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Seniors are no sleeping giant politically
Young people need to be considered too
Frederick R. Lynch wrote in The New York Times a story arguing that seniors are the “sleeping giant of American politics.” Nothing could be further from the truth.
Lynch cites statistics that young people, those under 30, constituted just 13% of the vote in the last midterm election, while those over 50 constituted 56% of the vote. So he urges politicians to pay more attention to seniors than to young people.
The problem is that his advice is the least surprising advice you would give any politician. Any politician worth their salt would tell you that seniors vote and young people don’t, and that is why you need to pay attention to seniors.
The result has been a political climate that focuses on short-term benefits for older people to the detriment of the long-term interests of the rest of our population. Why else would attacking Social Security be called the “third rail of American politics?” Lynch argues that politicians should focus on protecting Medicare while opposing an expansion of the system to cover younger people as well. Lynch is correct that seniors oppose this expansion, but the reason is disturbing: they got theirs, they don’t care about everyone else.
