Seniors fled Democrats in midterms

[Joanne98]

In an election marked by dramatic defections from the Democratic Party, older voters swung hardest, seemingly threatened by President Barack Obama’s mantra of change.

Voters over 65 favored Republicans last week by a 21-point margin after flirting with Democrats in the 2006 midterm elections and favoring John McCain by a relatively narrow 8-point margin in 2008.


Concerned by changes to Medicare and compelled by a Republican Party that promised a return to America’s glory days, seniors played a crucial — and often understated — role in races across the country. They were unswayed by ubiquitous Democratic warnings about Republican changes to Social Security. And they put a series of campaigns out of reach for Democrats.

In New Hampshire, for instance, seniors backed GOP Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte over her Democratic challenger by 33 points. In the narrow Illinois Senate contest, Republican Mark Kirk won older voters by 22 points. And In Delaware, they were the only age group to back tea party favorite Christine O’Donnell, by an 11-point margin.



Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/44802.html#ixzz14hhxMGae

[joeybee12]

1. Yup, seniors always vote and they'er always up for grabs...

another failure by Tim Kaine.

[Pisces]

2. Seniors always vote in the midterms, while youth and many more only vote

for Presidential elections. 29 million people did not vote.

[Alcibiades]

30. Way more than 29 million did not vote

The turnout was something like 42-42%. The youth voting rate was 20%. Still, the good news is that this is the most progressive generation of young people since they got the vote, so this is the best the Republicans will ever do. In two years, Democrats will ride Obama's coattails again.

[elocs]

3. Over and over I heard that Democrats robbed Medicare of $500 million,

picking the pockets of seniors. There were too many accusations like this made by Republicans that went unchallenged by Democrats in the midterms.

[glinda]

So what media covered the truth adequately?

[Cal33]

11. None. That's the problem. Obama and Pelosi have accomplished

a lot, and too many people just don't know what these two have done.
If they are afraid of "blowing their own trumpets" it's their own
fault. When elections are coming up, one of the ways to get more votes
is to point out what you've already done.

[emulatorloo]

28. That specious claim and "Death Panels" I think drove a lot of those seniors

EOM

[elocs]

36. My city, La Crosse, WI got national acclaim for its "death panels":

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120346411

From within the story:

The result of all this attention is that nearly all adults who die in La Crosse, 96 percent of them, die with a completed advance directive. That's by far the highest rate in the country.

Bud Hammes, the medical ethicist who started Respecting Choices, says "We believe that our patients deserve to have an opportunity at least to have these conversations."

But it's expensive to spend time with patients filling out living wills. Medicare doesn't reimburse for the time the hospital's nurses, chaplains and social workers do this. Bud Hammes, the medical ethicist who started the program, called Respecting Choices, says it costs the hospital system millions of dollars a year. "We just build it into the overhead of the organization. We believe it's part of good patient care. We believe that our patients deserve to have an opportunity at least to have these conversations."

And that's how La Crosse unexpectedly got in the middle of the national debate over health care and the so-called "death panels."

This was an example of where Republicans were able to define the terms ("death panels") and to define the debate on how it was all about denying or rationing healthcare coverage to dying seniors. Democrats were then put on the defensive then trying to reason with people about an emotionally charged issue.

[Poboy]

4. All the Dems had to do was make a forceful issue of protecting SS and medicare.

Something that would have been a no brainer in the past. Now, we not only refuse to do that, but we allow the right wingers to beat up on it and AGREE!

Madness.

[CountAllVotes]

5. maybe, just maybe

if they had given senior citzens a COLA on their Social Security rather than giving the Congress, et al. an increase they would have voted Democratic. And then those rather unpopular bailouts that were handed out ... :think:

[Individualist]

29. definitely, just definitely.

[treestar]

40. It can't be done where the law does not provide for it

The Executive has to enforce the law.

[glinda]

7. And the message and information was heard where?

[MineralMan]

17. Where I live...in my precinct...that message and information

was heard from me, as I walked the precinct in the two months leading up to the election. It worked. The precinct went 60% for the Democratic candidates. Contact with seniors works. Ignoring or bashing them works, too, but for the other side.

[treestar]

42. OMG you did something useful!

:crazy:

How dare you do that rather than typing away on DU that it's all Obama's fault!

[MineralMan]

47. I know. All that walking and talking and shaking hand.

Oh well, I'm just a sucker for punishment. :rofl:

[AlinPA]

35. Sestak started to run a TV ad that said Toomey wanted to privatize SS and it was working;

he jumped up in the polls. It was very hard hitting - seniors saying "hands off SS, Toomey", etc. Then for some reason it was stopped.

