Gen Z might be the MAGA movement’s undoing
Four-times-indicted former president Donald Trump has been successfully selling white Christian nostalgia, racism and xenophobia to his base. However, the Public Religion Research Institute’s massive poll of 6,616 participants suggests that what works with his base might pose an insurmountable problem with Gen Z teens and Gen Z adults (who are younger than 25).
Demographically, this cohort of voters bears little resemblance to Trump’s older, whiter, more religious followers. “In addition to being the most racially and ethnically diverse generation in our nation’s history, Gen Z adults also identify as LGBTQ at much higher rates than older Americans,” the PRRI poll found. “Like millennials, Gen Zers are also less likely than older generations to affiliate with an established religion.”
Those characteristics suggest Gen Z will favor a progressive message that incorporates diversity and opposes government imposition of religious views. Indeed, “Gen Z adults (21%) are less likely than all generational groups except millennials (21%) to identify as Republican.” Though 36 percent of Gen Z adults identify as Democrats, their teenage counterparts are more likely to be independents (51 percent) than older generations.
I want this to be true with every being of my body. BUT….they’ve been saying this for years about each generation.
Same. I’m nearly 40, and I’ve been hearing this since before I could vote, and yet the GOP hasn’t been voted out of existence. If it were up to me they’d be purged from every position of power nationwide.
There were/are a lot of olds. They have dominated politics for a long time and have also not died due to being the first people to take advantage of modern medicine.
I never considered that, and it’s a damn tragedy. We gave the most short-sighted generation the longest lifespan in human history 🤦♂️
Yeah, unfortunately they're also the leaded gas generation.
I mis led. Made pant tast good. I stop eeting pant win led got took a way.
Car slow down to. Never drank gas but huf it alot win I was a teenajer. Dint hurt me and I vote so thare.
I keep thinking Covid was a missed opportunity.
Republicans are doing a lot to hold on to power. There's multiple states where they control the courts and legislature but can't win a statewide office to save their life anymore. Which brings obvious questions about what the hell kind of elections they're running. It's also why they're pushing for a SCOTUS ruling to make legislatures the only state governing body that matters.
And instead what we got is the Democrat party moving to the right. Because as it turns out, procorporate trash would rather lose to fascists than compromise with leftists.
Weren't 2020 and 2022 record years for youth voter turnout?
Shhh. Democrats can't keep ignoring issues important to young people if they admit young people vote.
They were record years for voter turnout in general. So youth turnout, though improved from previous years, was still less than turnout of older generations.
Can't imagine why that would be. Boomers elected the whitest, oldest, boomerest candidate running in the 2020 primaries. Don't these young people know a compromise when they see it?? /s
No, young voters were the strongest supporters of the oldest white guy in the 2020 Democratic primary. He came in second.
Young people are generally far less likely to vote, so which way they vote is somewhat irrelevant.
But Gen Z did have a higher turnout in 2022 than prior generations.
https://circle.tufts.edu/latest-research/gen-z-voted-higher-rate-2022-previous-generations-their-first-midterm-election
So it be smart to go listen to try and not only keep them at the table, to offer more chairs too.
Headline aside, 28% turnout for genz vs 23% for millenials, genx, and boomers in their respective first midterms is not going to swing an election where current boomers turn out 70% and genx turn out 60.
But they did swing the 2022 midterms.
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/analyses/the-2022-midterm-elections-what-the-historical-data-suggest
In 2022 the Democratic party only lost 7 House seats and gained a Senate seat.
Leading into the election polli g and pundits predicted a decisive win for Republicans, and the unprecedented youth the out by Gen Z is credited as being a difference maker in the Democratic party outperforming expectations.
It would be foolish to write off Gen Z in 2024 by attributing to them the preceding generations' (including mine, I'm Gen X) participation at matching ages.
I feel like the 2022 turnout is more down to the unique conditions and issues, across the age spectrum - especially Dobbs and election lies - than to anything specific to 20-year-olds. 28% turnout still means that the vast majority of GenZ can't be bothered.
