I think there's another important difference between boomers and GIs.
The GIs grew up in a society that was ravaged by an economic depression and their calling in life was a collective effort to fight in WWII. This would be what shaped their attitudes for the rest of their lives. Their political attitudes were focused on creating and maintaining civic institutions. Outer-world driven activists were the norm and the collective effort of Americans was more important than individual acts. Social issues were generally agreed upon and politicians seemed vaguely similar in their core beliefs. Society and our poltiics had a clear driven consensus and politicians argued about how best to achieve a society that strengthened our institutions.
Baby boomers grew up in a very stable civic society. This stability required conformity and this felt stifling to the boomer youth who didn't understand the need to be so rigid. As they came of age, boomers set out to break this conformity. They sought out spiritual endeavors and other inner driven activities which they believed would bring more culture and liveliness to society. The era of sex, drugs, and rock n roll. The consciousness revolution. In many ways the mid 60's-mid 80's could be thought of as another Great Awakening in American history. As a result, civic institutions were to be distrusted, and instead it was "values" which were to be debated. Republican baby boomers fueled the rise of the Religious Right in the 70's and 80's, and the smaller (but just as noisy) liberal baby boomer cohort fueled the rise of the
New Left.
Ever since baby boomers began exerting more and more power over our political system starting from the 1990's, our politics has become more polarized, more values based, and more aggressive. This is because baby boomers have always been the generational aggressors. When they were young, everybody over 30 was the problem. Today, everybody under 30 is the problem. By the mid 90's, it was clear that our political discourse had changed. Gone were the days of Reagan and Tip O'Neill making deals and joking around. Now we had Clinton and Gingrich drawing battle lines in the sand and engaging in political fights back and forth. Two boomers had replaced two GIs; and the difference was noticeable.
By the 2000's, the transition was complete. The boomers had ushered in the red state-blue state divide. Politics since the 90's had become increasingly more focused on personal values and social issues. Wealthy socially liberal states like New Jersey and California were now solidly Democrat, while the poorer, more socially conservative regions of the country (Appalachia and the Deep South) were staunchly Republican. Contrast how these states had voted in the 1960's and before. Maintaining and rebuilding civic institutions had been long gone. Politics became more partisan, more aggressive, etc. President Donald Trump was ultimately a culmination of many of these trends.
