The Conversation (0)
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Sirena Bergman
Mar 04, 2020
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People are desperate to allocate blame somewhere for Bernie Sanders' monumental – if not entirely unexpected – Super Tuesday loss.
As Biden's chances of becoming the Democratic nominee soar, Bernie Bros are piling onto Elizabeth Warren, suggesting it's her fault for not dropping out; meanwhile endless pontification on African American voters backing Sanders is getting dangerously close to blaming an entire race of people for not backing a candidate who didn't even bother to show up to a key event in the community.
But perhaps the one piece of fingerpointing we can get behind is the age-based one. And not just because any excuse to blame boomers for a huge disaster is enjoyable, but because the numbers actually bear it out.
If we take 45 as the pivotal generational divide age, this becomes starkly clear.
Exit polls show that more than half of voters aged under 45 voted for Sanders, compared to only 17 per cent of them backing Biden. By contrast, those over 45 were drastically more more than twice as likely to vote for Biden than Sanders.
This is not new – the staggering age disparity has been apparent throughout the primary process, but now that it's looking like once again the boomers' choice will prevail, young voters are not happy.
With some even suggesting they would rather not vote at all than back Biden.
However, many have pointed out that if young people want to continue getting angry about boomers getting their own way, they would perhaps do well to actually turn up to vote.
Sanders claims that when Democrats turn out, they win; and that he is the man to increase turnout. While this makes sense on paper, it's actually failed to actually happen.
We'd all maybe do well to remember, though, that while the left wages on finding new and improved ways to self-destruct, Trump is living his best life, just waiting to get re-elected.