密歇根新闻广播 出生在婴儿潮时期的人没抓住当总统的机遇

Well, it now seems that the race for the Republican nomination¹, which once had more candidates than a baseball team, is down to three real contenders.

The Democrats² are down to two, and something suddenly occurred to me over the weekend. I'm a baby boomer, born in the 1950s.

That was a proud decade. Besides all the millions and millions of us, it gave America rock and roll, tail fins³, and color TV. Growing up, we were going to change the world and make it a better place when one of us got to be president.

Except now it seems that none of us may ever get the chance. It may well be that no child born in the 1950s will ever become president of the United States. Consider this:

The two remaining Democratic candidates, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, were born in the 1940s. So was Donald Trump⁵. Ted⁴ Cruz and Marco Rubio, the only others with a realistic shot at the Republican nomination, were born in the 1970s, which still boggles my mind.

It was bad enough that President Obama was born in 1961. Ohio Governor John Kasich was born in 1953, and he is still hanging in there. But he got a bare seven percent of the vote in South Carolina. Fewer votes, that is, than Jeb Bush, who then quit. At this point, vice⁶-president seems a far more reasonable goal for Kasich. Ben Carson is no longer a real factor.

So suppose one of the five front-runners does win. The last three presidents served their full two terms. Assuming the next one does too, the children of my decade will be somewhere between 66 and 75 when the next president leaves office.

Theoretically one of us could still be elected in 2024. But that's not very likely; new stars keep emerging, and old ones get eclipsed. If that happens, the 1950s will join the 1930s as the only two decades since 1820 that never produced a president.

I can understand why not the 30s: Fewer babies were born because of The Great Depression. And two 30s babies did become major party nominees⁸, Mike Dukakis and John McCain, both of whom lost badly. The nearly 40 million of us born in the 1950s have yet to produce even one vice presidential nominee⁷.

I'm not quite sure why.

It could be that the slightly older boomers, like Clinton and Trump, got out there first and won't leave, which is what has been happening all across America.

It could be because we were the most indulged generation in history, spoiled by parents trying to compensate⁹ for their own deprivations¹⁰ in the Great Depression and World War II.

And frankly¹¹, I indeed can't recall any politicians my age who were as relentlessly¹² driven, say, as are the Clintons. Our parents probably would have said our powers of concentration and drive were weakened by all that Beatles music. Or that we lost our faith in politics because of Watergate or Vietnam. There may something to all that.

Except that when you consider what someone running for president has to go through, it might just be that a lot of us looked at it—and decided¹³ that we are just a little bit too sane¹⁴.

Jack¹⁵ Lessenberry is Michigan Radio's political analyst¹⁶. Views expressed in his essays are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Michigan Radio, its management or the station licensee, The University of Michigan.

1 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

2 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 fins   

[医]散热片；鱼鳍；飞边；鸭掌

参考例句：

• The level of TNF-α positively correlated with BMI,FPG,HbA1C,TG,FINS and IRI,but not with SBP and DBP. TNF-α水平与BMI、FPG、HbA1C、TG、FINS和IRI呈显著正相关，与SBP、DBP无相关。 来自互联网
• Fins are a feature specific to fish. 鱼鳍是鱼类特有的特征。 来自辞典例句

4 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

5 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

6 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

7 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。

8 nominees   

n.被提名者，被任命者( nominee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She's one of the nominees. 她是被提名者之一。 来自超越目标英语 第2册
• A startling number of his nominees for senior positions have imploded. 他所提名的高级官员被否决的数目令人震惊。 来自互联网

9 compensate   

vt.补偿，赔偿；酬报 vi.弥补；补偿；抵消

参考例句：

• She used her good looks to compensate her lack of intelligence. 她利用她漂亮的外表来弥补智力的不足。
• Nothing can compensate for the loss of one's health. 一个人失去了键康是不可弥补的。

10 deprivations   

剥夺( deprivation的名词复数 )； 被夺去； 缺乏； 匮乏

参考例句：

• At this, some of the others chime in with memories of prewar deprivations. 听到这话，另外那些人中有几个开始加进来讲述他们对战前贫困生活的回忆。 来自柯林斯例句

11 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

12 relentlessly   

adv.不屈不挠地；残酷地；不间断

参考例句：

• The African sun beat relentlessly down on his aching head. 非洲的太阳无情地照射在他那发痛的头上。
• He pursued her relentlessly, refusing to take 'no' for an answer. 他锲而不舍地追求她，拒不接受“不”的回答。

13 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

14 sane   

adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的

参考例句：

• He was sane at the time of the murder.在凶杀案发生时他的神志是清醒的。
• He is a very sane person.他是一个很有头脑的人。

15 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

16 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。