I mean, the handful of GenZ that have reached adulthood do seem marginally more active than other post-war cohorts, but they aren't overthrowing historic voting trends. Pinning hopes for future political outcomes on them is as foolish as pinning the future of US democracy to black voters, or hispanic voters or any other minority/niche population, but media love doing just that. Just try googling "black women save democracy."
Well fuck it, let's ignore the last two elections they influenced and give up on them then.
Or, I dunno,
No way buddy if they're not showing up for the whitest, oldest, boomerest strike blocking genocide supporting procorporate trash candidate there's literally no pleasing them. These damn 40 year old kids don't know a compromise when they see it! /s
I'm not saying to pin all hopes on the one generation. I'm saying don't write them off as disengaged non-voters when they've already shown a higher participation rate than their predecessors at their current age.
Could you be any more of a morale killer?
"they" are the same people who control politics and have ensured that the balance isn't disrupted, please grow to realise this, it is not natural for humans to be divided down the middle over how to follow natural law
What the fuck are you going on about? Also they in fucken qoutes, smells like 4Chan JQ trite. Also natural law? Like fucken gravity, or are ya vague posten about trans folks. Ya know what it doesnt matter, your entire comment read like a damned dog whistle and I am satisfied pointen it out.
If ya can give a reasonable explanation please do. If not piss off.
I've never seen a (non-ironic) post with an accent before. Good callout o7
stop using full grammar when you can't even type correctly half the time, you need to establish a firm grasp upon the logic with which the world exists in to understand that most things pushed nowadays aren't correct, i suggest you exercise your mind by means of theorising about concepts rather than jumping upon a wish to "see sources", because the sources are invented by those who want to keep you from your own mind :)
I have never seen someone give off stronger sovereign citizen vibes without specifically mentioning "traveling not driving" or admiralty law. If you're trolling, well done.
irrelevant comment, it usually is you clusterfucked anti-religion people who turn out whining harder than i've ever seen one of my own do
Its called phonetic writing ya shitstain, a concept pioneered by Samuel Clemens. Also way to fucken go with dodgen the fucken question, maybe if you read a little you wouldnt be an insufferable cur, and this is commin from an Inland Imperial Redneck.
it's actually called spelling words incorrectly, rant when you can spell right lol
I can spell "correctly" if I want, I choose not to. But then again you sound like someone who gets pissy that I spell and say aluminum and not aliminium even though I aint a fucking Saxon.
But that is all irrelevant, you are choosing to not interact with any of my points due to a thin veneer of classism. All cause I choose to spell phonetically. Or in other words, Ya done did what I expected boy.
But I can practically smell thine weakness through your comments. And allfather willing I hope you can hike up thine fucking panties and respond properly, stop being a gormless cowardly bitch.
i'm also not english, i'm irish by family, culture, ethnicity, language, and self-declaration, thankfully i'm not a putrid american and i can even speak the languages i do in the correct manner lol, please do come back to me when you have a valid point to make though, whenever or if-ever that should be :)
Wow a Irish person who is as bad a fucken Saxon thats a fucken new one. But I digress, you continue to avoid my original fucken question of what the fuck you mean, but y'know what I couldnt care less. Also real fucken rich calling other folks bad at writing when you seem to be only capable of writing with commas. Are you alergic to periods or something?
And finally, as a son of Stewart and a Mac An Ultaigh. You are pathetic excuse for a Gael.
“Gen Z adults (21%) are less likely than all generational groups except millennials (21%) to identify as Republican.”
Wow, this actually makes me proud to be a millennial.
It goes to show that those articles that shit on Millennials are just trying to create a division.
Gen Z, we've got your back.
So do those of us in Gen X who remember being young. I'm just disappointed in my fellow X'ers who seem to be following "the older you get the more conservative"
If i talk about numerous of social injustice and problems in the world its pretty apparent the his ideology is pretty woke. He is also supports equality, personal freedoms, the most left progressive local party.
That is, as long as you don’t mention the word woke. After which reason flies out of the windows and you could almost confuse him for a fascist.
100% blame facebook for that.
I think the only thing I'm becoming more conservative about as I get older is, please don't crash civilization. I can't do the things I used to be able to do and I'd rather not die fighting over food.
