Driving into work this morning, I noticed like a half-dozen Tea Party license plates on SUVs and sports cars. That was an extra large number today; I only usually see one or two.

I wondered what the average member of the Tea Party movement would think/feel about if they were transported back in time to the Eisenhower era.

Of course I picked November 5, 1955 as the date.

Now, given their avowed beliefs and their demographics, how would they react to this list?

• Higher tax rates.
• Cold War, Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), and "Duck & Cover".
• No Medicare/Medicaid.
• Worse/more limited medical care, mental health care, medications, prosthetics, surgeries (but on the upside, there's the Salk polio vaccine in April!).
• No Interstate Highway System.
• Segregation; extremely limited interracial marriage.
• More sexism and a much thicker glass ceiling for women.
• Much stronger unions.
• McCarthyism.
• Few televisions, no VCRs/DVDs, no internet, no video games.
• Blue jeans really only worn by manual laborers.
• Smoking in nearly all public places.

What else can you think of that was part of living in 1955 that would make the generic Tea Partier uncomfortable or worried, that they probably wouldn’t have thought about?