Different ideas about sins along generational lines

Our North Carolina poll last week showed majority support for Bev Perdue's proposals to raise the cigarette and alcohol taxes.

Digging into the crosstabs the most interesting thing about those numbers may have been that the age group most supportive of the alcohol tax was the least supportive of the cigarette tax, and the group most supportive of the cigarette tax was one of the least supportive of the alcohol tax.

Voters under 30 gave the cigarette tax hike its highest level of support at 57%. Those over 65 were the least supportive of it at 47%. Clearly the message has pretty much gotten across to the younger generation that smoking is bad, while older North Carolinians are both more likely to be smokers themselves and the most likely to remember the days when tobacco was so much more essential to the state's economy.

It's a different story when it comes to the alcohol tax though, with senior citizens giving that proposal its highest level of support at 65%. The youngest group of voters gives it only 56% support, the lowest of any group besides the 30-45 cohort.

Older voters are more accepting of smoking and less accepting of drinking, while younger voters are more accepting of drinking and less accepting of smoking. That surely says something about the transformation of North Carolina.