If one thing is true about Baby Boomers, it’s their penchant—some would say their extravagant obsession—for making a federal case out of everything that personally affects them. It’s no surprise, then, that in his 2006 State of the Union Address, President Bush used the fact that he was turning sixty later that year as his segue into a discussion of the “unprecedented strains on the federal government” ahead.1 For Boomers, everything seems to start with what’s happening to them.
In Bush’s words, his sixtieth birthday was going to be more than unprecedented; it was going to be a “personal crisis.” The unprecedented strains on the nation? Just a “national challenge.” A very serious challenge, of course, but not a “crisis.” ...
