Gray Vote No Longer Reliably Red

Washington Post: In a Florida Retirement Community, Residents Are Uncharacteristically Split

(Washingtonpost.com)  This story was written by Anne Hull.

The sign over the woodworking shop says "Sawdust Engineers," and there was a time when the men now bent over the tools used to put on ties or make sales calls, building their pensions so they could one day leave the rat race for this warm world of unbroken sunshine.

"Retirement is the best!" says Jerry Decker, 73, one of the Sawdust Engineers tinkering in the wood shop at this over-55 retirement community of 19,000 residents outside Tampa.

But the tranquillity of palm trees and wine gatherings that sustained Decker's dreams all those years in the snow has been upended by the financial crisis. Even here in paradise, nothing is for sure anymore.

"Who isn't afraid of getting a 'Dear John' letter from GM saying your pension is in danger?" he asks. "You look at all these companies and what they are doing. We worked so hard to put them first, and it's just not right for them to be reneging."

The other men share the outrage, spitting out the names of corporations and their golden parachutes and lavish indulgences.

"I wasn't invited to the AIG spa weekend, were you?" one asks aloud. "You didn't get the manicure?" another asks.

"If we ran a household like they ran their company, you'd be bankrupt in five months."

The Sawdust Engineers should be an easy sweep for Republican presidential nominee John McCain. All five are Korean War veterans and registered Republicans. George W. Bush nailed every one of their votes. But three weeks before the election, only three of them are supporting McCain.

Sun City Center is in the hard-fought electoral quadrant in Florida known as the I-4 corridor, home to 43 percent of the state's voters. The Republican Party has always counted on the retirees here to deliver in bulk, but this year a more severe calculation is at play. To win Florida, McCain needs to capture a bigger slice of older voters than President Bush won in 2004 to offset the high numbers of young voters supporting Democratic Sen. Barack Obama.

"I'm ready for a change," says Ed Bearer, a retired public school teacher from Delaware who recently received a letter saying his wife's medical expenses may no longer be covered under his pension plan. "McCain turns me off. I can't explain it," he says. He's voting for Obama.

That leaves Jerry Decker. Last week, during the second presidential debate, Decker kept waiting for McCain to come out swinging. "What he should have said was 'We're going to prosecute AIG to the fullest extent,' " Decker says. Instead, only vague promises to clean up corruption.

It's easy to see why Decker wants more heat from a candidate when his own steady discipline is compared with the reckless indulgence of Wall Street. For years, Decker brown-bagged his lunch, even when he went over to the corporate tower as a director of human resources for Formica Corp. His wife, Jeannie, was his barber. The Deckers had one son and the family lived fully but frugally: They were the ones on the side of the ski mountain with their lunch and cans of soda packed from home. Jeannie watched the budget, and for more than two decades she gave her husband $25 each Friday for his weekly spending money.

"It wasn't a sacrifice," Decker says. "We had a game plan to spend our retirement together."

But the game plan for many of the couple's friends at Sun City Center has been jeopardized by the financial meltdown. Decker hears the stories in the wood shop. Guys who took their company's advice and converted their pensions to 401(k) plans only to watch their holdings diminish by half when the market plunged. Jeannie tells him that some of the women are skipping their weekly trips to the beauty parlor and letting their hair go gray. More people their age are bagging groceries at the nearby Publix supermarket, and foreclosure signs, once unthinkable, are popping up in the trim Bermuda grass.

"I still believe in our country," Decker says. "But Jeannie and I don't have time to rebound. When you are 72 and 73, you don't have time to recoup."

The storefronts at the strip plazas serving Sun City Center say it all: pulmonary clinics, laser surgery, Beltone hearing aids, oxygen tank rentals, at Bob Evans and numerous pharmacies. Retirees zip around in golf carts, many of them outlandishly customized, including one that looks like a giant sombrero, complete with fringe. But spare these folks the Florida retiree jokes -- they've heard them all. Giving a tour of the aquatic facility, information director John Bowker mentions that four seniors have died in the Jacuzzi. "The most common sound around here is an ambulance," he says.

Once a solid hub of conservative retirees from the Midwest, Sun City Center has in recent years been set upon by newcomers who make for a less cohesive voting group -- "liberal Northeasterners," says Dee Williams, president of the Sun City Center Republican Club since 1991. In other words, blue-staters.

The influx of Democrats and McCain's tepid style of campaigning have Williams concerned enough to shoot off SOS e-mails to the Florida Republican Party warning that her turf cannot be taken for granted. "McCain is not bringing passion," says Williams, 80, sitting in her living room of blue sofas. "He has to convey to the public that what we are doing with the bailout, we had to do."

