Rep. Michele Bachmann, stylish darling of the Fox News set, has founded the Tea Party Caucus in the House of Representatives saying that the caucus will represent "mainstream American people who have decided to get up off the couch because they want to take their country back." With the airing of the new season of "Mad Men," the popular television series that nails the look and feel of a segment of American life in the early 1960s – Madison Avenue's advertising world – I'm not so sure that Americans will be getting off the couch anytime soon. We've waited a year to see whether Don Draper, the lead character of "Mad Men," can successfully launch a new advertising agency. One thing we know about Americans, we won't let a recession, a couple of wars and mid-term elections, interfere with an addictive nighttime drama. What would we talk about around the water cooler this summer if not for "Mad Men?" I suspect that Rep. Bachmann is a closet fan of "Mad Men" (though she more closely resembles the bumbling, but perfectly coiffed, Laura Petrie from a 1960s sitcom, "The Dick Van Dyke Show," than she does any of the compelling female characters on "Mad Men.") The $64,000 question, however, is just where does Rep. Bachmann want to take our country back to? "Mad Men" might just give us a few clues. "Mad Men" is set in an era when televisions only showed programming in black and white and that same divide separated the races. Aside from the appearance of an occasional maid or waiter, people of color are pretty much non-existent in the series – just as they would have been from any of the Madison Avenue jobs portrayed on "Mad Men." Is this the America that Rep. Bachmann wants to take us back to? Despite protestations from some members of the Tea Party, we know that there are people in that movement who would dismantle the hard won Civil Rights legislation in a heartbeat. And they would deny similarly hard won rights for women. In "Mad Men," women are seen as little more than accessories to their successful, or up and coming, boyfriends, husbands or lovers. An ambitious "career girl" is tolerated at best and more often scorned or humiliated. The notion of equal pay for equal work is scoffed at. The concept of women having control over their careers, to say nothing of their bodies, is nearly unfathomable. For women, this was reality for much of our history. Is this the America that Rep. Bachmann wants to take back? We know that members of the Tea Party and Rep. Bachmann will always "get up off the couch" to criticize anything that has to do with gay rights. Although pre-Stonewall, the creators of "Mad Men" know that no portrayal of a creative industry like advertising would ever be accurate, no matter the era, without a gay character. And, this being the early 1960s, the only recurring gay character portrayed on "Mad Men" was tortured, closeted and forced to hide in a heterosexual marriage. And he still lost his job. Welcome to the America that Rep. Bachmann would like us to return to: a country of racism, misogyny and homophobia. Ironically, in 1960s America, Minnesota had no women representing us in the U.S. Congress. Perhaps the only good thing about turning the clock back a few decades is that Michele Bachmann would not be representing Minnesotans in the House of Representatives.