On the rare occasions when I spend more than a minute scanning the headlines on the Real Clear Politics homepage and click on a story to learn more about the sad state of our nation, I get short flashes of unoriginal insight: “Why can’t we just do what’s right for America? Why can’t there be a Common Sense Party? Or a Timeless Values Party? Or a Stop Killing Innocent Preborn Babies Party?”

This morning, looking in the mirror at my tired eyes and grey facial stubble, pondering the fact that this year those of my age will be turning that magic 67½ figure that our government has set for receiving full Social Security benefits (we’ll take them while they last!), I hit upon the perfect name for a new political movement: The Retirement Party. With two superannuated candidates battling for the presidency, it seems appropriate. After all, there are lots of 1957ers around, with 4.3 million Americans having entered the world that year—the height of the Baby Boom. Of course, some number of us have died, but I still think there would be enough left to swing an election, especially with a catchy campaign slogan like “Don’t Let the Boom Go Bust!”

Yes, I can hear young folks today responding with the snide, dismissive derision of Gen-Somethings: “OK, boomer!” The case for Boomer-phobia is made by Helen Andrews, whose 210-page book profiling six boomers doesn’t really deliver on the title: BOOMERS: The Men and Women Who Promised Freedom and Delivered Disaster. It’s easy to rage against Steve Jobs, Al Sharpton, Sonia Sotomayor, and the like, but there’s more to our generation than meets her eye. Andrews, of all people, should know that not all criticism is just. Several years ago, she was the subject of endless negative commentary initiated by an on-air TV tirade by her ex-boyfriend, who detailed for three minutes what a b(east) she was as a girlfriend and misrepresented her political views to boot. Thanks to groundbreaking, culture-changing boomers such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, you can see the whole sophomoric story play out online.

But back to The Retirement Party. This may be the time for boomers to regain the rule. After all, with Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, we were on a roll of post-WWII babies in the Oval Office—three of them born months apart in 1946! Then something happened. Maybe people started listening to Helen Andrews about the “Disaster” delivered by boomers in general and the previous four presidents in particular, and yearned for an earlier figure, someone born during the war, who has spent his whole professional life in politics. And so, we have Joe Biden, 81 years old and standing (unsteadily) for reelection.

It’s time to take back power from the overaged corner of my generation (and in Biden’s case, the so-called Silent Generation) and place it in the hands of those who have yet to rule and screw up—the populous cohort of 1957. We were a bit too young to be the hippies and draft dodgers of the 60s, turning 12 the year of Woodstock, and had just become teenagers when we learned that 18-year-olds had gained the vote with the passage of the 26th Amendment. I am not so proud to say, though, that I was an early dissenter, refusing to register my name with the government thinking that if I didn’t vote, I wouldn’t be responsible for the mess of the 1970s. But now, as a proud voter with the life experience and wisdom to make a truly informed decision, I say, “Don’t Let the Boom Go Bust!”

So, who is the True Boomer candidate of The Retirement Party? Whom do we write in when we decide to vote: “None of the Above”? Not Biden, not Trump, not Kennedy, or any of the third or fourth partiers. It is an accepted tenet from Roman times, often praised but rarely followed, that a job should go to the person who is modest enough not to seek it. Someone with the requisite smarts and experience to make good decisions yet content to play a supporting role and make the best of the ruins that ambitious office seekers inevitably leave in their wake. Let’s find someone with the mindset of Bartleby the Scrivener, Melville’s world-weary character whose political motto would befit The Retirement Party perfectly: “I Prefer Not To!”

“Hail, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!”