# Quote — P. J. O'Rourke, Republican Party Reptile

> Something is happening to America, not something dangerous but something all too safe. I see it in my lifelong friends. I am a child of the "baby boom," a generation not known for its sane or cautious approach to things. Yet suddenly my peers are giving up drinking, giving up smoking, cutting down on coffee, sugar, and salt. They will not eat red meat and go now to restaurants whose menus have caused me to stand on a chair yelling, "Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, dinner is served!" This from the generation of LSD, Weather Underground, and Altamont Rock Festival! And all in the name of safety! Our nation has withstood many divisions—North and South, black and white, labor and management—but I do not know if the country can survive division into smoking and non-smoking sections.

- Author: [P. J. O'Rourke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/p-j-orourke.md)
- Book: [Republican Party Reptile](https://www.leafyquotes.com/p-j-orourke/republican-party-reptile.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/P._J._O'Rourke#Republican_Party_Reptile_(1987)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Topics: [society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society.md)
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/p-j-orourke/republican-party-reptile/something-is-happening

## More from this book

> To really enjoy drugs you've got to want to get out of where you are. But there are some wheres that are harder to get out of than others. This is the drug-taking problem for adults. Teenage weltschmerz is easy to escape. But what drug will get a grown-up out of, for instance, debt?

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/p-j-orourke/republican-party-reptile/to-really-enjoy.md)

> These were people who believed everything about the Soviet Union was perfect, but they were bringing their own toilet paper.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/p-j-orourke/republican-party-reptile/these-were-people.md)

Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [hypocrisy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hypocrisy.md)

> Jewishness cropped up and has never successfully been put down since.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/p-j-orourke/republican-party-reptile/jewishness-cropped-up-and.md)

Topics: [identity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity.md)