Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents—and What They Mean for America's Future

by Jean M. Twenge

Given the flower-child, antiwar, antiestablishment reputation of the Boomers during the hippie era of the 1960s and 1970s, you’d expect Boomers to be liberal Democrats. And in the 1970s, they were—nearly 7 out of 10 identified as Democrats in the early 1970s, pinning their green McGovern ’72 buttons with the peace doves to their jean jackets. A full 2 out of 3 were Democrats in the late 1970s during Jimmy Carter’s presidency. And then—just like that—the Boomers went from hippies to yuppies in the 1980s. The diminutive form of the acronym for Young Urban Professionals, yuppies were the educated Boomers of the 1980s, moving up the ranks at law firms and advertising agencies. They were the real-life counterparts of Michael and Hope and Elliot and Nancy in thirtysomething, successful careerists trading banter and raising families; they were David and Maddie in Moonlighting, flirting with each other while wearing sleek suits and driving around Los Angeles in a Beemer.