While much post-election analysis has focused on Trump’s gains among minority voters, the former and future president also made inroads with another cohort.
Young voters, ages 18-29, shifted 10 points toward Trump, rising from 36% in 2020 to 46% in 2024. The shift was even more pronounced among men: 56% backed Trump compared to 56% for Biden in 2020.
Even the renowned Greek poet Hesiod, writing nearly three millennia ago, placed man in the Iron Age, the worst of all ages.
Undoubtedly, many reasons contributed to this shift. Like voters of other ages, young voters cite the economy and jobs as their top issue. But there might be more to the story.
Teen beat
According to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, parents and teens believe being a teenager today is more challenging than it was 20 years ago. The study, titled “Why Many Parents and Teens Think It’s Harder Being a Teen Today,” surveyed 1,453 respondents in the United States and was published on August 27.
69% of parents, and a plurality of teens (44%) responded in the affirmative. Conversely, only 15% of parents and 12% of teens thought being a teenager is easier today.
Parents and teens who agreed with the first statement were then asked to explain their reasoning. Responses revealed significant generational differences. A plurality of parents (41%) attributed the increased difficulty to social media, with 65% citing various forms of technology as contributing factors.
In contrast, teens were less critical of the digital landscape, with only 25% mentioning their online activities as a source of discontent.
When I was your age …
Instead, they tended to blame parental “pressure and expectations.” Unsurprisingly, most of the parents had no idea what kids these days are complaining about in this regard.
Chalk it up to the tendency of every generation to believe they’ve arrived just as the party is ending — and that they’ll be stuck paying for their predecessors’ fun.
Even the renowned Greek poet Hesiod, writing nearly three millennia ago, placed man in the Iron Age, the worst of all ages. Perhaps it is in our nature to forever gaze wistfully into the past.
Of course, how people feel influences how they act. The fact that both teens and their parents perceive that life as a teen is harder than ever — for whatever reason — can be a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy.
One disturbing indication of this is the rise in suicide rates. A recent Centers for Disease Control study claims that the suicides in adolescents and young adults rose by 62% from 2007 to 2021.
Suicide epidemic
What to make of this? Naturally, the experts have weighed in. For its part, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control notes that feelings of hopelessness were particularly widespread during the COVID pandemic.
You don’t say. To think that needlessly disrupting the education and social lives of millions of teens, all while drastically exaggerating the lethality of the virus, would incur a sense of doom.
Then comes psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk, whose best-selling book “The Body Keeps the Score” has greatly promoted the exploration of “trauma” from experiences once viewed as character-building — or at least as part of life’s inevitable ups and downs.
“Kids today have much less of a vision of being able to make a significant difference,” the octogenarian told CNBC. “Climate change is a gigantic issue and kids know it. We are blowing up the world and very little is being done.”
Excellent point. If the Earth is as doomed as they say it is, why not get out while the getting’s good?
Privilege kills
Don’t forget that America is an irredeemable, racist hellhole. If you’re white, you’ve got blood on your hands. If you’re black, prepare to be executed by roving bands of white supremacists.
All this and you still have to figure out whether you were assigned the right gender at birth.
Faced with such a dismal picture of reality, you can either succumb to apathy and despair or question whether that picture is correct to begin with.
Is it any wonder that first-time voters should prefer the latter option? Why bother voting at all, otherwise?
In 2024, only Trump made a compelling case for hope. Underneath Kamala Harris’ strained invocation of “joy,” all she had to offer was the same old decline. That vision of America is no country for young men — or women.
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