Anxiety does not inspire
Millennials are not as bad off as advertised, Jean M. Twenge writes in The Atlantic. Reports that they were the first generation not to be better off than their parents was a premature take, post-Great Recession.
“By 2019,” Twenge writes, “households headed by Millennials were making considerably more money than those headed by the Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, and Generation X at the same age, after adjusting for inflation.” But shaped by their rough start, they are not feeling it.
John Della Volpe, who heads up the latest Harvard Youth Poll, studies Gen Z (born since ~1997). The latest data shows that three quarters of 18-29 year-olds worry about being homeless, he told The 11th Hour Monday night. A third think it could happen to them, and that’s almost 50 percent among people of color.
Check out a quick Twitter thread here. A sampling:
Fewer than half (42%) of young Americans who grew up in conservative households call themselves Republicans today. Among those who grew up in liberal households, 60% are Democrats.
But left-leaning is not the same as voting. People need motivation to get off their couches.
Most young Americans support policies that make voting easier and more accessible, including 57% who support automatic voter registration and 54% who support sending ballots to every voter by mail.
These are good trends for Democrats. Then there is this:
The problem is that even with heavy voter turnout in 2022 for those under 45, they cannot run the table if they are not sitting at it. There is still vast untapped voting potential for Gen Z and Millennials. (Read: political power.)
Fear of what MAGA Republicans might do to them may not be what motivates them to vote in 2024. Nor are promises of what Democrats might do for them. Democrats have to sell a vision more hopeful than the Handmaid’s Tale one before their eyes. How to do that (and who can) is a need a list of policy precriptions will not fill.
HOPE brought Barack Obama to the White House, including all the dreams and aspirations people read into his candidacy that went unrealized. Repeating that phenomenon in the age of MAGA will be a tougher lift.
