Politically wise, people born in the 1930s were truly the lost generation. [View all]

[BlueStater]

McCain's death has me thinking about this. He was one of only two major party nominees who was born in the 1930s (the other being Michael Dukakis). The '30s never produced a president, the only decade, aside from the 1810s, since the births of George Washington and John Adams in the 1730s to never have any White House representation. In 1993, we went from having a president born in 1924 to one born in 1946 and that massive 22-year gap between presidential births never closed with subsequent presidents. While two of the (godawful) presidents that succeeded Bill Clinton were older than him, they were, weirdly enough, only so by one or two months and were still born in the same year as him.

We never even had any Vice Presidents born in the 1930s. I can't think of any other decade that were screwed on a political level as badly as the '30s were. In the end, the best they'll have to show for their time of relevancy is a few notable senators like Ted Kennedy and, of course, McCain. I suppose that's better than nothing.