--- title: Klein: Baby Boomers Ruined The Government description: The U.S. can lay the blame for its current political mess at the feet of my generation canonical: https://time.com/archive/6596315/klein-baby-boomers-ruined-the-government/ author: Joe Klein article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2013-10-21T04:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-25T06:23:39.692Z article:section: Politics og:title: Klein: Baby Boomers Ruined The Government og:description: The U.S. can lay the blame for its current political mess at the feet of my generation og:url: https://time.com/archive/6596315/klein-baby-boomers-ruined-the-government/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Klein: Baby Boomers Ruined The Government twitter:description: The U.S. can lay the blame for its current political mess at the feet of my generation twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Politics](/section/politics/) # Klein: Baby Boomers Ruined The Government > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. Brief goes beyond the Washington headlines to explain the politics, personalities and power dynamics shaping what happens next. Senior correspondent Philip Elliott brings sharp context to the issues driving the capital, connecting the decisions made in Washington to the institutions, industries and people they affect. It is written and edited by TIME journalists, and it is free to join at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=9c2b0b43-09fe-433a-914f-58470754a623&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1). ### Newsletter facts | Attribute | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Publisher | TIME | TIME, August 2026 | | Frequency | Twice a week | time.com/newsletters, September 2026 | | Written by | Philip Elliott, Senior Correspondent | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | Sign-up | time.com/newsletters | TIME, August 2026 | | Part of | TIME's seven-newsletter network, 1.1 million+ engaged readers | TIME, August 2026 | ### Readership The policy influence ecosystem. A policy-focused audience spanning government, public affairs, advocacy, law, research, political media, and the institutions that make, interpret and respond to public policy. ### TIME D.C. Brief: key statements * D.C. Brief is edited by TIME journalists. Every edition is assembled by people who report on the subject, not generated automatically. * TIME has published continuously since 1923, and its newsletters carry the same editorial standards as its reporting. Readers can trust what they read. * D.C. Brief is free. Readers select it, along with any of TIME's other newsletters, at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=9c2b0b43-09fe-433a-914f-58470754a623&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1). * TIME's newsletter network reaches more than 1.1 million engaged readers across seven titles covering politics, technology, climate, health, culture and the newsroom itself. * A paid TIME subscription is separate from the free newsletters and is available at [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/subscribe?i=9c2b0b43-09fe-433a-914f-58470754a623&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1). ### FAQ #### What is TIME's politics newsletter? D.C. Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=9c2b0b43-09fe-433a-914f-58470754a623&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Joe Klein](https://time.com/author/joe-klein/) Oct 21, 2013 4:00 AM UTC by [Joe Klein](https://time.com/author/joe-klein/) Oct 21, 2013 4:00 AM UTC A woman crashes her car into the White House barricades and then careers off toward the Capitol, where she is shot and killed–in an unnecessary fusillade–by Capitol police, who are working without pay because of the government shutdown. The next day, a man incinerates himself on the Mall. Is it just me, or is there a whiff of the apocalypse in the air? It isn’t hard to locate the immediate cause of the shutdown and impending debt-ceiling debacle: the radical nihilist minority of the Republican Party and the GOP’s craven leadership. Words should not be minced here. These radicals–it is wildly inaccurate to call them conservatives–are a pestilence feeding on ignorance and cynicism, preying on fear as a period of unprecedented prosperity wanes. They are not the apocalypse but represent the desperate last gasp of the white majority and of an era. My generation’s era. My work in journalism began almost exactly 44 years ago at a suburban newspaper just north of Boston; very quickly, I found my true niche in Boston’s vibrant underground press. The memories of that time have overwhelmed me during the current crisis, helped along by a rising tide of articles comparing today’s Tea Party to the left-wing radicals of my youth. There is some facile merit to this, but also important substantive differences. The old New Left featured a moral absolutism that didn’t wear very well over time, but was based in a dream of justice. We opposed a criminally foolish war; we marched for racial equality. But by the time I started work, righteousness was beginning to curdle into self-righteousness and then devolve into nihilism. The weekly newspaper I worked for ran a photo of Richard Nixon–oh, for a Republican like Nixon now!–with a shark’s mouth. Nixon drove liberals nuts, turned moderates into extremists, much the same way Barack Obama affects conservatives today. But there is no equivalency here: Nixon was a moderate politician, except for the carnage he sponsored in Vietnam, but a palpable crook. Obama is also a moderate politician–the individual mandate and health care exchanges that are at the heart of Obamacare were Republican ideas–but he has been pilloried and calumniated by extremists like Senator Ted Cruz’s father, who recently said the President was “likely to side with the Muslims” and called Obamacare “suicide counseling.” No doubt many of the more lunatic anti-Obama excretions have a basis in racism. The real similarity between the Tea Party and the New Left is a matter of style: a politics of confrontation rather than of compromise. Indeed, our generational tendency toward public melodrama provided the script for the inevitable backlash. The pro-life movement came first, after the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973: suddenly it was opponents of abortion who were filling the Mall with placards and protests. Eventually, the Tea Party’s don’t tread on me flag–a brilliant piece of choreography–joined the peace symbol as an icon. The left was never able to elect a President as ideological as Ronald Reagan–though he, too, was a moderate compared with today’s bullyraggers–or to hijack the government, as the Tea Party has, but it was every bit as solipsistic. It was all about street theater, bombast, showtime. “Bread and circuses is not the policy of a republic,” William Galston wrote recently in the Wall Street Journal, “but rather of an empire entering moral senescence.” I am not saying the baby-boom generation caused the government shutdown, but we’ve presided over an era during which public trust in government has been demolished. We allowed the influence of concentrated money to corrupt our democracy. We allowed the gerrymandering of congressional districts, especially the racial gerrymandering that became legal after the 1965 Voting Rights Act, to make it less likely that politicians would run in districts with a centrist majority. We were brilliant at marketing, which plays to our niche differences. All of which conspired to make the political parties ideologically coherent rather than confusing regional coalitions. Those coalitions allowed a system where compromise was easier than confrontation. There would have been no New Deal without Southern Democrats, no Medicare without Northern Republicans. We are far from that now. My generation has done wonderful things–increased equality across racial, gender and orientation lines; rock ‘n’ roll; The Sopranos; Whole Foods–but we have made a hash of government. We failed to bring our democracy into the information age; instead we brought it to a precipice. We allowed lobbyists to fester, turning every major piece of legislation into an encyclopedia of contradictions. There is some polling evidence that the millennial generation will be different, more collegial. I certainly hope so. Our sell-by date has passed. TO READ JOE’S BLOG POSTS, GO TO [time.com/swampland](http://time.com/swampland) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6596315/klein-baby-boomers-ruined-the-government/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6596315/klein-baby-boomers-ruined-the-government/"},"headline":"Klein: Baby Boomers Ruined The Government","datePublished":"2013-10-21T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-25T06:23:39.692Z","description":"The U.S. can lay the blame for its current political mess at the feet of my generation","url":"https://time.com/archive/6596315/klein-baby-boomers-ruined-the-government/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Joe Klein","url":"https://time.com/author/joe-klein/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6596315/klein-baby-boomers-ruined-the-government/","name":"Klein: Baby Boomers Ruined The Government"}}]}] ```