In her Missouri twang, Williams makes a direct appeal to her candidate: "You better get off your duff and show some fire. Send Sarah [Palin] and her husband to Michigan. If you are going to give up Michigan and you lose Florida, you lose."

The same morning Jerry Decker and the Sawdust Engineers are tinkering in their wood shop, a group of women called the Weavers are at their looms elsewhere in the activities center expressing ambivalence about McCain.

"He's flat, he's old, he doesn't seem enthused," says Jane Bolder, 69, a registered independent who twice voted for Bush because of his tax policies. Voting for McCain, she says, would be a no-brainer if he had picked Sen. Joseph Lieberman as a running mate instead of Alaska's Gov. Palin. "I can't imagine sending Palin, with her cliches, et cetera, to negotiate or meet with leaders of other countries," she says.

Obama has struggled to capture older white voters, and Bolder epitomizes their hesitance about him. "He has pizazz, but he has a lot of plans to spend a lot of money," she says. "The health plan is more geared toward government control. He wants to raise capital gains taxes. Where is the money going to come from to pay for health care?"

Outside, the aqua aerobics class is full tilt with women in water wings dancing to Abba's "Mamma Mia" while golf carts are nosed up to the state-of-the-art gym. The computer room is packed. Bridge starts at 2. To write off this population as a monolithic voting bloc is a mistake: Ages here range from 55 (known as the "babies") to 95. They TiVo, they download, and most important, they are inveterate consumers of information.

[antoniof123]

Sad but every thing changes and they are trying to hold on to the past when it is gone.

The next generation will be the first generation that has not lived better than its parents.

You kids can thank your parents they were so busy letting the President spend that they forgot about you.

The blood bath is coming and I think they understand it now.

[sleepyric]

Old people aren''t stupid. They know an angry old man when they see one.

[mytoosense]

It must be tough knowing that your wrong choices in the past for president and congress could actually dimminish your standard of living during your last years.

[aldon61]

Older people tend to be more conservative, it''s their nature. To see a swing like this, you know they are seeing signs they''ve either seen before, or heard from their parents. Republicans, this election is lost; you best learn a lesson from what''s occurred and try much harder to gain this voting bloc back. Democrats, you have a gift this election; either earn their continued support, or risk losing them back to the Republicans next election. This group is going to grow in number very fast over the next 10 years; enough to turn an election in a hard fought battle. Both parties have an opportunity here, what are you going to do?

[tmn]

"We are retired and lost a lot of money, in the stock market, because of the bail-out. This was done by Barney Frank and it started in the 90''''s by him and his boyfriend"
---

What a MORONIC conclusion - jeez! Talk about an idiot!

[jfrance5]

A democratic presidency is going to crash the economy. All of the corporations are not going to give Obama their money on a silver platter. Nor should they. Instead you will see a mass migration offshore like you have never seen before. Additionally, major corporations will have to take their profits from the only thing left. That is the stock holders. McCain won''t win for one reason and one reason only. Obama has offered 95% of tax payers a bribe to vote for him. This has nothing to do with a tax break. It''s a check, it''s not a credit. So, enjoy that windfall, if you actually get it. I give it less than a 40% chance that it will actually happen. But, boy, it sure sounds good. Also a special message for the middle class. Enjoy the manipulations to get their hands on the rest of your money that you aren''t forced to give away right now. For all you church goers enjoy people taking away from them also. Church doctrine and the bible don''t allow for same *** marriage. So, one thing that is going to happen is that the church groups may very well lose their non-profit status if they don''t embrace the new America. After all it would be another great windfall for the Democrats if they could get away with taxing the church. I''ve always considered myself a patriot. I fought in a war, paid my taxes and worked with runaways in my spare time. I feel so sorry for this country and am astonished how we have allowed a very few people to ruin it.

[tmn]

"barney Frank is at the heart of this problem."
---
No, morons like YOU are at the heart of the problem!

[usclimey]

Posted by spotter444

The week after 9/11 those two intellectual dwarfs Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell were also saying that the uS deserved to ba attacked because of the immoral attitudes toward g*a*y*s. Of course hypocrits such as yourself tend to overlook them.

[usclimey]

I would''''nt vote for Obama if my life depended on it.

Posted by fervan

You goin'' to meetcha maker pretty soon buddy boy.

[usclimey]

Obama Hitler Youth style Brainwashing

Posted by spotter444

You''ve been watching the McPain/Falin performances as well. I thought they reminded me of someone. Thanks for pointing out the similarities.