[dtotire]

6. They Voted Against Their Own Interests n/t

[glinda]

8. Uninformed seniors were the largest turnout.

[no_hypocrisy]

9. The demographic of 65+ is pre-baby boom.

And obviously Medicare-minded.

I heard that this group believed that Healthcare Policy would take money away from their Medicare programs and that's why they voted republican.

[treestar]

41. Yes. And I've heard some of them say that and

it is also the case they do not care about younger people. Others can go without health care at all just so they do not have to pay a dollar more.

[meegbear]

10. May you live to be 100 ... enjoy your catfood

[MineralMan]

18. Well, I won't live to be 100, but as long as I do live,

I'll be educating other seniors like myself, not insulting them. That seems to work a lot better, you know.

[hayu_lol]

22. I would suggest that many of the defectors were...

greens and indies plus a very large contingent of the 18-25 year old group.

As has been suggested, nothing was done to solve the no cola raise for the 2nd year, the constantly pounding threats of attacks on SS and medicare/medicaid with no rebuttals in print or other media were made and the like were responsible.

What were the screaming issues prior to the election on this and other boards: legalize pot, DADT, continued and possibly increasing the war agenda...none of which are of much interest to many seniors.

Another group, the indies and Greens again...either stayed home or avoided the Dem ticket altogether...you could see this in the numbers coming from most states.

Somehow in the press of the screaming for passage of a few controversial bills/laws, someone high up forgot to push the Democratic platform...the one that we have relied upon to give us our party identity for years.

Summary, you need to blame: 18-25 year olds, single issue voters, abandonment by those non-Dems who were all fired up in the primary only to find that the Dems--having momentum and power for a change--failed to enact legislation that would have taken on the debacle that represented the Bush/Cheney years and JOBS. Everything meaningful was off the table. Same groups were the ones who protected the worthless Blue Dogs from getting thrown out...Blue Dogs who generally voted Repugnant.

Seniors are also a bit worried as their grown kids and families have been forced to move back home due to the job losses and mortgage debacle.

Lots of blame to pass around if you wish...but it is by no means because of the senior group alone--plenty to share right on down the line.

[Concordia]

39. No

This blaming of the 18-25 is completely ridiculous. No, it was not this age group that ran to the Republican side because they were unhappy with Obama.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/billy-wimsatt/youth-vote-against-republ_b_778120.html

They remained the Democrat's strongest supporters across the board. Yes, there were less of them in 2008, but those born Gen X and later will statistically NEVER be able to outvote their parents or grandparents until the older generations begin to die in large numbers.

[Selatius]

12. Are these senior citizens also classified as "low information voters"??? nt

[Frustratedlady]

13. So, what am I...warm mush? I'm over 65 and voted Dem. I also got my

family fired up to vote Dem.

Don't think everyone over 65 can be led that easily. We've seen a lot and know when we're being scammed.

[JVS]

14. No SS raise for 2 years, being called teat suckers by head of deficit commission.

There is one thing that democrats have traditionally done for seniors to get their votes: ensured that the bacon would be sent to their mailboxes. If you can't do that for old people, you won't get their votes. If it's social rather than domestic issues you're running on, they are conservatives (or basically just old fashioned).

[MineralMan]

15. In some cases, that's certainly true. On the other hand,

My 86-year-old parents, who have voted for Republicans for years, switched this year to vote for Boxer and Brown in California. Further, I'm 65, now, so I qualify as a senior. Not only did I vote for every Democrat on the ballot, but I also walked my precinct, which has a large senior population, presenting information on Democratic candidates and getting people to the polls. That precinct turned out 60% of registered voters, and voted for the Democratic candidates with a 60% margin.

Not all seniors are alike. Communicating with seniors should always be a high priority in every election. One on one communications work very well with them. We need to do a better job of educating seniors. Bashing them never works.

[SidDithers]

16. K&R...nt

Sid

[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Jackpine Radical]

23. Yes, I know all about that mental deterioration. I'm 66

and having the devil's own time setting up a stepwise logistic regression analysis with two independent variables, one dichotomous and the other continuous.

[Cal33]

27. Hah! I'll never see 66 again! :o)

[JDPriestly]

20. Obama signaled that he plans to cut Social Security.

He should have explained to seniors that he wants to end the tax cuts for the super-rich so that the government can stop paying the bills with Social Security funds. He should have already connected increasing the taxes of the super-rich and preserving Social Security and Medicare. Maybe he wanted the Republicans to get the House so that they would share the blame when he cuts Social Security benefits.