I blame peer groups, whether Facebook or real life. Of my three brothers and I, with the same upbringing and with a very progressive Mom, all of our political compasses are roughly inline with what you’d expect for where we live, work and play. I don’t know if it’s cause or affect, but the demographics fit
Gen Z needs to get out and vote and get their friends to do the same like their future depends on it, because it does.
If your state allows it, sign up for mail in voting. Your ballot is mailed to you, and you have a month to fill it out, and drop it in a mailbox. We have it in CA, and I never miss a special election, primary, or general election.
https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/table-18-states-with-all-mail-elections
There are 18 states that allow general mail in voting
Many states allow college students to do absentee mail in voting.
If we can actually get them to vote.
Looking good so far!
https://circle.tufts.edu/latest-research/gen-z-voted-higher-rate-2022-previous-generations-their-first-midterm-election
It’s really an incredible data point. I am the king of the youth vote skeptics but, 2022 was a great year for young voters. I am cautiously optimistic that a generation of regular voters is coming of age. Most of what is wrong with our democracy can be helped greatly by broader engagement and participation. So much of the bullshit only works because nobody can be bothered to show up to vote for any office other than the president.
My mom was saying how ridiculous it was to think of lowering the voting age to 16.
I said we don’t seem to have a problem with requiring them to become parents at that age, so I fail to see the issue. If you’re okay with forced-birth initiatives, how can you oppose voting?
A 16 year old has more at stake than an 80 year old
The common refrain I hear from older voters is that 16 and 17 year olds age idiots and don't understand the world. There are a lot of problems with this argument. Among them:
1 or 2 years at that age does not magically result in most people becoming world-wise and informed. Many 16 and 17 year olds have just as good a grasp on voting factors as 18 year olds.
Like anything, perspective, awareness, and seeing both the bigger picture and the nuanced details often comes at very different times for very different people. To disenfranchise all 16 and 17 year olds just because a minority might be immature in grossly unfair.
Plenty of the older people who argue 16/17 year olds are clueless idiots, and the same people who keep voting for objectively horrible politicians, who blindly follow a political party like it's a sports team, and who vote against their own interests due to gullibly lapping up flagrantly bias and false 'news'. Their judgement is seriously flawed.
As a Gen-Xer I say let the 16 and 17 year olds vote too. Their voices should be heard.
I think a lot of young teens will just vote how their parents tell them unfortunately. And we're breeding dumber and dumber kids by cutting education anyway possible in Southern states, so they'll just pile on the maga wagon
As someone who cares about that, it can be another difficult part of being a parent. My older kid will be voting for the first time this year and knows how important it is. He knows all the things I think are important about voting. However it can be tough figuring out how to draw the line between sharing my opinion and things I think important, vs pressuring him to vote the same way
Or teens may just vote flippantly, without actually considering what's at stake, so if Democrats were expecting that to lead to a surge of support, it may not even help them. I've known some kids of immigrants who said they wanted to vote for Trump because they thought he was funny, seemingly without actually knowing a single thing about Trump's time in office (apart from the antics). Being the kids of immigrants, their parents would probably be negatively impacted by a Trump presidency, so they're even potentially voting against their own interests.
almost like they don't want everything going to shit, and finally realized that twiddling thumbs won't get rid of these dumbasses.
I'm still voting. They said if my generation got out to vote it would change everything. I don't see why that's different today, not that many of us are gone, and attrition hasn't sent too many to the right, I strongly believe my generations politik power is as strong as it ever was,, and I'm firmly aligned with Gen z. They need our support as much as we need theirs. Don't get complacent thinking the next generation will solve the problems.
Of course you have to vote. It doesn't matter how big of a demographic shift there is, if you don't vote it won't be represented.
Not if they keep getting all their news from TikTok
Some additional interesting points in the cited poll report:
It bothers me that younger Gen Zs find religion more important than older Gen Zs. I’d hate to see all that progress in abandoning religion reversed.
If the demarcation point is adulthood, it seems reasonable to believe the “younger gen z attend church or think religion is important” probably shows more that their parents make them go than anything.
Hmmm that’s a good point, and I hope you’re right. I just shudder to think that all the conservative Prager U and “He Gets Us” indoctrination and propaganda might be working.
