OK, I have a bone to pick here and a soapbox to mount. While Baby Boomers is a term often used to cover everyone born between 1946 and 1964, actual demographers (as opposed to pop culture talking heads) now use the term to mean only those between 1946 and 1953 (or 1954), while those born 1954-1964 are demoted to such names as Generation Jones (how anonymous) or Shadow Boomers (defining them as shadows of their older siblings).
Those of us in Gen Jones are tired of being tarred with the Baby Boomer brush, which doesn't really apply.
Let's start with a Wikipediaquote: "While 1945-1965 reflect the post-World War II demographic boom in births, there is a growing consensus among generational experts that two distinct cultural generations occupy these years. The conceptualization that has gained the most public acceptance is that of a 1942-1953 Baby Boom Generation, followed by a 1954-1965 Generation Jones. Boomers and Joneses had dramatically different formative experiences which gave rise to dramatically different collective personalities."
To get personal with this, I am from the first age cohort of Gen Jones, born in 1954. I remember seeing Jack, Bobbie and Teddie Kennedy during the Wisconsin primary in 1960, but I was only five at that point. I was eight for the Cuban Missile Crisis and nine (third grade) when JFK was killed. Yes, I saw Oswald shot live on TV and ran to tell my parents. The Summer of Love, RFK's and King's assassinations took place just after I graduated from grade school. Kent State happened on my 16th birthday. I never faced the draft, but I was able to vote in the 1972 election.
The younger members of Gen Jones had even less connection with these events. They were born after the Missile Crisis and JFK's assassination and were not even in kindergarten in 1968. Some could not vote for a president until Regan's second term.
I am quite willing to concede that Boomers have made lousy political leaders. This would include Bill Clinton (1946), Hillary Clinton (1947), George W. Bush (1946) and Tom Delay (1947), with Jim Webb (1946) and Al Gore (1948) providing some counterpoint. Their formative years made them formidable politicians, just not very effective leaders. Clarence Thomas (1948) and Samuel Alito (1950) are Boomers, while John Roberts qualifies as Gen Jones. Gen Jones politicians include Barak Obama (1961) and Russ Feingold and John Edwards (both on the cusp in 1953), though most of that generation have not (yet?) reached prominence.
Baby Boomers are reaching retirement age, deluging our airways with Depends and Viagra commercials. Gen Jones expects to work until they are 70 and will not really start hitting retirement until 2024, with the trailing edge hitting 70 in 2034. John McCain will be 98 by then (God willing).
I could expound further on the differences between the generations. Environmentalism, feminism, Vatican II, rock music, two paycheck families (are there any other kind?), the end of great power warfare, globalization and many other movements are all taken for granted by most Gen Jonesers, but barely existed for young Boomers. No, Boomers didn't create those things, most of which grew out of the WWII generation.
Politically, Jonesers are much more numerous than Boomers, with over four million of them per year for a decade. they are a key to the next election.
I'll close with another Wikipedia quote: In demographic terms, Generation Jones was part of the baby boom which ended in the early 1960s. However, the events stereotypically associated with generational discussion of Boomers, including protests over civil rights and the Vietnam war and the emergence of rock music took place while the members of Generation Jones were still children or early teenagers. Thus the early life experience of this group was more similar, in many respects, to that commonly imputed to Generation X.