… and based on the nature of events when they are growing up.
Each generation enters the electorate with a particular partisan stamp, one shaped by national events and the political ethos that prevailed during their upbringing.
If you became politically cognizant during a moment of successful government intervention, you may tend to lean left. If you started paying attention to the news in the age of a dynamic Republican president, you might lean right.
Grand Old Party: How Aging Makes You More Conservative – WSJ
This story, however, assumes that young are influenced to be only left or right – there is no other option. Political “scientists” call this the “impressionable years” hypothesis.
But that is not true, obviously. In fact, viewing the charts indicates the experts really think there are only two political stances – left or right. Yet there are many who may hold some left perspectives and some right perspective, simultaneously.
I first became aware of politics during the Watergate hearings and the vote to impeach President Nixon for the cover up of the break-in and bugging of the Democratic National Committee office in the Watergate building.
I was stuck at home for a long period, recovering from a 5″ skull fracture. We had 6 TV stations in those days and at least 4 or 5 of the six telecast the Watergate hearings in Congress, all day every day. That was all that was on TV for a long time. It was all the adults talked about.
I became disgusted with politicians, politics and the corruption of the elite.
Except for two brief periods, I have been a “decline to state” or “no party affiliation” voter. At my first election at age 18, I registered as a Democrat because I was told to do so. But shortly after, discovered I could be a “decline to state” voter. Briefly around 2000, for about 2 years, I registered as a Libertarian but then went back to “decline to state” (the terminology used in the state I lived in, then).
