This is what I’ve been waiting for! Post election breakdown on voting demographics are starting to pour in. And it turns out I was right in what I previously wrote.
According to the latest numbers, Generation-X, the 18-24 year old voting bloc turned out in record numbers to vote in 2022. And the early results are totally devastating for the GOP
- 89% of 18-24 year old Black voters showed up to cast votes for Democratic candidates
- 68% of 18-24 year old Hispanic voters showed up to cast votes for Democratic candidates
- 59% of 18-24 year old white voters showed up to cast ballots for Democrats
Just look at the logistics for a moment here. The Generation-X voters are the fastest growing voting demographic in the country. And for once, the Democrats were smart enough to get onto the leading edge of that wave and ride it. In the aftermath of the MSJ high school shooting in 2018, it was the Democrats that kept proposing new gun legislation that led to the youth vote turfing out 31 GOP members of congress with A or A+ ratings from the NRA.
Going into 2020, the Democrats kept the heat up. They continued to push for gun legislation, but they branched off into college costs, and most importantly the climate crisis. Biden made promises, and the youth vote once again showed up in record numbers to put him in the White House.
And Biden delivered. He passed the most comprehensive gun legislation bill in 30 years. His infrastructure bill contained the largest climate control spending in US history, and he signed an executive order that would wipe out $10-20,000 of student loa debt for all qualified participants.
In 2022, the 18-24 vote turned out in record numbers again, and again for the Democrats. Why? Biden had delivered on his promises, and he went further in vowing to push for bodily autonomy for women by codifying Roe v Wade into law if the Democrats could increase their majorities. And if they do, he will.
This is the nightmare scenario for the GOP nationwide. Their base is older, less affluent, less educated mostly white Americans, and they’re shrinking every year. But because that base is basically either racist or batshit Evangelical crazy, or both, They can’t deviate from the orthodoxy that keeps them in pace.
Keep this in mind. By election day f 2024, there will be some 4 million kids who will turn 18 and be eligible to vote. The Democrats are making aggressive moves to communicate with those voters, show they’re listening, and share their values. The GOP is making absolutely no effort to reach out to them in a meaningful manner. And while 4 million teens will become eligible to vote in 2024, what does the actuarial table say about the GOP’s base?
The kids are the future, and to show up and vote! the Democrats are smart enough to be tapping aggressively into that. But here’s one more thing to remember. For decades, the 18-24 voting bloc has been the most ignored, underpolled group in the nation for one simple reason. Because they don’t show up and vote! But starting in 2018, the 18-24 year old vote has shown up in record numbers every year. In 0rder to sustain that, it means that they have realized that their votes have meaning, and they can make a positive change. The GOP ignores them at their own peril.
GenX is not saving the world! They seem to make up the slobbering Trombies that ran sacked the capitol. GenZ are the young people that I admire.They include the children of GenX. I would know because I am a GenXer, not a MAGAt. The generation that was ignored by everyone because it is too small to make a difference. White male grievance is real and should be addressed for what it is: misguided.
Oh now, don’t forget the doomed Boomers who ride alongside those MAGA maggots. I got to thinking about it this morning and realized that we’re seeing the uglier contours of Gen X’s beginning midlife crisis (speaking as one myself). They’re realizing that they are never going to have the power and influence either the Boomers or Zoomers due to smallness of numbers, same as with the Silent Generation. Didn’t matter much in younger days but now that the world is changing into something they no longer recognize it does.
I would hazard a guess that not even a majority of our generation are MAGA maggots. But too damn many are and I can’t help but root for their diminished importance even as several flame out in pathetic displays of impotent violence. “Nothing beside remains/Round that colossal decay/Boundless and bare/The lone and level sands stretch far away.”–Percy Shelley, “Ozymandias”
Sigh..Murf, Murf, Murf, we’ve been over this. Gen Xers are 40 year-olds like me. The kids are GEN…Z. I get that it’s hard to keep track but it’s an important distinction. Especially when I remember how the actual Gen X meant little to nothing, something I do not see changing as we get older.
Someone needs to forward this to the Democrats in New York.