‘Maybe Gen Z Is Just Kinder’: How America’s Youngest Voters are Shaping Politics

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat

New York Times Opinion

New York Times, Journalism, News, Society & Culture, Ross Douthat

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🗓️ 26 October 2022

⏱️ 35 minutes

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Summary

Members of Gen Z (Americans under 26 years old) have come of age during the Trump presidency and a pandemic, in an era of protests over police violence, attacks on reproductive rights, rising economic inequality, and frequent school shootings. These young people are calling for major changes, but many aren’t confident that politicians will act with the urgency necessary to carry them out. As Gen Z voters consider the midterms, they are prioritizing the issues, not party allegiance. But with a history of low turnout, and disenchantment with politics across the spectrum, will young voters be moved enough by the issues to show up at the polls? And if so, will there be enough of them to sway decisive races? Today on “The Argument,” Jane Coaston convenes three voters in their early 20s to talk about how their families and communities have affected their politics, what matters most to them at the ballot box, and what they wish older Americans and politicians understood about people their age. (A full transcript of the episode will be available midday on the Times website.)

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's the argument. I'm Jane Kustin.
0:07.0	Hi, I am Fiona Grove. I'm calling from Madison, Wisconsin. I was 15 when Donald Trump announced
0:13.2	his candidacy for president. But in that time, from 2015 to now, I have completely lost my
0:18.5	sense of patriotism, my faith and democracy. My dad is a US history teacher of the Howard's
0:25.1	and Variety. And when I was a teenager, I had this conviction given to me by my father
0:31.3	that America was a project that it was far from perfect, but that people like me were
0:36.0	going to continue this project of achieving a more equitable and functional democracy.
0:40.6	But I think a lot of my fellow Gen Zers and me, having come of age in the Trump and Biden
0:45.7	years, have this feeling that the American project is completely lost.
0:53.1	The new generation of voters is heading to the polls this year. Members of Gen Z are under
0:58.3	26. They have come of age during the Trump presidency, a pandemic, protest over police
1:03.6	violence. For them, school shooting drills were normal.
1:08.7	They're also more progressive than their parents or grandparents, even if they identify
1:12.9	as Republicans, which is why Democrats are hoping they'll turn out the selection. It's
1:18.4	clear that the Biden administration wants their vote. See, cancellation of some student
1:22.9	loan debt. But what's actually going to drive them to the polls? And more importantly,
1:30.5	once they're there, what matters to the most?
1:33.5	I'm voting in the midterms because things are looking kind of grim.
1:37.5	Because my abortion rights are kind of under attack here in Virginia with Governor Youngkin.
1:43.3	Because I am worried about the state of our democracy to get this country back on the
1:47.9	right track and off the track it's on right now.
1:50.1	I'm going to fight against Trump and the rise of the ultra-right wing of evangelical Christian
	...

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