I'm seeing a lot of attacks on Seniors here after these last midterms.

[WilliamPitt]

Because the numbers say Seniors bolted the Dems this time around. It's probably true. Fear works. The "Death Panels" lies, along with the rest of the fear-shit the GOP threw against the wall, worked. "Plastic sheeting and duct tape" worked on mothers and white men a few years ago, "Death Panels" worked on Seniors this time.

Fear works.

But for those of you jumping up and down on old people, I'd like to share a personal reflection.

I came out with a couple of books - the first on the coming Iraq war in 2002, and another about everything else Bush-related in 2003 - and subsequently embarked on an eight-month book tour. Before it was over, I'd spoken in 4/5th of the 50 states and several European countries, covering roughly 800,000 miles.

Guess who made up 90% of the organizers for the events I spoke at?

Seniors.

Guess who made up the majority of the audiences?

Seniors. This was true everywhere I went.

Fact: if Seniors didn't participate in progressive organizing, there would be no progressive causes to rally to, no rallies to attend, no speeches to hear, no petitions to sign, no nothing.

We stand on the old shoulders of very dedicated people.

Lay off the broad-brush attacks on Seniors.

[knowbody0]

1. what he said

[jpgray]

2. Maybe old people just like you?

I think the appropriate message is not to turn any group of people into a political counter, to be demonized, punished or thrown off the board in frustration. The phenomenon extends beyond seniors, in other words.

[joeybee12]

3. Yup, we can point the blame all we want, and that accomplishes nothing...

besides, pretty much every "group" voted less for Dems this time around...

[WingDinger]

4. Thats a fact. even the ground pounders are frail and old.

They cant find young people to walk precincts or phone. Too cool for school.

[Poboy]

5. Dems refused to come out a explicitly defend and protect SS and Medicare.

Instead, they allow (once again) the corporatizers to define the issue and cower.

BTW, How's that "Obama has no honor" article coming?

[stopbush]

6. Just curious - why do you think most of the audience was made up of seniors?

Could it have been that they have more leisure time on their hands to attend such events as book signings/readings? Could it be that with such leisure time available they tend to look for events to attend to fill their days? Could it be that they don't need to take kids into account when planning which events they'll attend?

I ask, because at age 56 (considered a senior at least by AARP, who constantly deluge me with junk mail), I'm still working a full time job and have 13- and 18-year-old kids at home, so no matter how much I might wish to attend a book event, I seldom do.

That doesn't make me any less dedicated to progressive causes, nor does it make me any less aware of the crimes of bushco.

[JDPriestly]

7. Thanks. A lot of seniors crossed over to vote for Obama in 2008.

I know. I talked to some of them in Ohio.

But Obama's economic policies have devastated the lives of seniors. Those who rely solely or almost entirely on Social Security and Medicare are afraid they will not be able to afford the necessities of life if Obama's deficit commission does what it appears to have been set up to do -- cut Social Security.

Obama's healthcare reform bill saves money by cutting Medicare. But no one really has stated what the quantitative or qualitative losses to seniors will be as a result of those cuts to Medicare.

The crash of 2008 decimated the life savings of many innocent seniors. Obama did nothing to right that wrong.

Many seniors who rely on pensions form government agencies or unions or employers do not realize that most of their money was stolen by the banks and hedge funds and investment firms.

The low interest rates mean that seniors earn no interest on their savings or retirement accounts and therefore live on or supplement their meager Social Security benefits on their principle, which for most seniors is very small to begin with.

Seniors have not said a lot. They are suffering in silence. Remember, about 50% of seniors over 65 are disabled. And in this employment market, seniors are the last to be hired and the first to be fired.

Obama was elected in 2008 in part because young voters got out and voted. But there was also a small, but significant cross-over from Republican seniors who were reacting to Bush's proposal to privatize Social Security and to the stock market crash. Obama did nothing to keep those voters in his camp, and they, not the youth who elected Obama, voted, this time Republican.

Obama really has no one but himself to blame for the losses this time around. No American president can afford to treat seniors with the disregard that Obama has shown.

[OHdem10]

8. Agree.

[county worker]

9. I'm a 64 year old senior and ever since the days of the Vietnam war protests and Civil Rights

protests up to working for the Courage Campaign against Prop 8 I have been trying to do what I can for progressive issues and I have to say that since we have the years in on this, taken as a whole, seniors have done by far more for progressive issues than those complaining about us today!

