No not the racist gun clutching foil hat wearing Fundaloons, there they have a sizable following.
But the average senior. They have decided that the Republican propensity to do the bidding of corporations as they steal our savings, homes, privacy, and environment is just too much to swallow. That the extremism inherent in attempting to repeal healthcare forty times instead of addressing the bread and butter issues facing every American is just not what they voted for.
Perhaps it was the fact they watched their retirements get pilfered by corporations that declared bankruptcy just to seize their retirement funds while the CEO's got golden parachutes.
Perhaps it is the obsession with uteri.
Perhaps it is the fact their college graduate grandchildren can't find gainful employment and are now sleeping on their couch while still having to pay for student loans they can not declare bankruptcy on.
Perhaps it is the embrasure of vile racism that once was a mark of shame and ignorance.
Part of what the Carville-Greenberg memo found
—Seniors are now much less likely to identify with the Republican Party. On Election Day in 2010, the Republican Party enjoyed a net 10 point party identification advantage among seniors (29 percent identified as Democrats, 39 percent as Republicans). As of last month, Democrats now had a net 6 point advantage in party identification among seniors (39 percent to 33 percent).
—More than half (55 percent) of seniors say the Republican Party is too extreme, half (52 percent) say it is out of touch, and half (52 percent) say the GOP is dividing the country. Just 10 percent of seniors believe that the Republican Party does not put special interests ahead of ordinary voters.
—On almost every issue we tested — including gay rights, aid to the poor, immigration, and gun control — more than half of seniors believe that the Republican Party is too extreme.
There is no way the Republicans can get these voters back.
But the Democratic Party in embracing the values of the New Deal that brought this age group the prosperity they once knew could bring them to vote Democratic. But that would mean a hard left turn for the Democratic Party. Are they interested in getting the votes from the cohorts most likely to go to the voting booth every election?