Most ‘tea party’ followers are baby boomers reliving the ’60s
Oceans of ink, terabytes of blog space and an eternity of television time have been devoted to the latest object of media fascination, the “tea party” movement. Now (finally!), a poll conducted by CNN gives us some hard data on the Tea Party Nation.
Neither “average Americans,” as they like to portray themselves, nor trailer-park “Deliverance” throwbacks, as their lefty detractors would have us believe, tea partyers are more highly educated and wealthier than the rest of America. Nearly 75% are college educated, and two-thirds earn more than $50,000.
More likely to be white and male than the general population, tea partyers also skew toward middle age or older. That’s the tell. Most came of age in the 1960s, an era distinguished by widespread disrespect for government. In their wonder years, they learned that politics was about protesting the Establishment and shouting down the Man. No wonder they’re doing that now.
Look closely at the tea partyer and what you see is a famil- iar American genus: a solidly middle-class, college-educated boomer, endowed by his creator with possessions, opinions and certain inalienable rights, the most important of which is the right to make sure you hear what he has to say.
The tea party is a harbinger of midlife crisis, not political crisis. For men of a certain age, it offers a counterculture experience familiar from adolescence — underground radio, esoteric tracts, consciousness-raising teach-ins and rallies replete with extroverted behavior to shock the squares — all paid for with ample cash.
The partyers are essentially replaying the ’60s protest paradigm. (We’re aging boomers ourselves, so we know it when we see it.) They fancy themselves the vanguard of a revolution, when in fact they are typical self-absorbed, privileged children used to having their way — now — and uninhibited about complaining loudly when they don’t. It’s the same demographic Spiro Agnew called “an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals.”
Source:
Most 'tea party' followers are baby boomers reliving the '60s
latimes.com
Jim Spencer and Curtis Ellis smeared the tea party movement as a bunch of spoiled, narcissistic baby boomers. My own experience says they are simply middle and working class whites who are finally waking up to the fact that the left has been conducting a political and cultural war against them for decades, and Messrs. Spencer and Ellis can’t make us go away with their loutish sneering.
What a load of crap. Call me whatever you want, babyboomer, 60s throwback (sorry, I may be a boomer but I was born in ‘64 so missed out on all that protesting), I will continue to be this: an American who is deeply concerned with the progressive-socialist agenda in Congress. No other descriptives are necessary, thank you.
Why exactly has such an article been printed here? Can anyone explain this to me? The direction of it’s political thrust is plain enough, is it not? So WHY? This is actually ENDORSED by NPI?.