[john43218]

Nearly all of Obama''''s appeal requires his supporters to take on faith that he will do things he has never done. But on the question of whether Obama will ever take a meaningful stand against corruption or waste in his own party or stand up to vested interests and ideological extremists on his own side, we already know the answer: Obama is so thoroughly marinated in extremism and corruption that it would be nearly impossibe to extricate himself and still have a meaningful identity left.

You will often hear Obama''''s defenders argue that his ties to this or that extremist or corrupt figure is an isolated aberration, an example of "guilt by association"; that the various favors he dispensed with public money and private charitable foundation funds are nothing unusual in politics.

But when you look at Obama''''s record and biography taken together, what you see is that the favors, the extremists and the machine ties are all inextricably intertwined, and that far from being isolated incidents, Obama''''s modus operandi of mutual back-scratching with radicals and crooks extends to nearly every aspect of his life and career - his family, his faith, his home, his jobs and education, his significant election victories and legislative "accomplishments," his closest advisors and most important mentors, the money and organization that made up his campaigns.

[usclimey]

A democratic presidency is going to crash the economy.

Posted by jfrance5

Just one small point; the economy has ALREADY been crashed by GOPigs like you.

[tmn]

Yes, this is all Barney Frank''s fault. Barney Frank, Captain Kangaroo, and Wonder Dog are all at fault. I think any conservative Republican could agree.

[usclimey]

Never in my post did I say I agreed with Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell and their hate messages.

Posted by spotter444

So why not say Obama''s preacher, Falwell and Robertson all agreed on the cause of 9/11. That would be truth, whole truth etc. You guys are so good about leaving the "whole truth" out of the old saying.

[eroosevelt08]

A democratic presidency is going to crash the economy.

Posted by jfrance5

How can that be? The Republican George W. Bush has already done that. The Democrats will have to clean up his mess.

[usclimey]

ACORN certainly does seem to have overstept it''s bounds. BTW do you recall a plenary speaker at ACORN''s 2/06 convention was?? Uh Huh!! John McCain.

[citizenusa-2009]

My father is 81. My mother is 74. They wouldn''t even CONSIDER voting for McCain. They sum it up like this: "You''ve got to be blind, dumb or insane to vote for McCain."

They''ve been around a lot longer than me, and have seen countless Administrations..they liken Bush to Nixon...both power hungry and incompetent they say..

I think they are on to something..I too am voting for Obama!

[koko98-2009]

Good story, but you''re only telling half of it. My Father in law and his crowd are in their late 80''s and early 90''s and they remember the Depression and see Bush and McCain as modern day Hoovers. They are all for Obama to try to turn the country around. Everywhere you look it''s bad news for the Republicans.

[tmn]

Most folks using the term Socialism don''t really even know what that means. They are simply parroting a word they heard used elsewhere.

[john43218]

For the first time, I really feel scared about the future. These people are like the Germans in the election of 1933. They know what''s coming but they don''t care. Back then, all they cared about was that Hitler was going to give them a job and keep their lunch pails full. And stick it to the Jews. And restore Germany''s "rightful place" in the world. They knew full well that Hitler would destroy the independent unions, crack down on dissent, and turn Germany from a very free country into a fascist dictatorship.

Part of this is McCain''s fault. He bought into that populist *** about greedy Wall Street. Well, so as ye sow, so shall ye reap. And we''re about to reap the whirlwind.

In this kind of atmosphere any kind of a government is possible. And I don''t know if Obama can resist the kind of raw power these nincompoops are willing to give him. Who could?

You need a license to own a dog but any fool can vote.

[starleo146]

No matter what Mc Same will try to do, the American people see how when we are in trouble as a nation,all he has to do is attack, lie, and try to destroy, he has not showed one thing to help this country, only ways to stab, and try to get elected at all cost, when he tries to destroy. He is a man who has lost all integrity, and is not fit to be our president,Palin was a big mistake, and proves what kind of decisions he would make. His decisions in this campaign has been wrong on every issue. The gual of the man starts repeating Obamas mantra of Change , He is a angry old man

[citizenusa-2009]

Now if he wants to point out how the neo-Marxist Barak Nobama is nothing more than Jimah Carter in black face....I would agree.


Posted by BO_SBD at 05:08 PM : Oct 15, 2008

And you''re calling ME a REDNECK? LOL!!! Get your car off the lawn before someone calls the cops!! LOL LOL

[citizenusa-2009]

He is a angry old man

Posted by starleo14672 at 05:41 PM : Oct 15, 2008

Word!

[renojmc]

The problem is that the Greatest Generation is dying off and now we''re getting the hippies of the 60''s replacing them. Their brains are so damaged from pot and LSD that they don''t know enough to stay away from Obama.

[citizenusa-2009]

prefer what he truly is....A neo-Marxist, bordering on new age commie.



