My two mixed-race boys beg to differ.
(Weekly Standard) — Speaking to reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast this morning, former Vermont governor and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Dr. Howard Dean shared his thoughts on the Tea Party.
“I think it’s the last gasp of the 55-year-old generation,” said Dean, who was also chairman of the Democratic National Committee from 2005-2009. “Older folks have seen their life change dramatically. The country’s not the same.”
“Every morning when they see the president, they are reminded that things are totally different than they were when they were born,” he continued. “The economy, and the uncertainty of the economy fuels [the Tea Party movement], but this is the last gasp of a generation that has trouble with diversity.”
Dean argued that the Tea Party has a problem with the younger generations. “You all have friends of different races, different religions, and different sexual orientations, and you all date each other,” he said to hypothetical members of the “new” generation. “Well that’s not how I grew up, and that’s not how the Tea Party grew up. The Tea Party is almost entirely over 55 and white. And the country has changed dramatically as a result of what happened in 2008.”