The Baby Boomer 'Woodstock Generation' Is Now Old And As A Demographic Group Are Voting For Stephen Harper !!
This week marks the 46th Anniversary of a pivotal moment in Baby Boomer culture and history. The 1969 Woodstock Rock Festival is nearly a half century old and the generation that spawned it and basked in it for decades afterwards is now in its Senior years.
Love, Peace, Brotherhood, Sisterhood .... the Boomer generation labeled itself as hip, progressive and ground breaking. They mercilessly protested the Vietnam War and helped move public opinion to a more progressive tone signaled by the ousting of President Richard Nixon in the USA, the Quiet Revolution in Quebec and the liberalizing of Canadian society during the 70's and 80's.
Along the way since then, the Boomers took jobs, got careers, had kids, took on mortgages, began paying taxes and generally prospered like no other generation of Canadians ever had before.
But half a century later, the reality of 2015 is that this aging Boomer generation is now single handedly keeping Stephen Harper and his quasi-authoritarian government in power.
Any analysis of support for Harper by age demographic shows that the Baby Boom generation is old, worried and voting to keep the Conservatives in power. Of course there are exceptions and there are many who do not support Harper, don't get me wrong .. but again, as an age demographic the Woodstock Nation is now the largest slice of Canadian society that has turned to the 'Right' in a big way. Harper needs them to be re-elected and he is pandering to them daily in his election advertising.
Anyone who wants to defeat Stephen Harper and his crew of crooks & liars needs to stop for a moment and reflect on who their older family members are going to vote for on October 19th,
Is your old Baby Boomer dad going to vote Conservative? How about your Mom? Your Grandparents... now in their late 60's or 70's. Have they moved from playing Rolling Stones records to now casting votes for Harper? If the answer is YES ... then you have a responsibility before election day. You have to sit .. one on one with your older family member and clearly point out to them that by voting for Stephen Harper they are hurting their children, grand children and generations of the family to come. Period. Do not candy coat it.
Preface the discussion by acknowledging the contributions made by the Baby Boom generation over the years. A more open, tolerant and equitable society was their earlier goal. Why not now? Why are they supporting a 'democracy/freedom suppressing' guy like Harper? Demonstrate that he is as bad as Nixon EVER was !!!
Have the talk. You may help save the nation
This is kinda what I'm talking about ...
Love, Peace, Brotherhood, Sisterhood .... the Boomer generation labeled itself as hip, progressive and ground breaking. They mercilessly protested the Vietnam War and helped move public opinion to a more progressive tone signaled by the ousting of President Richard Nixon in the USA, the Quiet Revolution in Quebec and the liberalizing of Canadian society during the 70's and 80's.
Along the way since then, the Boomers took jobs, got careers, had kids, took on mortgages, began paying taxes and generally prospered like no other generation of Canadians ever had before.
But half a century later, the reality of 2015 is that this aging Boomer generation is now single handedly keeping Stephen Harper and his quasi-authoritarian government in power.
Any analysis of support for Harper by age demographic shows that the Baby Boom generation is old, worried and voting to keep the Conservatives in power. Of course there are exceptions and there are many who do not support Harper, don't get me wrong .. but again, as an age demographic the Woodstock Nation is now the largest slice of Canadian society that has turned to the 'Right' in a big way. Harper needs them to be re-elected and he is pandering to them daily in his election advertising.
Anyone who wants to defeat Stephen Harper and his crew of crooks & liars needs to stop for a moment and reflect on who their older family members are going to vote for on October 19th,
Is your old Baby Boomer dad going to vote Conservative? How about your Mom? Your Grandparents... now in their late 60's or 70's. Have they moved from playing Rolling Stones records to now casting votes for Harper? If the answer is YES ... then you have a responsibility before election day. You have to sit .. one on one with your older family member and clearly point out to them that by voting for Stephen Harper they are hurting their children, grand children and generations of the family to come. Period. Do not candy coat it.
Preface the discussion by acknowledging the contributions made by the Baby Boom generation over the years. A more open, tolerant and equitable society was their earlier goal. Why not now? Why are they supporting a 'democracy/freedom suppressing' guy like Harper? Demonstrate that he is as bad as Nixon EVER was !!!
Have the talk. You may help save the nation
This is kinda what I'm talking about ...
Many old people, especially white old people, are instinctively drawn to what they perceive as the stability and security of conservatism. Yesterday I was speaking to a friend who is now 75. He told me he was a Liberal most of his life but went to the Conservatives over the sponsorship scandal and is sticking with the Tories. He doesn't like the scandal but said he wouldn't switch because Harper is doing a good job of managing the economy. I asked him whether that was something he thought or something he knew. After a lot of back and forth it turned out to be something he'd heard, often, from Conservatives and the old white guys he meets every morning for coffee.
He had no inkling that Harper had run 7 (soon to be 8) consecutive deficit budgets. He believed Harper's blatant lies that, while we're in a rough patch, Canada towers above the G7 economically (we're actually a bit better than Italy). He has no clue of the dangers to an economy when a country becomes a petro-state, not a clue.
He doesn't understand the significance of what Harper has done to our democracy and he doesn't much care. If I had to choose a word for him it would be "oblivious." These are the voters that Harper relies upon - they're gullible and they're content with beliefs rather than facts.
Posted by
The Mound of Sound |
11:02 am, August 18, 2015
Well said Mound. That is the task that we have over the next while .. one on one with a senior family member, neighbor or friend. Thanks for this!
Posted by
leftdog |
11:31 am, August 18, 2015
I am a boomer, and I feel lumped with the idiots. Again.
Posted by
fem_progress |
5:12 pm, August 18, 2015
Hi fem_progress. I am a boomer. In the post, I wrote these words for boomers like you and I .... "Of course there are exceptions and there are many who do not support Harper, don't get me wrong .. but again, as an age demographic the Woodstock Nation is now the largest slice of Canadian society that has turned to the 'Right' in a big way."
Too many of my friends have been voting for Harper.
Posted by
leftdog |
9:11 pm, August 18, 2015