The inside story

Another presumed great divide, age. There is a division, but it is not as deep as the divisions along racial and ethnic lines. The young people (18-29) voted Democratic, but only by 61 percent. That Democratic plurality reduced to 54 percent for voters 30 to 59 years old; and to just a couple of points (52 percent) among those who have attained or are approaching senior citizenship.

So then, with a couple of exceptions (Jews, blacks and Hispanics -- oh yes, and gay, lesbian or bisexual, who went 75 percent Democratic), you can get away with saying that the voters are pretty well mixed. This is so even geographically. The Democrats prevailed in the East by 64 percent, Midwest by 53 percent and West by 56 percent. In the South, Republicans led by 54 percent.

You can pick and ponder as you will, with discrete findings, e.g., Catholics went 56 percent Democratic, Protestants 55 percent Republican. There presumably exists somewhere a table that gives you the progression of these different groups over the past 50 years. But if so, it is hard to find. We have walked back into see-no-evil land.