Alex P. Keaton Goes to Washington

The largest wave of Gen X Congressman will hit the concrete beaches of Washington in January. David S. Bernstein, a writer for Boston Phoenix has written an excellent piece about the historic event. It is also the single most depressing thing I have ever written about Generation X because if Rand Paul and Sarah Palin are my generation's leader and patron saint respectively someone please stop the bus and let me get off.

Here is an excerpt:

"...Indeed, many of the few Gen-X Democrats to reach Congress — just 26 next year — are urbanites and minorities, who grew up very differently from the white, suburban-angst world of John Hughes films and grunge records.

"Nor are most of the new Republican congressmen former Spicolis and Silent Bobs. Those former authority-bucking stoners are punching code and toiling in middle-management (if they still have jobs), at least judging by the ones I grew up with.


"No, most of these newcomers are Alex P. Keaton types — longtime, dedicated Republican activists, attaining the next stage of their political careers...Others, however, are newly politicized, anti-government cranks, whose Gen-X anti-authoritarian nihilism has mixed with middle-aged resentment, to create a new anti-activist activism. Their leader is a privileged libertarian, ophthalmologist-turned-senator Rand Paul (born 1963), and like him they are going to Washington to stop Washington. Their patron saint is Sarah Palin ('64).

I'm going to have to go lie down.