fort myers, fla. <u+2014> sixteen. that<u+2019>s the number of times that ellen chrouch, a bird-loving republican at the shell point retirement community here, has cast a vote for president, starting with dwight d. eisenhower in 1956 and, this year, a reluctant ballot for donald j. trump . during that time, america<u+2019>s political landscape has been turned inside out and upside down, and to hear many older voters tell it, is now marked only by low roads. <u+201c>there was a time in my life when i really wanted to pick a good person for president, and he was there,<u+201d> mrs. chrouch, 80, who escaped ohio<u+2019>s harsh winters 10 years ago, said with resignation and a touch of incredulity. <u+201c>i don<u+2019>t like either one of them,<u+201d> she said of this year<u+2019>s two presidential choices, <u+201c>so i fear for the future.<u+201d> retirees are florida<u+2019>s most coveted political demographic <u+2014> nationally, 72 percent of registered voters 65 and older turned out in the 2012 presidential race, and florida has the nation<u+2019>s highest percentage of residents of that age. while they have plenty of company in being turned off by this election, conversations last week with retirees in and around two retirement villages, in west palm beach and fort myers, were a reminder that presidential politics has not always been this dispiriting. and the longer the memories, the worse this election can look. <u+201c>this is the worst kind of election i have ever been through,<u+201d> said pam cesner, 70, another republican transplant from ohio, who sat sipping coffee outside a fresh market in fort myers with her husband, david, 73. <u+201c>i think there has always been, somewhat, this kind of mudslinging, but never to this extent.<u+201d> if the sour sentiments were common, they seemed most widespread among republicans, who lamented that mr. trump was the party<u+2019>s nominee. people 65 and older make up 19 percent of this swing state<u+2019>s residents. thirty-three percent of the state<u+2019>s registered voters, with slightly more republicans than democrats, are 61 or older, according to daniel a. smith, an election expert at the university of florida. and they are the residents most likely to vote, experts say. polls on people over 65 are often hard to gauge because of small sample sizes, but some recent national and state surveys show hillary clinton either slightly ahead or close to even with mr. trump among older voters. this is a significant problem for mr. trump because older voters in recent elections have been reliably republican. mitt romney beat president obama by 12 percentage points among older adults nationwide in 2012. the margin in florida was even wider . yet, mr. romney failed to win. the last democrat with a nationwide majority of the 65-and-over vote was al gore in 2000. at the shell point retirement community and in pockets of fort myers, a largely republican area on the gulf coast, the retirees talk of a country dangerously divided and of presidential debates that mimicked reality television. mr. trump, they say, is cantankerous and coarse. mrs. clinton, they add, is disingenuous and irksome. and the residents say they cannot trust either one. <u+201c>we are both registered republicans, and we both voted to assert our right to vote,<u+201d> said mrs. cesner, who arrived in florida two years ago. <u+201c>we<u+2019>re sick to death of this, so we voted for the independent<u+201d> <u+2014> gary johnson <u+2014> <u+201c>then we still have the right to bitterly complain no matter who wins.<u+201d> if any election has tempted older voters to take a nostalgic plunge into past races, it is this one. these are people who once dressed up to go to the polls to cast their first votes for figures like truman, eisenhower and kennedy. their coming-of-age political era evoked buzzwords like dignity and civility. <u+201c>maybe it<u+2019>s the ethics, the manners, or respect, that<u+2019>s gone,<u+201d> said lou sahlmann, 89, a party-line republican who sat carving an egret out of black walnut in shell point<u+2019>s wood-shop room. his first presidential vote, in 1948, went to thomas e. dewey, who lost to harry s. truman. (the chicago daily tribune declared otherwise in its famous banner headline.) president ronald reagan, he said, <u+201c>was a gentleman.<u+201d> this time, mr. sahlmann, a retired manufacturing executive who left erie, pa., for florida 17 years ago, said he reluctantly chose mr. trump. <u+201c>it was a holding-my-nose vote,<u+201d> he said. describing mr. trump as <u+201c>infantile,<u+201d> he paused to remove his glasses and set aside his egret. <u+201c>i hope it<u+2019>s not our democracy falling apart.<u+201d> no one could precisely say where the turning point took place, that moment when political campaigns seemed to plummet. maybe it came with president bill clinton and his affairs, or president george w. bush and the iraq war. certainly, the media<u+2019>s 24-hour news cycle, its more polarized stances and the extreme push for ratings and clicks have contributed to the combustion, the retirees said. consider bipartisanship, several said. it was not so long ago, after all, that republicans and democrats could lean on each other to work out a deal and actually pass meaningful laws. mr. reagan sipped beers and shared a regular st. patrick<u+2019>s day lunch with the democratic house speaker tip o<u+2019>neill to hash out their differences. president lyndon b. johnson turned bipartisanship into a much-admired sport. <u+201c>in the old days, democrats and republicans would have a martini and get things done,<u+201d> said bob daley, 81, who sat with his brother admiring the gulf view at shell point. or take sex scandals, they said. plenty of presidents had extramarital sexual escapades, most famously thomas jefferson and john f. kennedy . but they were viewed as private family matters, not as a chance to publicly forage <u+201c>in the gutter,<u+201d> as some here saw it, or conduct a public vivisection of a person<u+2019>s character. the media (overwhelmingly a men<u+2019>s club) famously shied away from these stories. <u+201c>presidents in the past had their lovers and mistresses,<u+201d> said sandy greene, a democrat who grew up on new york<u+2019>s upper west side and now lives in century village in west palm beach, prime turf for democrats. <u+201c>i love j.f.k. there were mistakes made all over. they all had skeletons. but there was dignity, and there seemed to be resolution. this is an embarrassment.<u+201d> still, at 80, mrs. greene does not pine for the era <u+2014> her era <u+2014> when women were always expected to put dinner on the table, fetch coffee for their husbands and make do with domestic life. mr. trump, she said, evokes the worst of that era when he talks about women. <u+201c>i don<u+2019>t want my grandchildren to see and hear that,<u+201d> mrs. greene said. <u+201c>that was our place then; it isn<u+2019>t now.<u+201d> as paul gardy, 68, lay on a lounge chair by the century village pool soaking in the sun, the salsa-dancing new yorker grimaced when asked about this election. he prefers mr. trump, with his <u+201c>new york street smarts,<u+201d> to mrs. clinton and her <u+201c>dirty laundry.<u+201d> his vote, though, may go to neither. meanwhile, there are distractions. <u+201c>thank god there<u+2019>s sports on, is all i can say,<u+201d> he said. alain delaqu<u+00e9>ri<u+00e8>re contributed research. find out what you need to know about the 2016 presidential race today, and get politics news updates via facebook , twitter and the first draft newsletter . a version of this article appears in print on october 29, 2016, on page a10 of the new york edition with the headline: older voters carry clout but don<u+2019>t like the choices. order reprints | today's paper | subscribe
florida voters with the longest memories don<u+2019>t like what they see
lizette alvarez