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Generation Next?



I heard the Spice Girls song Move Over on the radio t'other day. Though the lyrics are fairly inane, I believe the gist of it is about how Generation X is gonna take over (unclear as to what -- society? the world? a toy shop?). At any rate, the song was from 1997 and, as I was listening to it (a fellow GenXer myself), I thought, "Have we really taken over, though?"

Certainly, our pop culture landscape has been very friendly to Generation X in recent years. So many movies and TV shows from our youth have been rebooted (sometimes to great success) that it's obvious we've been catered to greatly on that front.

But what about politically? And I'm speaking of the big stakes here -- federal level positions. How many members of the House of Representatives are from Generation X? And Senators? Looking at the Supreme Court, it would appear that the two most recent appointments -- Gorsuch and Kavanaugh -- just barely qualify as Gen X (being born in 1967 and 1965, respectively). The definition of a Generation X member is, apparently, anyone born from 1965 to 1980.

The aforementioned determination of who qualifies as Generation X would seem to preclude Kamala Harris, but some places are wanting to include her. As of this writing, however, she is a candidate for the vice-presidency, but has not actually been elected to, or served in, the position. To date, we've not yet had a president or vice-president from Generation X. Donald Trump and Mike Pence, our current President and Vice-President, are Baby Boomers, as is Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. The current Democratic candidate for President, Joe Biden, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi are from the pre-Boomer era.

Please, I don't want Generation X folks to come to prominence at the highest levels when they're in their seventies or older. I know it sounds ageist, but if we're going to have our time in the sun, here's hoping it's sooner rather than later. After all, we're not getting any younger.


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