance ever since.

progressive news sources like Thom H. say there's always a lot of 50-60+ who attend mtgs., lectures since younger people are heavy into work. A young guy called his program last week to say he was switching his college major to poly sci since tuning in. Very encouraging. There are plenty of younger liberal, progs., Occupy type youth, not attached to DU or PRG for whatever reason. Don't know, I'm fairly new here.

FDR, Truman, JFK, LBJ were always huge figures to me & I knew my parents, esp. mother respected all.
Recently I read a DU commenter who referred to schools as that kind of 'product'. Really stopped me. I don't know how you can think of a school, library, farm etc. in the language of B-school marketing, the monetary. The pre-Reagan world, the commons I well remember & value. This world of privatization, markets, Reaganomics has eaten away a lot in 35 years. Need to try to turn the neolib. economics around, the 2008 burndown should have done it. In the meantime my 'brand' is liberal as always.

But I had myself convinced that in 2004 it would be straightened out.

But the Democrats betrayed us again and supported, some (HRC) actually promoted the Iraq War.

When 2004 and the Democrats once again allowed the Republicans to steal another election without a whimper, I became active and found DU in 2005 determined to help the Democratic Party to throw out the complicit Conservative Democrats and get some back-bone.

Bless Air America and DU for helping me keep my sanity, so to speak.

(although now she denies it LOL) I joined some time later in Oct. 2012 as a "refugee" from HuffPost which was increasingly anti-Obama.

And this was top of the search at the time, number 2, now. I joined in '04.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/02/11/23_liberal.html

Happy belated birthday, btw. I just hit Medicare eligibility age week before last. Got the card and everything!

Yeah, imparting wisdom would be lovely, if only anyone cared. I never knew there was so much hatred for Baby Boomers out there until I saw it on DU.

Still:

That pretty much nails the way I see it, too. Thank you for saying it so well.

I think that hardest thing of all for younger folks to conceptualize is that when you and I were growing up, a sort of generalized cultural/political liberalism was the default state of our country pre-Reagan. Not that there wasn't always some form of conservatism fighting for space in the public consciousness, but aside from the rightwing fringe of those days (the Birchers and their ilk), it didn't actively seek to completely undo and destroy all things liberal. It was more about seeking accomodation for conservativism within the existing paradigm.

The sense of The Commons was taken as a given - being as it was a traditional value going all the way back to English Common Law. We as a nation were proud of our system of free public schools. We as a nation saw our government as the means by which our needs and the needs of our fellow citizens would be met with impartiality. Government wasn't the enemy, it wasn't "other", except to the fringe nutjobs.

I know I'm glossing over a lot - it's just that life in the U.S. felt different in those days. Workers were proud of their Unions, and we were proud of them for having Unions. We were proud of our National Parks, we proud of the WPA and CCC. We were proud of our arts, proud of our libraries, proud of our universities, proud of our scientists, proud of our family farms, proud of our small businesses, proud of our "classless" society. We felt like the U.S. was doing a damn good job of being an advanced, civilized nation. We knew how to make it all work and we were only going to get better and better.

Yeah, we had the extraordinary good fortune to have lived through a time of general optimism. I can understand how that would be hard to grok if you weren't around then.

Republican party that included moderates and (GASP) liberals.

It wasn't shameful, it hadn't been demonized, it was just a regular part of our politics. Regular people liked liberal, generally thought it was a good thing.

Democrats (although not necessarily "liberals" controlled Congress from 1955 to 1980.

It's SUCH different country now.

ran from liberaism during the Clinton years. Just about the only one left was Ted Kennedy, R.I.P.

The Democratic Party powers that be decided that the 1972 loss was due to McGovern being "too liberal". So they started flailing around trying to figure out how downplay the liberalism thing.

By the time Clinton ran, they had come up with their "solution": the DLC. Which promised that the Democrat party would be showered with campaign contributions from Big Business, if they would simply turn their backs on the old traditional constituancies, like labor unions and civil libertarians and environmentalists and such.

more liberal candidates. Then Reagan 1980 and the strangling of unions, destruction of the commons, and the unrelenting descent of the nation into corporatocracy, which is modernized and re-branded fascism.

I still remember the chest pain I felt when he won.

Among other things, Carter deregulated the airlines. These were minor moves compared to what happened in the Reagan years, but they were something of a beginning phase in the repudiation of the New Deal.

have let the wine of the FDR, LBJ yrs age too long and are just now beginning to realize the cellar door is broken off, half the racks are smashed, and the bastards what done the deed are still there, whoopin' it up. So, they and we are in a state of shock, and younger folks looking at the mess don't know what it's about, but they think they'll still get their share.

We talk a lot about advantageous future demographics. Well, progressives are as subject to the mass extinction theory of politics as any white guy.

with the usernames who have voted in any age group in this poll, there's only one name, so far, that appears in both places.

So unless more of the "Roosevelt" voters show up in this poll, no conclusions can be drawn at this point.

