The Grandparents Vote - Grandparents.com

Grandparents, now more than ever, are playing a huge role in society - and ultimately in the lives of their grandchildren.

Adapted from the blog post on TheHill.com, "The Grandparents Vote: 70 Million Lovers of Children."

The grandparents of America make up one of the largest untapped voting and consuming blocs currently rising to 70 to 80 million people, many of which who view many separate issues with one great common interest: the love of their grandchildren — of all grandchildren.

As the holiday season arrives, grandparents are looking to buy toys that are safe, joining in the national movement to leave their grandchildren a better world. Grandparents are combating global warming, and even joining the Peace Corps in record numbers to use their experience in life to serve our country and help the world.

It is one of the most interesting and powerful demographic trends of our time: As the huge surge of baby boomers grows older, there is a whole new age bracket for grandparents who are younger and, in many cases, at the peak of their careers.

A fine example is the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who is the ultimate career woman. Not only is she one of the most powerful leaders in America, but she's also the ultimate doting grandma. Pelosi moves effortlessly from managing trillion-dollar legislation and making the Congress environmentally friendly (stay tuned), to planning the most exciting Christmas gifts for her grandchildren and finding fun locations for the few holiday breaks the family can take when legislative business allows.

Pelosi is the most visible example of this megatrend in American demographics with even younger grandparents (who are in their late 40s and 50s) adding to the population of older grandparents, including high-level professionals and love-filled retirees in the more traditional grandparents pool.

While the Census Bureau lags behind the curve and does not yet include a direct question in the census about the exact number of grandparents or baby boomer grandparents in America, the number is huge and will soon reach 80 million Americans.

One new growth company, Grandparents.com, is reaching out to baby boomer grandparents as well as the more traditional 60-something and older grandparents with their project of “all things grandparents.” It could be an important site for discussing issues of unique importance to grandparents as grandparents, with the common denominator being their love for grandchildren rather than their particular age group or self-interests.

The grandparents vote creates the possibility of major new issue-based alliances and even potential consumer-based alliances. This is between large groups representing the grandparents and grandchildren on the many issues in which they have a shared interest.

My column in The Hill newspaper on Dec. 5, entitled “The greening Of America,” I suggested there is a new post-partisan majority in America and cited issues such as climate change as drivers of this political phenomenon that defined public opinion. Another good example is a bipartisan bill that helps both grandparents and kids, called The Kinship Caregiver Support Act.

The Senate bill is S. 661, introduced by Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine); the House bill, H.R. 2188 , was introduced Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.). The growing list of co-sponsors includes both Democrats and Republicans and the support behind the bill includes leading voices that span the generations, such as the AARP and the Children’s Defense Fund.

This bill would enable many thousands of foster children to share safe and loving families. Among many worthy goals would combine the love and experience of grandparents with the foster children in ways that would light up the love and lives of both. It would offer assistance to grandparents and others assuming legal guardianship of foster children and further a trend helping the children in what are now known as “grandfamilies.”

Similarly, the Peace Corps has begun a highly successful campaign to attract Americans, including the baby boomer grandparents and 60-something and older grandparents and seniors, to their valuable international work.

These new Peace Corps volunteers bring extraordinary life experience that helps our nation and other countries as well. Additionally, poor children living in the Third World are particularly served by having the benefit of the enormous experience, wisdom, and knowledge that this latest generation of Peace Corps volunteers brings to the effort.

What gives the grandparents vote such huge potential is that the grandparents are united in their love of grandchildren. They are interested in the issues that benefit not only grandparents and their generation, but the grandchildren they love in that special way that only grandparents can fully appreciate.

Protecting the environment and leaving a safer planet to grandchildren, protecting the kids from toys that can be dangerous and even life-threatening, sharing conversations and family discussions between the grandparents, parents, and grandchildren are all special attributes of the unique values of grandparents and the extended families, and grandchildren they love.

There is enormous potential clout for the presidential candidates and members of Congress in both political parties who reach out to this giant constituency of grandparent voters, and equally large opportunities for the companies that can ride the huge demographic wave that includes potentially 70 million grandparents and the entire “grandfamily” community.