[mainer]

11. I don't consider you a senior!

Maybe it's the Baby Boomer in me, but I think that anyone who was out protesting the Vietnam War is still too young to fit into the senior category.

[Sal Minella]

13. During the Berkeley protests I was in my thirties, and many other

older people were activists at that time, too. The movement drew in people other than college students.

[mainer]

31. My definition of "senior" has gotten older

It ages along with me.

I think Baby Boomers are definitely not seniors yet.

[Sal Minella]

34. Indeed. I remember when "old" was anybody 40 and beyond.

Now people in their forties are "kids," and "old" is -- maybe -- 85 and beyond? -- and moving all the time!!!

[grasswire]

10. it was the youth vote that didn't turn out for 2010 midterms

The youth vote does not participate in midterms to the same degree as presidential elections. So that's a definite factor in the turnover of the House right now. Thanks, kids who didn't vote, for giving us Boehner.

[Concordia]

22. A youth vote will never be as large percentage as their parents

The numbers do not work in their favor. There are not enough of them.

Thanks, older generations, for ACTIVELY voting for Republicans.

[Sal Minella]

12. I've never been a member of a minority under attack before,

and it's a very educational experience.

I have the same knee-jerk, liberal leftist beating heart I had during the peace marches in Berkeley in the 'sixties, and being lumped in with this group of "Seniors" idiots gives me GREAT insight into how individuals of other minority groups have felt about their treatment in our society.

Edit: clarification

[tavalon]

44. Yep, it really makes one feel misrepresented

As a woman, I've had experiences like that since the cradle. So much so that it took a bit of consciousness raising to make me realize it. Now I can spot it on a dime and it doesn't happen all that much less frequently. Well, maybe a little. I may be beginning to get a little of that Crohn energy and it seems to bring with it some perks, like no longer suffering fools. I really like that part of it. But I digress............

[Sal Minella]

46. We have earned the right to digress at will, dear tavalon.

And if people don't want to listen to us, well, they needn't listen!

It tickles me no end to hear young people now who use completely non-sexist language. I wouldn't have dreamed it was going to happen in my lifetime (I who promised to "love, honor, and obey" when I got married, while he promised to "love, honor, and cherish.")

Being lumped in with a group ("Seniors") stupid enough to watch Faux and listen to Teabaggers and then vote against their own best interests is very painful.

I suppose the media does it for convenience -- to explain things easily, or explain things away entirely.

[TwilightGardener]

14. I'm not.

[ishaneferguson]

15. Employer Paid Medigap and Part D

There are still a lot of seniors still living off of EMPLOYER PAID Medigap and Drug coverage, and don't think they needed the HCR.

[Poll_Blind]

16. Amen. n/t

PB

[cynatnite]

17. I've also read that gays, young adults, and women bolted, too...

Not sure how true this is, but it seems like the blame for the Dems losing the house has been spread all over the place.

[Skidmore]

18. Thanks, Will. It's bad enough that

the Rs and Big Bidness is trying to turn us into Soylent Green, we don't need to also be set upon by the left too. We're still alive and kicking and voting...for left wing candidates.

[old mark]

Hell, us "old white men" used to run the world...or at least so I have been told.

Funny, though - I have been a very hard leftist, union member and Steward and Democratic voter since 1968, before some of you here were born. I readily admit many of my "boomer" peers are RW jerks, and always have been, but there are many of your generation on the extreme right as well.
We helped push through a lor of good legislation over our years - If you were transported to the US of the early 1960's, you would not recognize it- and you certainly would not be happy about it.

Rather than blame old people, get to work and change the Democratic Party from being the GOP Lite bunch of pathetic hypocrites that is is now. Yes, I include our President in that.

mark

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. Key words: Fear works

Our leadership is unable to bring itself to do that. So while they bring civikity, the other side brings...death panels.

Our side could have said...

Republicans will destroy social security.

Yes it is true, but we cannot do this...

[Lucian]

20. Collectively, seniors were idiots voting against their own interests.

Seriously seniors? The R's want to get rid of social security. Why would you vote against your own interests?

Individually, like in your anecdote above, there are really smart, intelligent seniors who don't vote against their own interests, who care about what's going on with the country.

[nadinbrzezinski]

21. Why didn't the dems use that message?

Stop blaming the box of rocks that Is the voter and place blame where it belongs.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

23. It's hardly surprising, is it?

After all, the Repiglickens went after them HARD. And the ones who were seduced? To me, they aren't "The Seniors," but "THOSE Seniors." You know the ones: they walk around with cheap teabags hanging off their hats, and they're dumber than a 10 pound onion bag stuffed with 20 pounds of homemade STOOPID.

