OPINION:
The midterms may have seen a surprising surge of young voters for Democrats, and the youthful Gen Zers may have helped push Joe Biden’s presidential tally in 2020, but that was then, this is now. Democrats are losing the youth and quite possibly, the youth vote.
They brought it on themselves. Democrats, as Democrats generally do, went too far with their lunacy and even this more devil-may-care crowd called youthful voters are starting to take note.
“Nearly every sign that made me confident in historical levels of youth participation in 2018, 2020 and 2022 is now flashing red,” wrote John Della Volpe, polling director at the Kennedy Institute of Politics, as The Hill reported.
Call it the time to face reality.
Youthful voters, by and large, believe in the promises of politicians. They’re much more idealistic, far less concerned with the principles of the Constitution, and limited government and American Exceptionalism — which is to say the idea that in this country, individual freedom comes from God. They’ve been trained from early ages, thanks to a socialist-slash-Marxist infiltration of the public schools, that capitalism is unfair, Founding Fathers were racist — which makes America’s founding documents and system of governance inherently racist — and that socialism is the better model for the nation’s future. They get swept into the sway of class politicking and lured into a life of fighting for free stuff. So of course they vote Democrat.
Of course they hated, and continued to hate, Donald Trump.
It’s how they’ve been taught.
It doesn’t mean all in the nation have been taught that, though. Marxist, meet patriot. Occupier, meet tea partier. Hopey-changey-nonthinking-activist — here’s a copy of the Constitution. Go have a read.
“Young voters are getting less likely to identify as Dems,” Politico wrote in July. “It spells trouble for Biden.”
Just as millennials once believed they were entitled to run a corporation and begin their work days at 10 a.m., but then learned through the years that reality is very different from what inappropriately coddling politicians and dysfunctional parents told them, so, too, Gen Zers are getting their own face slaps.
It usually happens when youth move out of mommy’s home and have to cough up the money for their own rents, their own utility bills, their own grocery costs — their own Obamacare — that they then really notice their paycheck deductions, as if awakening from a bad dream, and in shock, wonder aloud, hey now, what the freak. Why is a third of my money going to Social Security and health insurance? And what’s this Medicare crap?
Reality hits hard at youth.
It hits especially hard at youth who’ve been told their whole lives they’re entitled to have free housing, free health care, free college education, free child care — only to find the system hasn’t caught up with their expectations and that Democrats who once promised the world have, oops, been voted out of office or, oops, been sidelined because of Republican majorities.
That’s when these entitled youth go one of two ways: They get angry and head for the streets, armed with the best Molotov cocktails and bricks George Soros-tied nonprofits can buy; or, they grow up and learn that life is hard, rightfully so, and that citizens of the universe aren’t exactly alive to serve their selfish ambitions.
Democrats continue to use and exploit the members of the first group. This segment of youthful-but-aging voters remain staunch defenders of the Democrat way because it’s the Democrat way and only the Democrat way that head-pats their entitlement mindsets and tells them it’s not their fault they’re losers; it’s because of the Republicans, it’s due to Trump, it’s the fault of conservatives.
But members of the second group — the youth voters who actually grow up and mature? They typically start taking a look around at the world, at the country, at the politics and politicians, and start to do the adult thing: They vote on principles, not unicorn-and-gumdrop promises.
They realize the lies of the left are just that — lies — and that the only way to get ahead in life is to work for what they want. That’s when they start to pay attention to things like limited government, and how such a principle actually benefits those who want to work for their successes, because it keeps politicians away from their own pockets and resources.
And because the Democratic Party doesn’t have principle so much as lies and deceits and spins and false statements, it becomes only natural for these maturing voters to turn Republican, conservative or at least independent and open-minded; or at least, not so sheeple to the Democrat clan.
The Gen Zers aren’t quite at the mark of moving toward principled vote, yet.
“[M]ore than three years … [after] delivering Joe Biden to the White House in 2020,” CNN wrote, “the relationship between the White House and young organizers is at a crossroads. The president and congressional Democrats have delivered on many notable promises but fallen short on others — a frustrating reality that has contributed to Biden’s plunging approval ratings with 18- to 29-year-olds.”
In other words: They’re still looking for the “me” factor with their political picks — as in “what are you gonna do for me?”
Blame that stubborn streak on the public schools and the anti-America propaganda they’ve been fed; they’re understandably slow learners on the ways of a society forged on individualism, not collectivism. But they’ll get there.
Gen Zers will face the same reality check as Millennials.
“Millennials Are Not an Exception. They’ve Moved to the Right,” Nate Cohn wrote in February. “Over the last decade, almost every cohort of voters under 50 has shifted rightward.”
Meanwhile, a Harvard Youth Poll found that while 39% of respondents in 2019 identified as Democrat, only 35% this past spring said the same.
“Young Voters’ Support For Democrats Slipped This Year, Poll Finds,” Forbes wrote in December.
“Democrats have a Gen Z problem,” Business Insider wrote in January.
“Biden confronts a ‘pissed-off generation’ of young voters who may be decisive in 2024,” NBC wrote in July.
That doesn’t necessarily mean youth are turning in droves to vote Republican. But it does put the Democrat block up for grabs. It does put this voting group in play.
It does give conservatives a golden opportunity to sell the dream of America and solidify the spirit of liberty for the coming generation of leaders.
So long as patriotic Americans refuse to cave to the globalist rot and sell America’s exceptionalism down the river to communism, run by a social credit system and destroyed by corporate wokeism — the youth will learn the hard lessons of rugged Americanism and fall in line.
Another way to look at it: It’s always easy to spend other people’s money. That’s how socialist politicians score points and draw voters. But when the money runs out, what to do?
The smart youthful voters are figuring it out: They stop supporting Democrats. That’s a trend that bodes well for all of America.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.
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