I think that fundamentalist views come from a lack of knowledge of the religion itself. Seems kinda suspect that your pastor went to seminary and learned that historically the Jews didn’t come from Egypt but the land of Canaan, had zero cultural exchange with Egypt, and did the same things they called the canaanites evil for (looking at you sacrificing your daughter Jepthah), but with a straight face will preach the exodus and plagues to an ignorant congregation.
I was so Christian it became incompatible with modern Christianity, and I’m not the only one.
The truth doesn’t fear the light, or being asked questions and cross examined, and Christian’s fear nothing greater to the point they have to pretend the ultimate evil big bad is creating the questions, and not the lies they told us for centuries.
Except younger people are disalousned with democracy. The younger generation trends more towards authoratative rule over older generations. The younger the generation the less likely they are to believe in the holocaust was real or exaggerated..
natural law taking course, the political system wants people to believe that following the natural law with no compromises is "authoritarian", though democracy is just a farce to avoid following nature
I'm a xennial, but I went from being more into religion than my parents, getting people to come get me and take me to church until I had a car and more, to Atheist (with a weird neopagan interlude in my early 20s). Both sets of my parents, on the other hand, swung back more to religion to some degree or another (though both have at least one parent that is more into what they think the Bible says vs what it actually does).
It sometimes surprises me that there people this aggressively atheist.
It really doesn't surprise me that much. Religion is heavily politicized and is a powerful motivator for many large and/or extreme groups of people.
Religion has done some serious harm to a lot of people. It’s natural this would lead to some radicalization. I am personally in favor putting religious trauma in the DSM. Something about my religious leaders advocating electroshock torture to ‘cure’ homosexuality left a bad taste in my mouth.
it only bothers you because you are scared of nature taking it's course, that natural law is being followed, because the abandonment of religion is a debasement triggered by unintelligent ape-wannabes who genuinely believe that humans dictate moral law :)
To clarify, there are a set of rules in your head that you attribute to a religious figure, that you expect the rest of society to follow because doing otherwise hurts your snowflake feelings.
That's a rather psychopathic view of the world, and I pity you for it
the views are natural, they exist in nature and you can freely observe them at will, they are in the head of everything that isn't your head, apparently :)
Please detail, cite, or otherwise reference these natural laws, morals, and/or rules that we're supposed to be abiding by.
Psh, look at this guy, he doesn't know the innate morals all humans are imbued with at birth. Loser!
humans are not inbued with morals, the world has morals, humans are a blank canvas shapeable by their experiences, and for the most truth they should look for nature's law, though at least you are closer than these others
look at things through a lens of logic and it'll all come clear, there are endless rules provided a topic can be conceptualised, in this instance we see the political system (a farce designed by people above the political interface designed to make people believe they control the world), whereas it contrasts to understanding the world around us is not one that humans may decide the laws of, rather we are all dictated by what is and has been, human-invented morals are a farce designed to also try to tell people that they determine the world, but nature doesn't care for the make-believe laws invented in the heads of people, conceptualised exclusively and not observable in nature
Dude, you're not half as clever as you seem to think you are.
you sound like someone who hasnt thought in their life, besides, you use full grammar to compensate for a lack of written content, i have nothing to fear against weird automatons of the human nature like you
I've seen nature at work, cruel and harsh. Predators eating prey alive, no mercy, no justice. Where might makes right, as there is no human law to intercede. Are those the natural laws you're referring to?
Your other posts imply you view the world colored through a religious lens... Which is not a natural view. Supernatural, possibly, but anything but natural.
those natural laws merely teach the fact that everyone must recognise that there are insurmountable opponents that must be protected against, the natural law more also refers to natural processes as well as logical processing, on top of this, a religious view of the world is a natural one, the natural world's logic is observable and to describe it as a laymen's work would be at the very least a grave insult
Please cite, detail, or otherwise reference these natural laws to which you keep referring to.
Otherwise, I believe they're all in your head, and you're not arguing in good faith.
i have many times, observe them within the world already instead of asking things that cant be taught, to be taught, it wont achieve anything, take a notepad and walk through a forest and you will gain insights with a newfound clear mindset, because society is fake and it's laws are made up in comparison to the unchanging and eternal glory of the natural law :)
Your views and beliefs are as pungent as a fifty five gallon drum of pig manure left in the summer sun for a week.
