Alexandra Chadwick went to the polls in 2020 with the sole aim of ousting Donald Trump from the presidency. At 22, she was a first-time voter. She saw Joe Biden more as a protector than an inspirational political figure — someone who could fend off threats to abortion rights, gun control and climate policy.
Two years later, with the Supreme Court having eroded federal protections in these three areas, Chadwick feels that Joe Biden and other Democratic leaders lack the imagination and grit to resist. It points to a generation gap, something that in the past did not give much importance, but that now seems cavernous.
“How can a person lead the country properly if his head is still tied to 50, 60 or 70 years ago?” says the California resident, speaking of the many septuagenarian leaders in her party. “It’s not the same, people are not the same, and that person’s old ideas don’t work so well anymore.”
A New York Times/Siena College poll found that only 1% of Americans ages 18 to 29 strongly approve of the way Biden is doing his job. And 94% of Democrats under 30 said they would like another candidate to run for president within two years. Of all age groups, it is young voters who are most likely to say they will not vote for either Biden or Trump if they clash again in 2024.
Those numbers are a clear warning to Democrats as they scramble to avoid a heavy defeat in the so-called midterms in November. Young people, who have long been the least constant part of the Democratic coalition, have staged marches to demand gun control, participated in anti-Trump protests and helped fuel a Democrat wave in the midterms of 2018. They still take sides on issues that are currently under way. gaining increasing importance.
But today, four years later, many feel alienated and disappointed; according to the poll, only 32% say they are almost certain to vote in November. Almost 50% think the vote made no difference.
Interviews with these voters reveal generational tensions that fuel frustration. Coming of age amid racial tensions, political strife, high inflation and a pandemic, they have sought help from politicians who are more than three times their age.
These leaders talk a lot about defending institutions and restoring norms, but young people say they are more interested in results. Many expressed a desire to see broader transformations, such as a viable third party and a new crop of leaders. They said that instead of a return to what worked in the past, they want innovative action to address the problems they will inherit.
“Every member of Congress has certainly experienced traumatic moments in their lives and experienced chaos in the country,” says John Della Volpe, who, as research director at the Harvard Kennedy School of Politics, studies the opinions of young people. “But everyone has also seen America at its best. In times when we all came together. That’s something Gen Z people haven’t had.”
At 79, Biden is the oldest president in US history and just one of several Democratic Party leaders in his late 80s or older. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is 82. House Majority Leader Steny Hoier is 83. At 71, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is the youngest of the bunch. Trump has 76.
In a rerun of the 2020 election, Biden would lead among young voters, with between 30% and 38%, but 22% of voters aged 18-29, by far the largest share of any age group, said they would not vote if have to choose between the same two candidates.
Denange Sanchez is 20 years old and studies at Eastern Florida State College in Palm Bay. She says Biden has only half-fulfilled his promises.
Her mother owns a housecleaning firm and does most of the cleaning herself; Denange helps when he can. His entire family – including his mother, who has heart problems – has had Covid and has no health insurance. Even when she was sick, says Sanchez, her mother stayed up late to prepare home remedies.
“They said we were going to defeat this virus. Biden made all these promises. Now no one is taking the pandemic seriously anymore, but it’s still everywhere. It’s frustrating.” Sanchez, who is studying medicine, also includes debt relief incurred to pay for college on his list of promises Biden made and didn’t keep.
Middle-aged voters constantly point to the economy as one of their concerns, but it’s just one of the things the younger ones worry about; it is more or less tied with abortion, gun policy, and the state of democracy.
This creates a problem for Democratic candidates in poorer districts, many of whom say they should focus their election message almost solely on the economy. But, with that, it is possible that they run the risk of not mobilizing the younger ones.
Tate Sutter, 21, feels this disconnect. A native of Auburn, California, he studies in Vermont. He says he watched the Fourth of July fireworks and was concerned, aware that a new fire season is beginning, while federal action to combat global warming is stalled in Congress. Said and done, he commented: he saw a bushfire gathering strength in the mountains to the south.
“The climate issue is very important in my political view,” he says, expressing dismay that Democrats are not talking about it more. “It’s highly frustrating.”
After years of feeling that politicians don’t talk to people like him, Juan Flores, 23, says he is now turning his attention to local initiatives decided by the vote, things involving issues like housing, which he thinks are likely to have the biggest impact on his life.
Flores took a data analysis course but is a delivery driver in California, where homes average well over $1 million, so it is difficult or even impossible for people to live. with only one source of income in the family.
“I think many politicians grew up in families with high purchasing power,” he says. “Most of them don’t have a real understanding of the problems facing most Americans today.”
The NYT/Siena poll found that 46% of young voters prefer Democrats to have control of Congress, while 28% want control to pass to Republicans. More than one in four said they did not know or declined to say which party they preferred.
Ivan Chavez, 25, of New Mexico, says he identifies himself as independent in part because neither of the two major parties has presented convincing arguments to people his age. He worries about the shootings, the mental health crisis among young people and climate change.
And I wish candidates from other parties, not Republicans or Democrats, would get more attention. He intends to vote in November, but still doesn’t know for whom. “Democrats are afraid of Republicans and vice versa,” he says. “They don’t know where to go.”