Democrats have never explained just what the changes to Medicare will mean in terms of access to services and cost for seniors.

I personally think that the healthcare reform bill will, overall, have dreadful effects on the health of seniors. After all, even Democratic members of Congress claim that the money the government will save will come from Medicare. So far no one has explained to me just how the government will save money on Medicare with the health care reform bill unless it increases costs and lowers benefits to seniors.

If I'm wrong about this, I wish someone would really tell me why.

[City Lights]

21. I hope they're happy with their choice.

:puke:

[Cal33]

31. I think they are neither happy nor unhappy with their choice. Most

of them never knew what it really was about. But the Repubs.
surely are happy about it. Their lies work every time, and
they'll continue to lie because it pays them to do so.

[Historic NY]

24. And they still won't get the COLA. 24/7 rinse,repeat & spin.

[Winterblues]

25. Those people raised during segregation

They were raised with different beliefs and ideas about race than people today are...I believe this is a very large part of it.. Many of the older generation simply can not wrap their minds around a black man as President..It goes against everything they were brought up to believe.....The good thing about all of this though is, they are all getting older and dying off, leaving behind those with much more Liberal ideas on race..

[thereismore]

26. Bingo. nt

[Alcibiades]

34. The George Wallace crowd

Same signs, same philosophy, same people, but older and fatter. You're right.

[indypaul]

38. Your brush is way too wide to be credible

As one who is nearing 80 who is white, drawing Social Security, yet able to
appreciate your concern. You paint an entire segment of the population
with not only a false assumption but total disregard of reality. Many
of the "older" population, myself included, worked diligently for the
advance of your cause. Don't cast them aside as old and unworthy of
living. It has been my pleasure to work within the Democratic party,
my church, union and other civic activities to promote desegregation.
Don't attempt to ridicule efforts by many who supported and assisted
in the efforts of JFK, RFK and MLK. They only led and many of the
followers were of all races, creeds and social status. Don't dismiss
their efforts now that they are no longer able to walk the streets and
join in the demonstrations. There are many of us still carrying on for
the cause and your dismissal of them because of their ages only displays
a latent prejudice that needs professional help. If there was a failure
to educate the elderly during the recent election the fault lies with
the DNC and many of the state party organizations that failed miserably
in their communications with the elderly.

[Winterblues]

44. I did not mean to imply all seniors either believed like this or were raised like this

I simply offered it up as another reason for the extreme shift in the older vote for Republicans. Most older voters usually believe more in live and let live and try following the Golden Rule...This election was a marked shift from that and I don't believe it had anything to do with their social security check or their medicare..I personally believe race played a much bigger role than most have let on....I certainly could be wrong and I don't claim this to be anything other than my opinion

[Ikonoklast]

46. And some of them actually believe it's a 'zero-sum' game.

I actually heard this from one rheumy-eyed dope, "When Obamer gives more money from Social Security and Medicare to them lazy blacks and Messicans, it's less money in there for me!"

And four other gray heads sitting at the table nodded in agreement.




I didn't even know where to start, the stupid took my breath away.

[WilliamPitt]

32. Fear works.

"Death Panels" etc.

[sammytko]

33. Aren't they the ones that get conned with the pigeon drop scam?

They (not all) fall for all sorts of things. Well not just them. think of the people who believe in the nigerian e-mails, bill gates going to give you money etc.

They tried to pull the pigeon drop on my mother who is 86. She said, yeah, she'd meet them at wal-mart to help them process some money order or check or something. But instead of bringing them 5000, she told them they could just take it out of her cut. They turned her down.

[treestar]

43. Yes, I always had to wonder why the Nigerian emails were

worth it. Who would fall for that?

The older generation will also put faith in gossip, as when they were young you could hear stuff around and it could have been true as far as it went - and something said on teevee by a newscaster was true for the most part.

[TexasObserver]

37. Democratic presidents have to make Soc Security a top priority.

The president gave away our traditional advantage on Social Security when he went for the Cat Food Commission, yet another example of his bending over to placate the rightwing, while gaining nothing from it except more grief.

It wasn't just a sucker punch by the right. He stepped into it.

The president's dual themes of "something has to be done about Social Security" and "we'll cut Medicare by cutting out fraud" scared seniors.

[BzaDem]

45. Its really not that surprising. There was a 17 point shift in the whole electorate from 2008 to 2010

so a 13 point shift for Seniors from 2008 to 2010 isn't that surprising. With a 17 point shift in the electorate overall, all subgroups on average must shift by 17 points, so the Senior shift is actually below average.