Posted by BO_SBD at 05:45 PM : Oct 15, 2008

"George, stop posting and help me pack, before they throw out stuff on the lawn!" (Listen to Laura, BO, or you''re not gettin "any" tonight...)

[bobnjersey]

[Can any of you brain dead "Yellow Dogs" name just one country that has ever taxed it''''s way out of a depression??]
[Posted by BO_SBD at 05:26 PM : Oct 15, 2008]

no ... but i can name one the spent it''s way into one.

which party is the one that doesn''t understand the concept of a balanced budget ... which party is mostly responsible for the $10 trillion national debt ... which party gives money back to the wealthiest on the hope they''ll create jobs for the rest ... which party nearly doubled the national debt in less than six years?

taxes are the revenue that counter the expenditures ... it''s not really that difficult to follow.

[citizenusa-2009]

This is really funny and transparant. The LAST debate is coming up and MC CAIN is desparate!!! So he''s hired commie posters!!

[inventagod2]

Those old hippies will save America once again...

[letreasonwin]

Have you right-wingers checked out from a RELIABLE source what Obama actually stands for. You might be surprised how conservative he is on certain social issues. From your comments I can tell that you don''t even really know what he stands for.

Frontline had excellent program last night, portraying both candidates in a non-partisan manner. You can see it on the PBS website.

[omded]

So how many of you are going to leave the U.S.A. if Obama gets elected? Where are you going to go? What country will take you? You should have thought about that before you elected G.W. Bush!

[downsteamjim]

Obama may not get the gray vote, but he has the dead vote locked up.

[mensarino]

Here''s one old gray beard who is 100% for Obama.By the way-----this race is over!!!

[downsteamjim]

To cbs3200: I realize that contradicting the ''Messiah'' is blasphemy to you and many others. Just remember David Keresh and Jim Jones both got their followers to believe. That didn''t work out to well did it.

[norepubs]

Republican fascists didn''t seem to have a problem with ''creative accounting'' in the 2000 florida vote,or the 2004 Ohio vote.
You can''t get anything out of Republican FILTH that isn''t a bald faced lie.....


Obama may not get the gray vote, but he has the dead vote locked up.

Posted by downsteamjim at 07:03 PM : Oct

[downsteamjim]

To Norepubs: Today the worst type of voter fraud is being done by ACORN using taxpayer money. Guess who they are supporting?

[rudy654-2009]

To Norepubs: Today the worst type of voter fraud is being done by ACORN using taxpayer money. Guess who they are supporting?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by downsteamjim at 07:37 PM

McCain!

There is no voter fraud except the one the repos are trying by keeping people from voting if they are facing foreclosure. I''m sure you''ve heard. Mickey Mouse won''t be showing up, regardless of what lazy worker registered him.

[downsteamjim]

To rudy654: I am glad that you recognized Mickey Mouse. Can you name all the players for the Dallas Cowboys? Jesse Jackson wanted to cut Obama''s nuts, I just want to get rid of ACORNS.

[dibs977]

I''m 63 and I''m voting for Obama. He will lead us back to honesty, integrity, prosperity and peace.

[dibs977]

Can you really in good conscious vote for Palin--not only is she stupid and mean--but she seems a little crazy. If something happened to McCain and she became president, it would be horrible for us. And McCain is an ok guy---but not good enough to be president. I like him ok---and hope he lives to be a hundred but he made a really bad decision to pick Palin and if that is an example of how he thinks, he is not very good.

[dibs977]

The only massive voter fraud in recent times was done by the Republicans when Bush stole the election. Heck, I am not even sure that Republicans did not plant those voter irregularities---as that is typical Republican Dirty Trickster stuff. Democrats are not perfect but Republican fraud is so bad that it threatens to destroy us.

[brownbuilder]

SO THE TAX BREAKS FOR THE RICH DID NOT TRICKLE DOWN TO THE MIDDLE CLASS........HUM?

[bobnjersey]

[I realize that contradicting the ''''Messiah'''' is blasphemy to you and many others. Just remember David Keresh and Jim Jones both got their followers to believe. That didn''''t work out to well did it.]
[Posted by downsteamjim at 07:27 PM : Oct 15, 2008]

you don''t need to go that far ... you and the rest that continue to support gwb are your own little cult ... and the amazing thing is ... you don''t seem to have any acknowledged awareness of it.

it''s well researched and documented ... and it''s called authoritarianism ... which makes you an authoritarian follower ... and those that you follow authoritarian leaders.

if you could actually think for yourself you would read up on it ... recognize that it''s describing you ... and want to change ... but you wont.

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

[johncarl54]

i will retire soon on a fixed income and will never vote republican again.