Those Old Folks

Commentary By Ron Beasley

The CNN poll yesterday showed that 50% approved of Obama's health care plan while 45% opposed it.  It has been noted that those who already have socialized medicine, Medicare, are opposed to socialized medicine for everyone else. Now it's easy to say this is an I've got mine so screw you issue.  It could also be because many if not most Medicare recipients have supplemental insurance and don't even really realize they have Medicare since they have no contact with the plan.  But I think the Matt Yglesias gets it right- old people don't like Obama.  We are talking about old white people here so race may be an issue but when this group thinks Democrat they still remember the "dirty hippies" 40 years ago.  They still remember the cold war and the godless socialist communists.  They are still believers in American exceptionalism and view capitalism as a religion.

I know this because I have an 86 year old mother who in spite of the fact that she is alive and living in her own house because of those liberal programs like Social Security and Medicare still considers the word liberal to be a perjorative.  And yes she's a bigot.  She dislikes hispanics because the don't speak the "American Language" - at the same time she jokes about her own grandmother who came from Sweden, lived in the US over 40 years and refused to learn English.  She dislikes blacks - I guess it's because they are black because she grew up in Idaho and Eastern Washington and probably never saw any until she moved to Portland in her late teens. 

As Steve Benen points out it's these old white folks the Republicans are using to protect their friends in the health care industry.

Republican leaders and their allies have been reduced to lying to seniors, telling them, among other things, that the federal government might try to kill them if Democrats successfully pass health care reform. After a concerted effort to scare the bejesus out of older Americans, those who enjoy and appreciate government-run health care are expressing their opposition to anything resembling government-run health care.

That these voters are listening to the same GOP leaders who support cutting Medicare and privatizing Social Security is a point that seems to have been lost in the shuffle.

But stepping back, it's also worth noting that Republicans are targeting older voters in part because other age groups are moving away from the GOP. On Election Day, Obama defeated McCain by huge margins among voters under the age of 40; tied McCain with voters 40 to 64; and lost badly among those 65 and older.

Maybe the GOP is looking for a sympathetic constituency, and Medicare-loving seniors offer some glimmer of hope?

And yes, these old white folks are much of what remains of the Republican base.  Gives The Grand Old Party new meaning and would indicate it may not be Grand that much longer.

Note:

At 63 I am one of those old folks and an aging hippie although I was never dirty.