young people unaware of current events is neither surprising - nor party-oriented

I used to be a young ignorant liberal. I aged and - became a conservative with a brain. nm

You and Winston Churchill. - a lib

Some of the best news I've read in a long time...

~~~~

THE GIST

- Contrary to popular belief, people generally do not become more conservative as they age.

- Seniors often describe themselves as being more tolerant and more open to new ideas in their old age.

- What's happening in society when people come of age often greatly influences the set point for their core beliefs.

Amidst the bipartisan banter of election season, there persists an enduring belief that people get more conservative as they age -- making older people more likely to vote for Republican candidates.

Ongoing research, however, fails to back up the stereotype. While there is some evidence that today's seniors may be more conservative than today's youth, that's not because older folks are more conservative than they use to be. Instead, our modern elders likely came of age at a time when the political situation favored more conservative views.

In fact, studies show that people may actually get more liberal over time when it comes to certain kinds of beliefs. That suggests that we are not pre-determined to get stodgy, set in our ways or otherwise more inflexible in our retirement years.

Contrary to popular belief, old age can be an open-minded and enlightening time. ....

(in the interest of completeness, that bit of missing text from the article...) - a lib

You're quoting an article from Emily Sohn? - Really?

Really. She's a *science/environmental* writer for Discovery, not a political writer. - a lib

Which is what the article is about, a scientific study. Some footnoting/citations would have been nice, admittedly, but apparently that's not done on the Discovery News site (and I really wasn't looking around then for a more "reputable" source, since Discovery is great by me).  Horrible Emily:  http://news.discovery.com/contributors/emily-sohn.htm ; http://www.tidepoolsinc.com/pdf/EmilySohn_Resume.pdf

Perhaps this source is more to your liking: http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/?Page=article.php&id=2613

Or this:  http://www.livescience.com/2360-busting-myth-people-turn-liberal-age.html   

Pot luck: http://tinyurl.com/awv98yx

And here's the original study: http://www.gwern.net/docs/2007-danigelis.pdf

Since you obviously need some help with learning how to google, you might find this useful: http://support.google.com/websearch/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=136861

Maybe you could get the hint that they were Obama supporters - since they were at an Obama support "meeting&

I know, I know...(raising hand) - It is Bush's fault - they are uninformed.

I'm sorry, but this kind of "discussion" - is pointless and causes bickering

No it isn't - if you are going to go down that road - sm

I hope you were wearing a seatbelt during all that careening - sm

Riiiight... - There are idiots on both sides.