The Patriot Post® · The Political Direction of Gen X vs. Gen Z
Generational comparisons, like many other demographic group comparisons, are the stuff political analysts love to pick over. The New York Times recently released political polling that found more grist for the mill.
Overall, voters currently prefer Republican congressional candidates over Democrats 49% to 45%. It’s not a surprising result given the current myriad of factors leading into the midterms, not the least of which is spiking inflation and fears of a coming (if not already here) recession. The question most political pundits have been asking now is not so much if there will be a red wave but rather just how big it will be.
Most pundits across the spectrum have effectively conceded that Republicans will win the House. Therefore, the lion’s share of attention has focused on several key Senate races in states such as Arizona, Georgia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. But just three weeks out from the election, there is clearly a growing sense that Republicans have made up significant ground from a month or two ago, and the ripples of a red wave even in the Senate are beginning to appear.
While the Times’s polling shows this is happening, digging down into the numbers reveals an interesting phenomenon. When broken down by age demographic, there are stark trend lines. Those age 45 to 64 (mostly Generation X) break for Republicans by over 20 points, 59% to 38%. That’s a significant margin, especially when compared to the next two younger age brackets, ages 30 to 44 (primarily Millennials) and ages 18 to 29 (largely Generation Z), who break for Democrats 50% to 41% and 52% to 40%, respectively.
What accounts for this huge political difference between these generations? Is it merely the case that people tend toward conservatism as they age? That likely accounts for some of it. After all, the old saying (often wrongly attributed to Winston Churchill) is this: “If you’re not a liberal when you’re 25, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by the time you’re 35, you have no brain.” Then again, poll respondents age 65 and older split evenly between Democrats and Republicans.
It may be that Gen Xers place little faith in big government. Gen Xers certainly have been a more independent minded and self-sufficient generation, often regarded as the forgotten generation in between the more populous and attention-grabbing Boomers and Millennials. And in many ways, that’s completely fine with Gen X. It’s likely why concern over the economy is one of the top concerns for Gen Xers.
“We worry that a recession is going to wreck our financial plans or that taxes will have to go up — our taxes, mostly — to cover ballooning budget deficits,” contends Washington Post opinion columnist Megan McArdle, herself a Gen Xer. “We remember — if a bit vaguely — all the 20th-century horrors that now seem to be in reruns. (We remember reruns.) We remember how inflation and rampant crime and the threat of nuclear war loomed over our childhood. We are displeased to find these threats looming over our own children, too.”
Digging into the generational differences a little deeper, the vast majority of Gen Xers still believe in the American ideals delineated in the Constitution. Freedom of speech is still important to this age cohort, and they know speech doesn’t equal violence. Unfortunately, for far too many younger folks, offensive words are so dangerous that they should be regulated. It is ironic that the Democrat Party that embraced and championed tolerance and free speech as its most defining characteristics during much of Gen Xers’ formative years now eschews those genuinely liberal principles.
Ultimately, the experience of Gen Xers may be best described by the immortal words of Ronald Reagan: “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me.”