The Great Cynical Generation: Young Republicans And Young Democrats Are Aligning

The generational mood of “Zoomers,” those born between roughly 1997 and 2012, is apathy. 

The Manhattan Institute’s City Journal “gathered 20 right-leaning Zoomers in a Nashville conference room” for a focus group. 

“Psychologically, this group was marked by desensitization, shaped less by fear than by boredom. They were not especially anxious about their own futures. They worried more about what AI and automation might do to other people than to themselves. Politics is entertainment: a stage for mockery, transgression, and performance, not moral seriousness or policy discipline.” (RELATED: VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: Can The ‘Lost Generation’ Be Found?)

Boredom has been the ironic consequence of our boredom-curing devices. Most of the focus group participants get their news from social media. Their tastes in political figures, and media personalities, varies: Matt Walsh, the late Charlie Kirk, Joe Rogan, Nick Fuentes. Their opinions on cultural and economic issues vary, too. Most believe they will be better off than their parents. 

Gen Z conservatives are often portrayed by the media as a cohort radicalized by economic despair. They’re depicted as young people priced out of adulthood, lashing out through ideology. But is it true?

We spoke with some of them to find out. pic.twitter.com/LEZLXkaHfp

— City Journal (@CityJournal) December 19, 2025

“What matters most for them all is not ideological consistency but vibe: humor, transgression, and the sense of being led by someone who can command attention. That preference, more than any specific belief expressed in the room, may prove the most consequential feature of right-leaning Gen Z’s political development.”

I suspect that many self-identified left-wing Zoomers also consider a candidate’s “vibes” of supreme importance. Many young voters struggled to articulate exactly why they voted for New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani — It just kinda felt right. (RELATED: Tons Of Mamdani Supporters Don’t Actually Know Why They Voted For Him) 

Conversely, left-wing Zoomers did not show up in droves for the “No Kings” protests. Holding a handmade sign and shaking your fist at “the man” is undeniably Baby-Boomer-coded.

What does this mean for the future of “The Conservative Moment,” if there is such an entity? Getting young people to care is the first, and probably biggest, battle.

Follow Natalie Sandoval on X: @NatSandovalDC