this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2024
321 points (94.0% liked)

politics

19126 readers
2294 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
321
submitted 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 72 points 10 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 38 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] PrincessLeiasCat 37 points 10 months ago (4 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 months ago

A 16 year old has more at stake than an 80 year old

[–] [email protected] 11 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

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.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 10 months ago (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] -3 points 10 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 10 months ago

almost like they don't want everything going to shit, and finally realized that twiddling thumbs won't get rid of these dumbasses.