Geeze, everyone, whats with the blaming Seniors lately. Post

[yy4me]

after post, there is some kind of a wise crack about the senior vote and that we are all tied to mcsame's apron strings. Enough of that. It is a stereotype that needs to be disabused. We are no more on his bandwagon than the rest of you.

Our futures may be a little shorter than yours. We will be even harder hit than a lot of you. Have you ever sat with a group of seniors and talked about where this country had been and how we see it going forward?

It is not a senior vote, a black vote, a womans vote that will take this election for Obama. It will be a combined effort of fed-up Americans.

Enough with the demented, the senile, the pre-baby boomer voters blowing this thing. We, all of us will be equally responsible if we lose to the party that perpetuates the status quo.

[Trajan]

1. GEEEZ ....

I have seen NO POSTS that even mention seniors .....

DU is one weird place sometimes .....

[yy4me]

6. Check this, now locked

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x7131142

[bigdarryl]

2. Because some of them are in a time warp they think 1950's and 1960's

black and white seniors.

[BrainStorm]

3. Whenever DUers are afraid of Obama losing because one group or another favors McCain,

even slightly, then the whole group gets slammed. It's happened with a lot of different groups. Seniors are just the latest.

[1corona4u]

4. I agree...I'm getting pretty tired of that...

and all of the racial divide post.

[jkshaw]

5. Pre-baby boomers?

I BABYSAT baby boomers!

[petersjo02]

7. I'm 66, my husband 71.

The reason we're voting Obama is that we have functioning brains and McCain doesn't. That should be obvious to anyone following this campaign, no matter what age, skin color, height, weight, eye color, hair color, waist circumference, shoe size, marital status, and etc. ad infinitum.

[BlooInBloo]

8. Curiousity: Is there some other demographic that's more racist and/or sexist than seniors?

EDIT: Since this is DU, it's probably not obvious to readers: I'm not talking about ALL seniors, but rather am talking a statistical issue.

[Forkboy]

9. I've seen one post like that, the one you link to above.

And that one triggered a copycat thread was ten times stupider and more offensive.

Everyone needs to stop being so sensitive when a poster or two gores their sacred cow. :shrug:

[slampoet]

10. Name a generation of Seniors that never blamed the youth.

[LWolf]

11. My mom will be 70 next month.

She's never blamed "the youth" for a single damned thing. As a matter of fact, her social circle includes people of all ages, including young people.

She is not "her generation," but there are plenty of "seniors" like her.

I wish the U.S. would refer to "seniors" as "elders" instead, and honor them for their years, their lessons learned, and their experience, rather than rushing to disdain.

[emilyg]

12. Thank you.

I'll be 70 next month. I'm pretty much with your Mom. (Happy Birthday Mom).

[LiberadorHugo]

13. There are exceptions...

But nonetheless, any statistical analysis of public opinion polls show that White seniors are being more negatively influenced by Obama's race than any other demographic. I encourage the private disenfranchisement of any reactionary who is voting along racialist lines regardless of age. People who refuse to do the right thing because Obama is Black are not as worthy of a ballot as those who know better.

Would you like your country's future to be decided who people who think along the same wavelength as Agosto Pinochet?

Incidentally, my grandmother on my mom's side LOVES Obama (even though she preferred Hillary) and my grandfather still has some racial issues but prefers Obama to McCain and has always been one of those people who knows that neither the American nor the Canadian right represent his interests. She's 78. He's almost 81. Too bad we're Canadian and all live in uncompetitive constituencies.

[LWolf]

17. You're welcome, of course! nt

[Forkboy]

14. His statement still applies though.

Every generation has criticized the one after them (and if you don't think the ones that call themselves the "Greatest Generation" don't think highly of themselves compared to other generations then I'm not sure what to say...it's in the title. ;) ). The term "Kids these days..." is a running gag from generation to generation.

The post above is obviously a broad one, and naturally won't apply to every single elderly person out there, but it still applies to a lot of them. Your mother doesn't disprove what the other poster said at all. It simply proves your mother wasn't one of the ones that has complained about the next generation.

Getting upset over this seems pointless to me. Whether you like it or not, your mother's generation has looked down on the next in some way or the other at times. And whether I like it or not my generation does the same to the kids following me. And you know what, they're going to do the same thing to their kid's generation. We might as well get offended by the sun coming up. :shrug:

[LiberadorHugo]

15. Funny you should mention that...

The clash between the generations is not just a phenomenon limited to the current era and to America or the West as a whole; but rather it is an integral part of our human tapestry that has been recorded since the Sumerians were scratching cuneiform scribbles into stone tablets.

[LWolf]

16. I don't like generalizing to the point

that whole groups of people get the broad brush applied to them.

It's true that each generation goes through natural stages of life and experiences some of the same phenomena. I just don't want that broad brush of antagonism applied to the "seniors." Just as I won't say that the youth rushing to their first election in a cloud of euphoria are naive.

I feel that our nation already does not respect her elders as she should. I feel like elders, having paid their dues and learned life's lessons (or at least had plenty of opportunities, lol,) should be honored for their experience as a whole, even when some individuals may not merit that honor.

We can honor it all: wisdom, experience, and youthful enthusiasm and energy.

Ageism is universal, no matter what stage a group may be at. Each generation has those who look down on those older, or younger, than they.

If the older generation isn't flocking to Obama (and many are, according to my mom,) ;) I'd rather see what we can do to bring them in than turn out the attack and blame dogs.

[quakerboy]

18. the sun comes up and the sun goes down

and the people stay the same from one day to the next.

So much gets passed on, and we all like to think WE are the special, outstanding ones. That is why looking back into the writings, basicly every generation of Christians in the past 2k years has thought that their lifetime was the end times, and they would the ones to see Jesus coming back for them. This is why most people at some point see that those who came before were fools, and those who go after are scary. The sad part is that I begin to think that they are all right. We are all fools and we are all scary.

[Forkboy]

19. "We are all fools and we are all scary. "

That about sums it up. :)

"If every fool wore a crown we would all be Kings."

[Sebastian Doyle]

20. While I don't like to stereotype any demographic as being "single minded"

I will have to say that it took a long time for my parents to come around to Obama (ages 77 and 67). And it's not because they are overtly racist, nor were they big Hillary fans. They supported Edwards in the 2004 caucus. They didn't participate in this year's caucus because they were snowbirding down in Arizona.

And I'm talking lifelong Democratic voters here. I don't think mom ever voted for a Republican president. Dad voted for Nixon in '72 and regretted it. I used to think he voted for Reagan in 84, but found out recently that was not the case. And he hates the Bush Crime Family as much as I do.

Still, despite all that, Obama was a hard sell for them. I don't honestly know why. I don't think THEY honestly know why, though they did make comments earlier in the year about how "something would probably happen to him" (and the implication was obvious, but how could I argue, when they remember the 1960's and I don't)

So after seeing that in my own family, in my supposedly liberal west coast state, I'm not all that surprised to hear that it's a generational problem all over. Hopefully they have all had their awakening by now, or at least will by November.