When did/will people who remember the depression dying off stop being a factor?

[Alben Barkley]

I’m of the belief that part of the reason West Virginia shifted so quickly from solid D to solid R is that old-school New Deal Democrats who remembered the Great Depression well and were brought into the Democratic fold thanks to FDR started dying off in large numbers. The same effect can reasonably be presumed to have occurred in other states to varying degrees, but West Virginia is an interesting case study because its demographics have remained so static yet its politics have shifted so dramatically. Indeed West Virginia is one of the only states where younger voters are more Republican than older voters, suggesting that this generational legacy was a substantial factor there for years.

I’m also of the belief that the country in general has declined sharply since the Greatest Generation (mostly) died out and the Baby Boomers took the reins, but that’s just my opinion.