Presidential Generation Gaps
Everyone knows that 3 US presidents share the same birthyear of 1946, but did you know there are entire decades and generations which produced no presidents?
There are 5 gaps which span over a decade:
1. Jimmy Carter -> Joe Biden: 18 years 1 month
- Skips over the Silent Generation, with no presidents between 1924 and 1942. I would also say Biden is only technically being part of the Silent Generation, being born at the tail end. Being born after the depression and likely have little to no memory of WW2 Biden more resembles a boomer than most of the rest of the silent gen.
2. Dwight Eisenhower -> Lyndon B. Johnson: 17 years 10 months
- Skips over the younger members of the Lost Generation and early Greatest Generation with no presidents born between 1890 and 1908. Essentially those who were to young to serve in WW1 but to old to normatively serve in WW2.
3. Bill Clinton -> Barack Obama: 14 years 9 months
- Skips over the middling of the boomers with no presidents born between 1946 and 1961. Given the average politician's age it is still quite possible for someone to fill this gap in the near future, though all the major presidential hopefuls for 2028 seem to be either Gen-X or Millennials.
4. William McKinley -> Woodrow Wilson: 13 years 11 months
- Skips over the generation following the Civil War generation with no presidents born between 1843 and 1856. These would have been those who were old enough to remember the war but too young to normatively serve.
5. Abraham Lincoln -> Ulysses S. Grant: 13 years 2 months
- No presidents were born between 1809 and 1822. Not sure what generation this would be or what significance this gap might have. I thought it might be the generation after the Mexican-American war veterans but both Pierce and Grant served in that war from opposite sides of this gap.