I lambasted one of 'em on the show a few nights back:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwPnuhirdwo

[shanti]

24. thank you!

my mother is a senior (78), white, and lives in arizona, but has ALWAYS voted dem and always will!

[treestar]

25. I don't think anyone extends it to all Seniors

It's just a demographic fact.

There's even more comment on how tea partiers tend to be old white geezers.

[madamesilverspurs]

26. This old lady thanks you, Will!

And, for the record, my cane still has a hair trigger...

[WilliamPitt]

27. *ducking*

;)

:hug:

[lumpy]

33. Hear hear

Dem all my life.

[EFerrari]

28. Right you are. My brother and I both moved since the last election.

Guess who made sure our registration was in order and ballots in hand? The momma.

She's the one who gave us the habit of organizing. If we're losing her a little to the Noise Machine, that means we need to work harder on our messaging,imo.

[glitch]

29. I think the attacks on seniors are a build up to "reforming" social security.

It's been going on awhile, seniors are another "special interest group" to be splintered off "the base".

First they came for native americans, then black men (see prison industrial complex), then women (see the attacks on birth control, wage equality), then muslims (really anyone who wasn't fundie-christian), then glbt (actually attacks on them all along but really ramping up lately), now seniors.

And always, ongoing and relentless attacks on the middle class, the only coalition of all of the above that had any power to challenge them.

[Individualist]

30. K&R

[bobthedrummer]

32. k&r #30

[pinboy3niner]

35. We ought to be pointing our fickle fingers of blame at AMERICANS

In each case where a GOPbagger was elected or re-elected in these mid-terms, it was with the support of the majority of the Americans voting in that race.

Those damn Americans! Under the bus with you!

K&R

[WillyT]

36. K & R !!!

:kick:

[Ian David]

37. Maybe Health Care Reform should have included a robot policy.

[Autumn]

38. My 72 year old Sister was pissed

she had never thought she would live to see the day that a Democrat she voted for was so stupid he would refer to SS as "entitlement benefits". And she was not too happy about the SS commission.

[HughMoran]

39. K&R!!

:thumbsup:

[postatomic]

40. Fuk 'em

We get a 2 for 1 at IHOP between 3-6pm. Top that... and get the hell off my yard!

Yutes can start attacking us oldns' when they start voting in larger numbers. Dismal numbers on 18-29 voter stats.

Blame the people who voted in larger numbers and are more politically active? Makes perfect sense to me.

:crazy:

[pacalo]

41. To be fair, make that senors *and* senoritas.

[Lugnut]

42. Thank you, Will.

This old disabled person votes straight Democratic. I know on which side my bread is buttered.

[tavalon]

43. The young actually were the biggest demographic who didn't show up

Do we know that seniors defected? We know the first part, I hadn't heard the second part.

[Little Star]

45. Two cents about seniors.

Ya know, since I am a senior, I must put in my two cents.

I am all set with SS no matter what happens. I've got mine.

I am NOT defending SS for myself. Just think.

I am worried about those that come after me. I do not fight for this cause for myself. I fight for my children and grandchildren. I now know that without the safety net of SS many would be royally screwed.

So to all those who think that “we have ours” just put on your thinking caps! This is not (for many, many of us) about us, it’s about you! It’s about our children and grandchildren and you!!!!

SS is a life saver! We should all draw a line in the sand regarding SS.

[pipi_k]

47. To tell the truth, I don't think seniors

have been well liked or respected here anyway, even before the midterms.


It particularly disgusts me to read about how some "hero" defended Truth, Justice, and The American Way from an elderly person who was on the verge of toppling the Republic with an opinion or two.


Never mind disrespecting people who have likely lived through things their attackers couldn't even fathom...

There's an obnoxious hypocrisy afoot when people pick on the elders for their opinions and brag about it, but why is it we never hear from anyone who's told off his boss...or some 7 foot, 400 lb. behemoth in a corner bar?

No...it's always the elderly.

Or maybe even a woman with a small child in tow, but no 7 foot male behemoth accompanying her...

People sure know how to pick their victims...those who can't fight back.

Disgraceful.

[Iggo]

48. Seniors, young voters, gays...it's the flavor of the week.

Next week it'll be someone else.

[Gold Metal Flake]

49. Nice post. K&R