There comes a time in every political issue when the tide turns and the attack ads from the past lose their sting.
Such is the case today with the tired old ‘They are going to take away YOUR Social Security, Seniors!’ attack ads hurled against conservative Republicans by staunch Democrat candidates and defenders of the status quo.
And in Florida, these sad attack ads are being hurled by not only the Democrat candidate and party but by the current sitting governor and former Republican, Charlie Crist, against the ‘new face’ in national politics, Marco Rubio who is going to be the next Senator from The Great State of Florida.
The reason why they won’t work anymore?
Demographics, plain and simple.
Frank Luntz, a national pollster, once did a poll that came back with this startling conclusion: More Americans under the age of 50 at the time believed that we had been visited by space aliens, (not illegal aliens) than they would ever receive their full Social Security benefits in retirement.
Score one for Marvin Martian.
That poll was conducted close to 20 years ago.
That means that those very same people in the younger Boomer age cohort and the following Generation X and Millennial groups of American voters are now 20 years older or close to 50-60 years of age now. (please read the great book 'Generations' by Neil Howe and William Strauss for more information)
It also means that the ‘Greatest Generation’ of WWII and Great Depression-era Americans are in their 80’s and 90’s now and diminishing in numbers every day, unfortunately.
So when the advisors to Senate Democrat candidate, Congressman Kendrick Meek and Independent candidate Governor Charlie Crist started wringing their hands with joy when they ran millions of dollars of ads against Mr. Rubio who says he will vote to raise the retirement age in Social Security once elected, they were just wasting their time and their contributor’s money.
Why?
Because they are talking to a majority of voters who believe there are more space aliens to worry about than whether or not they are going to get their ‘full’ SS benefits!
Hardly anyone now below the age of 60 truly believes they are going to get all these promised benefits, in SS or Medicare. We have seen the debate for 30 years now and nothing has happened in the interim that leads anyone to believe either system has been ‘fixed’ by anyone in Washington.
So save your money from now on, ‘Mr. Bash People In The Head If They Even Talk About SS’ political advisor. Marco Rubio is going to win the Florida Senate seat by a comfortable margin as the first truly ‘generational change’ elected Senator in the US Congress.
The times they are a-changin'.
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