politics

At 54, Schoettle is squarely a member of Generation X — those born between roughly 1965 and 1980. That political memory alone helps explain why they tilt more conservative than members of other generations. Schoettle has voted for a Democrat for president just once: Barack Obama in 2008.

Because Obama campaigned as progressive, and that's what voters want.

The issue is after Obama, Hillary and Biden tried the same thing. Swore up and down that they were super progressive and they'd fix stuff if we gave them the chance.

Obama got the benefit of the doubt because no one knew him. But it's harder to trick voters when the candidate has been unapologetically neoliberal for decades.

But the party won't let an actual progressive make it to the general these days.

They'd rather have trump for four years so they can run a neoliberal as "at least they're not trump".

What in the deliberate propaganda

“I have a distinct memory of when Carter was in office and we had to wait in line for gas," Schoettle told NPR, in reference to the gas shortages that impacted the U.S. under Democratic President Jimmy Carter. "I feel the liberals just have always done this sort of thing and they love to word things as socially responsible and things like that, but they're fiscally very irresponsible."

To me it’s more telling that they have to go back 50 years, to a time most of today’s people weren’t yet born. But sure.

Source with data links and a lot more metrics

“The US economy has performed better when the president of the United States is a Democrat rather than a Republican, almost regard- less of how one measures performance.”

Also remember a couple years back when we had an R guy and like half a million people died? Yeah those gas lines two generations ago were pretty rough.

I'm Gen X, and I disapprove of much of what Biden has done (although I did vote for him -- which STILL won't stop some of y'all from accusing me of A vOtE fOr TrUmP). None of the people interviewed in this article represent my views or anyone else I know from Gen X. I'm an anarchist. My brother is a Dem Soc, and one of my best friends is a socialist.

I have no doubt there's a problem with Republicanism in my generation. I grew up with these people, after all, and they were pretty shit-tier humans for the most part. My bullies grew up, and they're just as worthless now as they were back then. But disapproval of Biden does NOT a Republican make. Many of us disapprove of him because he's a fucking conservative upholding the genocidal and imperialist ideals of this fucked up nation. And doing a bang-up job of it too, considering one of his first acts was to open more concentration camps and then send his VP on a gaslighting mission to Latin America to lecture them about instability that we fucking caused.

What a shit take. Just like everything ever written about Gen X, they get the motivation absolutely 100% wrong.

The article ascribes Gen X's affinity for Republicans to the relative popularity of Reagan vs. Carter, but I wonder if it isn't really the influence of Alex P. Keaton....

"I have a distinct memory of when Carter was in office and we had to wait in line for gas," Schoettle told NPR, in reference to the gas shortages that impacted the U.S. under Democratic President Jimmy Carter."

Old enough to remember the gas lines from 1979 but not old enough to remember the gas lines from 1973/1974 under Nixon/Ford.

https://www.history.com/news/energy-crisis-1970s-innovation

This is the best summary I could come up with:

For Gen X, that is largely defined by an unpopular Carter and a popular Republican president, Ronald Reagan.

"Ronald Reagan made me feel good about being a U.S. citizen, being American," said Ken Piccolo, 56, a substitute teacher from San Jose, California.

But as of now, he says his Biden vote is driven by a disgust at the influence that former President Donald Trump has had over the Republican Party.

Walters added that Trump's "Make America Great Again" messaging appeals to older voters, particularly boomers but also their Gen X children.

Culture wars are nothing new for Gen Xers — the generation that coined the term "political correctness" — but the current debate over when and how to police speech is particularly unpopular with them.

On the other hand, Gen X Democrats like Piccolo point their disgust at conservative efforts to curb speech, particularly in schools and libraries.

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