I have a better question. How do the self described hippies of the late 60s and early 70s vote now? My guess is about evenly split today. Hippies were drawn to progressive causes and I expect a lot of them to still think that way. But at the same time I think a lot of them were just going through a rebellious phase and turned more conservative by the late 70s.
1968: 10/60/30 Nixon/Humphrey/None
1972: 10/90 Nixon/McGovern
1976: 30/60/10 Ford/Carter/None
1980: 30/40/15/15 Reagan/Carter/Anderson/None
1984: 50/50 Reagan/Mondale
1988: 45/55 Bush/Dukakis
1992: 30/40/30 Bush/Clinton/Perot
1996: 35/50/15 Dole/Clinton/Perot
2000: 50/50 Bush/Gore
2004: 55/45 Bush/Kerry (first time the R wins this group)
2008: 50/50 McCain/Obama
2012: 55/40/5 Romney/Obama/None
How does this group (comprised of the same individuals) go from 35% Republican in 1996 to 55% Republican in 2012?
Or how does a demographic that was split 50/50 in an extremely lopsided election (1984) stay around 50/50 in a extremely close election (2000)?
Because this group became more conservative through time. That was the point I was trying to make. Disappointment with the counterculture movement might have swung some of these people more to the right, as well as becoming more conservative with age.
Hippies did get more conservative, but those who were still liberal by, say, 1984 or 1988, have probably stayed that way.
Instead, you have a group going from 35% GOP to 55% GOP in less than a twenty year span of time which didn't begin until the mid 1990s.
