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To the editor:
The logical inference is baby boomers are "selfish" and "greedy" because they vote conservative. No nexus has been established between boomer voting patterns and alleged boomer greed ("The Greediest Generation,” Letters, The Chief, June 27).
A quick civics lesson for the author: people in this country are free to vote as they choose.
Franklin Roosevelt oversaw the mass destruction of food and crops as millions starved. Roosevelt refused to make lynching a federal crime because of the Dixiecrats.
Harry S. Truman embroiled us in the Korean Conflict; my father's life was interrupted by military service. He fortunately fought "The Battle of Alaska." Johnson faked the Gulf of Tonkin incident that embroiled us in the Vietnam War.
Eisenhower created the Interstate Highway system. He also sent the Army into Little Rock, Arkansas, to stop the violence when Central High School was integrated. I guess the author's right: Republicans did nothing but harm and Democrats nothing but good.
Free advice to the author from a boomer: I have voted for conservatives, centrists and liberals. I vote the candidate, not the ideology or party. I know plenty of boomers who have never voted for conservatives. I respect your right to vote how you choose. You should reciprocate. Please do not negatively label, guilt trip, and shame anyone who doesn't vote how you feel they should.
Nat Weiner
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0000
The primary issue with Democrats is their intolerance when faced with differing political viewpoints. As always, Mr. Wiener’s letter is insightful and sheds light on the intolerance of the Democrat Party and its useful-comrades.
Typo: “Democrat Party.”
Correction: "Democratic Party."
Tuesday, July 1 Report this
reenjoe
I wonder what part of the letter "the greediest generation" states, implies or even suggests that people are NOT free to vote as they choose. The letter simply puts forth the proposition that Boomers (as a group, not each and every one of them) abandoned the voting patterns of their parents, the silent generation, who as a group voted for liberal Democrats.
This is indisputable as during the six presidential elections (1968-1988) in which Boomers came of voting age, the GOP won the Whitehouse for 20 of 24 years. Only Carter beat this trend thanks to Nixon's corruption exposed in Watergate. The letter also details the consequences of those six elections - crushing debt, political polarization and ever-increasing wealth inequality - true, true and true. The letter also states the reason most political analysts cite for Boomers shifting towards conservativism - promises of lower taxes and a roll-back of government assistance to the poor.
The GG letter also never claims that Democrats didn't engage in bad behavior, much of which is listed in the above letter "free to choose". I would even add the illegal internment of American citizens of Japanese descent to the list of harmful FDR policies. And that Eisenhower's "operation wetback" was equally deplorable.
As for the Korean War, it might have disrupted Mr. Weiner's household, along with hundreds of thousands of other households, but I doubt any foreign policy expert would agree with the assessment "Truman embroiled us in" that conflict. South Korea was invaded, and the world's Democracies came to their aid. Any other assessment is patently false.
Mr. Weiner also left out that candidate Nixon sent Anna Chennault to Paris to undermine LBJ's peace talks with North Vietnam, thus prolonging the war and costing thousands of American lives. Candidate Reagan repeated this treachery in 1980 when he sent John Connelly of Texas to Tehran to undermine Carter's negotiations to release U.S. hostages. Part of that deal involved overlooking the smuggling of crack cocaine into the U.S. by Nicaraguans to fund illegal weapons shipment to Iran (Iran-Contra). U.S. foreign policy under presidents of all parties has been less than honorable.
Tuesday, July 1 Report this
0000
reenjoe, your letter "The Greediest Generation" argues that Boomers, as a group, abandoned their parent's liberal voting patterns and embraced conservatism, leading to negative consequences like crushing debt and wealth inequality. While acknowledging both the Democratic and Republican misdeeds, the letter emphasizes the impact of Boomer voting choices on the nation's trajectory.
It should come as no surprise that the baby boom generation is a bit hard to pin down in its politics. After all, it represents 37 percent of the voting age population, bigger than any other age group. The boomer birth years of 1946 through 1964 cover a lot of time — historic milestones included a moon landing, Vietnam, Watergate, and the arms race.
The Pew Research Center says many baby boomers voted for McGovern in 1972. Baby boomers were McGovern's strongest voting block in a landslide loss that year.
Boomers moved quite a distance since then, and just over the past decade an increasing percentage of boomers say that they identify themselves as conservatives and they're taking more conservative views on the role of government."
But ask a baby boomer who the best president of his lifetime has been and the top two answers are Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton.
The Pew study shows that older boomers tend to vote more Democratic and younger boomers more Republican. As a group, more than half of all baby boomers today say the government should be smaller, and there's a clear trend in that direction.
They favor the Republicans on some key issues, notably things like the deficit, but they favor the Democrats on Social Security so they're kind of conflicted.
As a result, the baby boomers remain very much a swing segment of the electorate. But there has been one constant for the members of this iconic generation, going back to the time of Watergate and Vietnam. They expressed a deep lack of trust in government back then — and that lack of trust persists today.
Thursday, July 3 Report this
reenjoe
As per Quad-Zero "They (Boomers) favor the Republicans on some key issues, notably things like the deficit, but they favor the Democrats on Social Security so they're kind of conflicted".
Since 1980 there have been eleven presidential terms, not counting current Trump presidency. How much did each add as a percentage of the debt they inherited? GOP - Reagan 160.8%, GHW Bush 42.3%, GW Bush 72.6% and Trump 39.2%. Dems - Clinton 28.6%, Obama 64.4% and Biden 30.5%. Average added debt by party: GOP 52.48% increase per term, Dems 24.7% increase per term.
Conclusion: Boomers right on Social Security, wrong on debt and deficits.
Thursday, July 3 Report this
0000
Boomers, right across the board, reenjoe!
4 days ago Report this