“As young people, we’re poised to inherit a world that needs thoughtful, informed leadership more than ever. But if we’re not even willing to watch a debate, how can we expect to take on that responsibility? We owe it to ourselves — and to one another — to do better, to look beyond influencers and viral videos, and to engage deeply with the issues that truly matter. Even Taylor Swift, in her endorsement, urged us to “do your research.” If we don’t, we risk becoming not just uninformed voters, but a generation that’s lost sight of what it truly means to be part of a democracy.”
“As young people, we’re poised to inherit a world that needs thoughtful, informed leadership more than ever. But if we’re not even willing to watch a debate
I think it’s fair to say that Gen Z has seen enough of both major parties to know definitively that neither of the two leaders up for the job are going to do anything meaningful to change their lives in a positive way. Their entire lives they’ve watched presidents of both parties promise to raise wages, improve health care and education, and spend less on war. Instead, they’ve watched both of their parents working full-time jobs while still finding themselves unable to provide for the family’s needs and education.
And it isn’t lost on them that when money for a war or corporate bailout needs to happen, it happens overnight, every single time. During COVID the government even made a few trillion we didn’t have appear out of thin air overnight.
It’s unreasonable at this point to expect Gen Z to care. Why waste a badly-needed day’s work to vote when you have observed for your entire life that things stay consistent regardless of who’s elected?
What seems to be lost on most, is that money has been coming “out of thin air” for close to a century already. The problem is that every time less money gets destroyed than created, it dilutes the worth of the total… and people who still think in terms of gold nuggets, are completely unprepared to propose anything that would make sense.
Gen Beta might have more of a grasp on things.
That assumes we educate gen beta, with no time, money, resources, or fucking example to go off. So yeah, don’t hold your breath that a magic future generation will both A understand the economic climate that professional economists struggle to explain, and B have a willingness to help poor people once you are in the “I’m so smart and handsome and God even loves me more than anyone poor” pipeline they shove you down.
So much of our modern political system is poised around vibes, because that’s all the older voters (seem to) really care about. If I had a dollar for every time I heard some variation of having a beer with George W, I’d have more dollars than I do now.
I think in contrast younger voters care about a vast array of issues very deeply, making engaging in politics a much more complex task that they probably don’t have time for. Given that so much of the coverage consists of no-meaning political lines with no coherent policy right now, engaging in traditional ways is pointless until they stop having vapid “debates” and “interviews” with no content, and start forcing real policy discussion.
I think Bernie was popular with younger voters because he brought so few vibes and so much policy. I went to a Hillary rally and a Bernie rally during the primary in 2015 and the difference was night and day. Hillary talked about the positive feeling of continuing the Democratic legacy, while Bernie talked about sustainable agriculture and straw polled the attendees about wind power.
To be clear I bet this held true 50 years ago when our old voters were young too, no hate on the olds here, priorities change, though I hope mine don’t. Also I wonder if this is all still true for the new young voters, most of my interactions are with millennials and gen z. My few interactions with the folks graduating now have been tainted by my old and out of touch self and by their (in my opinion) under-practiced interpersonal skills from covid years at home. Again, no hate intended.
I think you are making a lot of good points here, but in a really, “I’m just a simple country farmer” sorta tone. We didn’t get here on accident. When I was young Obama ran for office and he is consistently still the youngest political figure we see doing anything. We have systemically leaned into old white men so hard in the last ten years that it feels like a joke.
The age of our politicians has begun to skyrocket. The AVERAGE senators should not be 64 years old, I don’t think a single American would argue it should be. But it is.
