Old people are scared and selfish. If your mom or grandpa or whatever are different, hey that's cool. But overall, old people suck. My dad told me that when he turned 60 and pops was damn right. The older I get the worse people around me get.
I'll disagree with JohnR. But I will say that all this means is that people vote across a variety of issues and beliefs. If you want to be cynical, you could say that old folks want everything else to be cut knowing full well that Medicare won't ever be cut. I think it's just that the older are more conservative than the young.
Nate Silver makes fun of Politico, an online magazine that is dedicated to endumbing its readers. http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/11/nate-silver-politico.php?ref=fpb
One month before the election, several bloggers picked up on the Politico attack on Silver, and said that Silver was correct. This was before the fact. In a rational world, a whole lot of Romney supporters would be impressed by the fact that they and their favorite commentators were wrong, and these bloggers that they previously ignored were correct. Because of this, they would start to pay a bit of attention to those bloggers, to listen to the other side. It ain't happening, of course. But I don't get it. If I follow a writer, and then that writer makes me look like an idiot, my faith wanes. I don't double down on being caught out.
You know that's not how they think. 1. Follow writer. 2. Foam at mouth. 3. Refuse to accept that writer is wrong. It's a trick! 4. Foam at mouth twice as much. 5. Repeat.