America's most effective fascism enforcers are bored boomers, not youthful brawlers

[marmar]

America's most effective fascism enforcers are bored boomers, not youthful brawlers
Ending democracy is less about cracking skulls and more about having time to harass election workers all day

By AMANDA MARCOTTE
Senior Writer
PUBLISHED OCTOBER 11, 2022 1:00PM (EDT)


(Salon) According to the media and the House committee investigating January 6, the face of rising fascism has been a young one. Or young-ish, anyway, especially in a graying country like the United States. A lot of attention has been paid to the incel and 4chan communities, or other places where young men in their teens and early 20s are being radicalized. The 2017 "Unite the Right" riot in Charlottesville, Virginia crystallized the image of modern fascists as college-aged men with floppy haircuts and polo shirts. A number of authoritarian groups have grown up under Trump, but by far the most attention has been paid to the Proud Boys, whose name and manner of dress cast an image of youthful streetfighters. In the American imagination, "fascists" are young men, such as Hitler's Brownshirts, who are believed to have the energy and stomach for the skull-cracking necessary to impose their will to power.

As demonstrated by January 6 and the years of street fights in Portland, Oregon, this threat of relatively youthful violence should not be ignored. But there's a quieter, more pernicious threat to democracy: Older, retiree-aged Trump fanatics.

To understand the threat, it's crucial to look at how elections are being undermined in 2022 and ahead to 2024. As January 6 showed, violence may make a big splash, but it's harder to actually hijack elections that way in the high-tech 21st century. For that, you need systematic breakdowns. The GOP has long used red tape regulations to gerrymander and suppress voter turnout. Even Trump, despite his fascination with violence, first tried to get the courts to steal the 2020 election for him, before resorting to inciting the Capitol riot. Even then, the violence of January 6 ultimately revolved paperwork: Preventing electoral votes from being counted in hopes of invalidating the election.

What you need, in other words, are people who have the time and resources to engage in bureaucratic meddling. Trump is very fortunate in that regard — by far his largest and most robust vein of support comes from people of retirement age. (People over 65 turned out for Trump in greater numbers than any other group of voters.) A veritable army of Fox News-drunk grandparents is forming, ready to interfere every step of the way with the systems that turn out, collect and count votes. ...........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/10/11/americas-most-effective-fascism-enforcers-are-bored-boomers-not-youthful-brawlers/

[viva la]

1. Not to be pedantic, but the graphic shows that---

People over FIFTY to 64 went for Trump in the same percentage-- 52%. Way too much, of course, but it's not just the elders. And for some reason, that 14 year cohort is considerably larger than the 65-up one (largest of all, actually):

https://www.cnn.com/election/2020/exit-polls/president/national-results

50-64
30% of voters
Biden 47%
Trump 52%

65 or older
22% of voters
Biden 47%
Trump 52%

What I take from this is not horror that older people (50+) go slightly more for Trump (it's actually not as bad as I thought), but that -- as always-- if young people voted more regularly, the Democrats would win regularly.

GOTV, as always. Just don't get out us olders maybe!