Tea Partiers: Spoiled Boomers in Midlife Crisis

Movement has a lot of white men who came of age in 1960s
By Emily Rauhala,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 26, 2010 9:39 AM CST
Tea Partiers: Spoiled Boomers in Midlife Crisis
These are not 'average joes,' poll data show.   (AP Photo/Al Behrman)

The tea party movement portrays itself as a gang of ordinary, diverse citizens, but in reality it's got a lot of rich, middle-aged white guys who came of age in the '60s. That's telling. This phenomenon is actually "a harbinger of midlife crisis, not political crisis," write Jim Spencer and Curtis Ellis. Tea partiers are "the original 'me generation'" grabbing the spotlight, no matter the cost.

"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," write the authors in the Los Angeles Times. They've switched from "bell bottoms" to "birther slogans" as a means of drawing attention, but they ignore the real lesson of the '60s: Change is about sacrifice, not showmanship.

(More Tea Party stories.)

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