I'd be happy to leave them with you, except for your stated desire to force them upon others. May you never succeed.
So, basically you are telling us that we should prepare ourselves for the invasion of hell, so we turn back the tides, conquer that cursed landscape with the power of the atom or something greater, turn the demons into batteries to fuel our future civilization and then knock at sky daddy's heavenly gates and get rid of the immense threat he and and his angels pose to the safety of humanity, because nature teach us to defend ourselves?
Alright, time to show this god why it was a bad idea to not let us eat also from the tree of life and for ruining us after destroying the tower of Babel.
i'm not a christian but nice try, rant harder when you actually know what i'm talking about instead of assuming all religion is christian, no wonder very few coherent words come from you people
Those Gen Z teens will look more like the Gen Z adults when they themselves become adults. They are being influenced by their parents. But religiosity has been and is continuing to collapse, basically everywhere. :)
you just stated that the opposite is happening as to what the original post said, and religion is actually on the rise, whether you like it or not, there will be conflict in which the people who deny natural law will either accept natural law, or end by natural law :)
“Agree with us or we’ll kill you” is peak modern religion. Well done!
the people who disagree with the world being a truthful one cannot exist alongside a truthful world, and the world is truthful, you can shove your quran back to the fucking desert as i can tell you would bend over backwards to protect it despite being a self proclaimed "hater of religion", i only hope the truth will come to you, though you don't know to receive it :)
Let me know when all the religious folks can agree on what’s true and what’s not. Maybe then I can take religion seriously.
abrahamic religions arent true, non-IE religions arent true, all IE religions that have syncretic features with non-IE religions are not true, that leaves very little room for misinterpretation, but you just fail to look for the truth
All religions aren’t true, therefore the only correct religion is no religion
incorrect, natural law states that you are incorrect, the truth behind the world is observable and the irreligious/abrahamics fail to see this
“Natural law” exists outside the realm of religion, and anyone who claims to know the “truth” has closed themself off to new information. The truth is observable, but what’s observable today wasn’t observable 200 years ago, and what’s observable 200 years ago likely isn’t observable today.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/world/2020-08-11/religion-giving-god (archive)
https://www.axios.com/2023/10/06/organized-religion-decline-agnostic-atheist-nonreligious
american article, invalid, abide by natural law and the sources will be in your own mind immediately :)
Yeah, whatever. Your faith is dying. Good riddance.
my faith is on the rise and has been for decades, we are the observers of the truth :)
I bet your church's attendance is down by 40% since 1990.
not a church, and up by ~400% since 1990 :)
Yeah, I bet.
And what evidence can you provide to support these claims?
Religion seems to be common in humans at least for the last few thousand years as evidenced by archaeological study of many past civilizations. I'm not really familiar with anything prior to Mesopotamia so I can't speak to that.
With the advent of science and reason, humans have come to learn far more reliable ways of acquiring knowledge than those that lead to religious traditions. Thus, it stands to reason that, as more people come to understand scientific thinking, they would be more likely to question and reject beliefs that aren't based on sound evidence.
scientific thinking is inherently that of natural law, which inherently is religious (when known correctly), in reality it must be known that the natural world is observable through conceptualisation, i urge you to step from society with a written method of recording yourself, think of all you can think about in the topic you're curious in, and thoughts will flow through you
This is word salad.
this is someone who doesn't know basic words
https://www.businessinsider.com/gen-z-gender-gap-young-men-women-dont-agree-politics-2024-1?op=1
But another article shows the males in the generation becoming more conservative. Heck knows it's the male fantasy of control driving the MAGA movement. Gotta keep the women, illegals, liberals, and the rest of the world under their control.
Buddy...
Speaking with 21 people does not make a representative sample.
And something is off at the Harvard youth poll the article is relying on for the whole, "men are becoming more conservative claim". When you pull their data (It's the button labeled crosstabs) for previous years they've labeled three race categories as "Hispanic". White and Black labels are MIA so we can probably assume they're the mislabeled. But that's kind of weird to have happen. The tweet they actually link to is by the poll supervisor but he doesn't link back to his own poll. Probably because there's no category in the results for "White Male". There's White and there's Male, but they don't give that intersection in their results for party affiliation.