There is only 1 (one) respondent who is 40 or under.
I don't know about DU's demographics
but the PRG is Gen-X and Baby Boomers.
No Gen-Y or Millennials????

And over 55 has always been the second largest age group. Probably the largest these days, since the earliest 45-55 group has been aging into older than 55. So the results of this poll aren't surprising.

It's too bad, though. If younger folks aren't hanging around DU, are they hanging around any other political forums? Or just not into discussing politics at all? I have no idea how to bring them in - although I must say that referencing Roosevelt doesn't seem like much of a way to attract them.

What would DU be without that 50 and Older Group? What would attract the 18 to 20 Somethings to sign up here these days?

Weren't Skinner, Earl G, Elad in their late 20's when they started DU? How old are they now? And Will Pitt in the same late 20's age Group.

Interesting to think about what happened to those in their late teens or Early 20's who were around here back then.

I joined in Spring, 2001. I think you've been here close to the beginning, too.


---------

As you said:

And over 55 has always been the second largest age group. Probably the largest these days, since the earliest 45-55 group has been aging into older than 55. So the results of this poll aren't surprising.

Your registration number is 6358, mine is 6679.

I wonder if from the beginning the majority of DU members skewed older - Skinner, Elad, and Earl G aside. (I wonder how old Walt Starr was? )

I think it's the pre-Reagan generation that retains the memory of how things used to be, and has been most incensed about how things have degenerated since the years of our early adulthood. It pains me when I see younger people post diatribes against the Boomer generation, when we DUers from that generation have remained the most vocal and active and politically engaged for decades - before there even was an internet.

I cringe at the "Anti-Boomer" posts, also. Like we were some "special privileged group" when they have NO IDEA what we lived through in our "young years."

The sad thing is...I liked Walt Starr.....until his flame out. I felt he was just OTT with outrage and needed to go.

"Some" thought he was a long time Troll or something...but, I felt he'd just had enough and went out the way he did...because he just didn't feel right about where he was at that place in his time. I always try to have respect for people who just have ENOUGH of what they've done...and need to leave.

But, he did an all time classic "Flame Out" on DU....didn't he? Who knows....he might STILL be here under Another Name!

DU is a funny place...sometimes like living in a Spy Novel Plot...and other times like "Save the World" .....We Can Do it. I've always been a "Save the World" sort....but, that's not always practical.



Regards,
KoKo

However, I'm surprised I'm the only one who is chronologically under 30. I'm 19, since you were interested in hearing.

And that's not a good thing, imo. If we're going to move forward, we NEED the voices of the young, the ones who will taking on the world after us oldsters die off.

I've yet to be particularly successful at getting participation, but a lot of the articles I've been showing people are at least opening their eyes.

Honestly, it's probably the best thing about DU, being a depository for so much good information.

Whatever it takes to open eyes and deepen understanding, I think that's the most important thing. Hanging around General Discussion and arguing, not so much.

Bunch of old farts up in here

Good to see another young'un! Time to show 'em what we got!

Hello!

We're a rather rare species around here

Thank you for being here! I hope we'll hear more from you.

Thanks for posting!

Man, we are WAY overbalanced in the old fart contingent. I'm really happy to see some young blood!

I'm 44 and thinking it's odd that I'm being considered a whiny pony-wanter who just doesn't get how politics works.

But it's very nice to see that I'm not the only older person disillusioned with what has become of my political party and that many of us have been through the cyle and ringer many, many times now.

older than you. Grew up in the 70s with my dad belonging to a union. The under 40s - they are much less likely to have had that experience.

folks who are my senior.

I've been involved in political communications for many years, so since the election I've been suggesting changes to the way Democrats communicate here in Michigan. Let's just say people don't want to admit to problems.

and older people in particular. Not all of us oldsters, of course, look at the names of all the 50+ people in the poll here - I would say that us older folks hanging out in this group ARE open to change.

Another factor may be arrogance - like, what would a youngster like you know? We've been doing this stuff since you were in diapers, we know better than you. Again, I am hopeful that we oldsters here in this group are not going to have that mindset, but it certainly exists IRL. (And I know that 27 isn't really a "youngster", but as a person gets older, people in their 20s can seem like they're still kids, relatively speaking.)

So, throw some denial into the mix - "Let's just say people don't want to admit to problems." - and you've got some heavy resistance.

I'm very glad you're here in the PRG - we are seriously short of young people, obviously! Hopefully, this can be a place for mutual learning. I very much want to get younger peoples' perspectives, and maybe as we all engage with each other, you'll hone your own skills for breaking through the resistance of your fellow Dems in Michigan.

Thanks for being here!

lied about being at least 16?

I've mentioned a couple times to the admins that the date was wrong. It's one of those things that can't be fixed easily. They have better things to do anyway.

When I did join, we were getting close to war in Iraq (that's part of why I joined, BTW - I knew there had to be others who thought it was ridiculous).