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.
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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.
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.
There were/are a lot of olds. They have dominated politics for a long time and have also not died
I keep thinking Covid was a missed opportunity.
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.
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.
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.
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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
Could you be any more of a morale killer?
“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”
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.
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 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
- as an Ivy League graduate, one time co-op member, living in Boston working a tech job I’m leaning harder progressive every year.
- my brother in the Midwest living in a McMansion working for a major auto manufacturer is trending conservative over time
- my two brothers in the DC area working for the government, are most conservative.
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!
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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
Some additional interesting points in the cited poll report:
- Gen Z adults trend slightly less Republican than older Americans. More than half of Gen Z teens do not identify with a major party, but most share their parents’ party affiliation.
- Gen Z adults are more liberal than older Americans. Gen Z teens are more moderate.
- Gen Z is more religiously diverse than older generations. Gen Z teens mirror their parents’ religious affiliation. Gen Z teens are more likely than Gen Z adults to attend church or find religion important.
- Most Gen Z Americans, particularly Gen Z Democrats, are more likely than older Americans to believe that generational change in political leadership is necessary to solve the country’s problems. Younger and older generations both express a lack of understanding across generational lines.
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…
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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.
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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
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. :)
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“Agree with us or we’ll kill you” is peak modern religion. Well done!
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.
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Couldn’t get GIFs to work. Don’t get your jimmies rustled.
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Enigmatically we have LGBTQ+ Republicans, and a lot of them, so that doesn’t help us.
They’re like the ‘Jews for Hitler’ party.
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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…
After speaking with more than 20 Gen Zers…
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”
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.
Hey there’s some good news there, though:
Today, female Gen Zers are more likely than their male counterparts to vote, care more about political issues, and participate in social movements and protests.
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.
*anyone with functioning brain cells might be the MAGA movement’s undoing
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Misinformation. Both parties are not the same and votes ARE counted. A Clinton/Biden Supreme court would NEVER have elimimated Roe.
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.
That’s an ambitious claim.
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.
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.
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