Polling usually isn't this hard to track down and figure out. The best we can say with the publicly available data from that poll is that in the last few years 6 percent more young men identify as Republican. White respondents only rose by 1 percent. It's important to note that's not an out of character swing. It could easily come from frustrated libertarians moving to the GOP. Especially since the Democrats lost 7 points and Independents remained steady at 38-40 %. Without more information it's all tea leaves. (and going I doesn't mean becoming more conservative, there's a lot of disaffected progressives.)
One thing their 2023 takeaways was very clear about though is that among likely Gen Z voters Biden has a double digit lead. Which would mean the article we're here commenting on is accurate. As you can absolutely be a Republican and not vote for the MAGA man.
Overall this is the second piece I've seen from a conservative outlet trying to paint a Gen Z gender gap with men becoming more conservative. Broader polling absolutely does not support this. It may support it in the future, but Gallup's 2023 May poll, and PRRI's most recent polling (Obviously as we're talking about it here) show a continuing trend of progressive leanings in Gen Z across all demographics.
Yeah that % gap left a lot of room for independents, and I'm worried they continue to lean right amongst youth and we're underestimating kids on tiktok doing their own research on vaccines, and why "the Dems are as bad as the GOP"
Hey there's some good news there, though:
This actually, from my anecdotal evidence from my parents, matches the '60's. A lot of women protesting, a lot of men complaining about women protesting.
Andrew Tate and his influence /s
But tbh, it's really just the rhetoric. White men, who have been the dominant force for so long, are now feeling what it's like to really be equal with everyone else and now they're feeling like they're the minority when they're not. Especially since they're young, they're more susceptible to the rhetoric that made other white men successful in the past.
*anyone with functioning brain cells might be the MAGA movement’s undoing
That’s an ambitious claim.
This is an evergreen topic. "The Emerging Democratic Majority" came out in 2002.
With Hispanic people being the fastest growing demographic in the US, and the percentage of white people shrinking, how could the party with heavy majorities in every minority group ever lose again? With such a heavy majority of the youth vote against George W Bush, how could Republicans ever win again once those people come of age?
The answer is, parties and platforms change. Agreed, George W Bush couldn't get elected in the modern America. Look what happened to Jeb. But the modern Republican Party has shifted more working-class populist and some of that growing share of Hispanic vote has shifted towards them.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“In addition to being the most racially and ethnically diverse generation in our nation’s history, Gen Z adults also identify as LGBTQ at much higher rates than older Americans,” the PRRI poll found.
All this suggests younger voters are eager to put use their time and money in furtherance of their values — on- and off-line: “Gen Z adults are notably more likely than older generations to have volunteered for a group or cause (30% vs. 24% or less) or attended a public rally or demonstration in person (15% vs. 8% or less).”
None of this is good news for a Republican Party whose base tries to eradicate the division between church and state, wants to ban abortion, targets LGBTQ youths, dismisses climate change as a hoax and opposes race-based affirmative and student loan forgiveness.
In that regard, sending Kamala Harris, the first Black and first female vice president, to college campuses to talk about guns, abortion, the environment and other issues looks like a smart move.
(Harris’s message that voters’ “freedom” is at stake provides a helpful contrast to a party wanting to impose its religious views on the rest of us.)
If younger voters come to see 2024 as a battle for an inclusive and free America, not merely another partisan election, perhaps they will turn out in great enough numbers to defeat the MAGA threat.
The original article contains 1,155 words, the summary contains 228 words. Saved 80%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Gen Z is unlikely to show up at the polls. Hell, they can barely show up at work in the morning.
the fuck boomer shit is this
That’s what I hear from all the boomers I talk to.
“Nobody wanna work anymore.”
But I always feel like citation is needed when they say that. Because there are plenty of gen Z folks all around me when I go to work. So who are they talking about?
Same people they've been talking about for as long as we've been printing news. "Nobody wants to work anymore" is the oldest circle jerk.
Nobody ever wanted to work, that is why you convince them using money.