Not All Boomers

ByMartyn Bradbury

Some of the Boomer Comrades have flinched at my commentary on New Zealand vs Old Zealand where I hold up the demographic data from polling to point out that the Right are overwhelmingly favour by 60+ white male culture war boomers.

Let me be clear: Not. All. Boomers.

There are many, many, many Boomers who have held the revolutionary spirit of their youth and channel it to this very day, but a s generation they were the ones who had the privilege of cradle to the grave life subsidisation that all the other generations didn’t have thanks to neoliberalism.

We got user pays.

There are many Pensioners who didn’t cash in and need our support and there are many Boomers as disgusted by this Government as everyone else is, but you can not deny that there is also a very large 60+ male culture war boomer who is empowering the feral reactionary right, and we know that because the data tells us that.

Our challenge on the Left is to acknowledge the middle class woke identity politics activists drove many young men into the arms of the reactionary right and if we want to win the next election, the Left has to reach out to those young men and tell them there is a place for them on the Left and that they should stand against the Billionaire Class, the Banks, the Speculators and the Polluters.

The next election will be fought between Old Zealand who manipulate culture war polarisation to empower corporate interests at the cost of the many vs New Zealand who sees the agency of all citizens backed by a State who empowers the common good rather than the Financial Elites as our future.

It’s between 19th Century White Settler Privilege vs Self Sovereignty and Agency for all.

It’s between Culture War Boomers and those who refuse to allow bigotry to cloud the benefit to us all.

Look at the demographics.

Estimation for 2025 (or more recent)

If similar age proportions hold, then:

      • If 60+ voters are ~28-30% of the voter roll, and

      • Under-40 voters are ~35%,

then in a total roll of ~3.6 million enrolled voters (approx current size), you’d expect:

      • 60+ voters ≈ ≈ 1.0 to 1.1 million

      • 18-40 voters ≈ ≈ 1.25 million

Polling data tells us that you are more likely to be a reactionary redneck if you are over 60 (and male) and are far more likely to vote Left if you are 18-40 and female.

There are around 1.3million Kiwis aged between 40 and 60, that is Gen X, we are the ones who are going to be the decider in this election.

Pick a side.

 

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11 Comments

  1. My choice will be based on policy moderated by perceived likelihood of implementing said policies – I don’t do sides

  2. Sadly Martin it is Gen X that sold out to the COC because they are greedy and are sitting around waiting for us boomers to die and cash in .It is also GEN X who are currently running the country and fucking it up big time .Us boomers have raised a bunch of entitled pricks and nasty bitches who are obsessed with fucking each other over .
    As BOOMER I am ashamed of gen x and the lack of forward thinking they posses and the end result it will have on their kids .
    Yes for a short time we had the family benefit for each kid .Now gen x has ,WFF,ACOMODATION ALLOWANCE ,FAMILY TAX CREDIT ,ECE SUBSIDY to name a few of the perks they get now .
    Maybe if they aspired to own a modest home ,one car and no jet skis or the biggest TV in the world and did not load up the mortgage every second year they might find life easier .After all house hold debt is $480 billion give or take a billion and not all of that is boomer debt.

  3. The under 30s are the key to change in NZ as the gen x are already way too selfish to change .They all think they are entitled to be sorted and fuck everyone else .

  4. Martyn you are right about many, mostly male, Boomers. I was once married to one and to this day he has remained stuck in his predetermined rut, totally unable to think outside the square. So do give them a hard time as they need to rejoin the real world where things have changed enormously. However I believe it is too late to change their mindset but time will deal with it!

    1. Cheers Clive. Rise from the casket and activate the rest homes – go for the women. It’s time the oldie girls got a shake up from being secure and kept and unknowing – planning their next trip to some event or place. Sitting waiting for death being mildly enlivened.

      Now that is how it is for many who don’t know how lucky they are, and have no interests beyond pasttimes to pass the time, and more women than men. If they have alzheimers then that affects everything and limits the individual brain. But long paid-for retirement spent in self-interest is not the right thing for a moral society. And particularly now while younger ones are trying to get a life and support themselves, with much stacked against them and the structures of living crumbling or being demolished while they are still paying for an education to suit the past that has or is being dissolved. What a ghastly farce it is to view.

      We have to break through this programmed view that the old deserve much and the young little. They have to earn the right to have a life at all for which they have to pay. The government has lost the interest in families that was prevalent after the destruction and death of WW2 with the sons returning home if they were lucky to be not too injured.

      This while the needs of society for better ways are unmet and continue to turn out bruised and bewildered people who if they don’t fit into the narrow channels everyone is supposed to flow into, get lost. But suggest this to the patronising old middle-class women and successful businessmen who have achieved (got sorted) their look would would freeze you or say ‘get snorted’! Or even, vulgarly, ‘Get lost’.

  7. Thank you for acknowledging that many so-called boomers are lefties. Also, Green which is why the Greens seem to poll well despite their silly antics. Old Greenies from the ’70s keep them alive.
    Us boomers make your blog interesting with lots of memory and experience to draw on.

    The flow of young men to the right, I can only put down to easy money in wet IT jobs and resentment against women mainly which they are not educated or prepared to handle, when life becomes a little difficult. Instead of looking to their peers for solidarity, they have decided it’s more fun to kick the worse underdogs and feel like big men again, for a second. Bullies to a man.
    I am glad to say most young men I know are lefties who understand fairness and egalitarianism, even if they couldn’t put a name to it.

  8. Who was it that said the traditional left/ right division in politics is a thing of the past – not quite perhaps but not as distinct as back in the day. Yes, many voters now take their cue from the social space, identity and culture included. That said methinks that is still about capital. Capital = wealth. Not exactly in terms of ‘class’ in the old terms of left vs right. Perhaps theres a few closet socialists around with fat wallets but as the saying goes money talks. As does self interest. Irrespective of generation.

    1. Problem is the Left stopped being Left.

      The people’s flag is palest pink,
      It’s not as red as most folk think.
      We must not let the people know
      What socialists thought long ago.
      Don’t let the scarlet banner float;
      We want the middle classes’ vote.
      Let our old fashioned comrades sneer,
      We’ll stay in power for many a year

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