I’m glad we have data for this, but I also want to challenge folks: are you REALLY surprised? I don’t mean in a “no duh” way, but more like, what sort of response do you think should young people would or should have to the last 25 years? - ThreadSky

joshuafoust.com • 5 days ago

I’m glad we have data for this, but I also want to challenge folks: are you REALLY surprised? I don’t mean in a “no duh” way, but more like, what sort of response do you think should young people would or should have to the last 25 years?

Reposted from Dana R. Fisher (aka the Apocalyptic Optimist)

After #HandsOff DC, where I surveyed the oldest sample I've ever collected at a protest, my team left the field discussing where the college students were. The youngest member of our team spoke up and reported: they're not turning out since they've given up on democracy.

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joshuafoust.com•5 days ago

Like, I, too, want to defend democracy, but I also cannot defend our system of democracy. It has fundamentally, irretrievably, failed. And half the “opposition” party is still eagerly voting to make life worse for the rest of us in the name of collegiality. What young person would support THAT?

cosmomante.bsky.social•5 days ago

A successful democracy needs political pluralism and the US just went too far to the right. Many young people are like actually critical of capitalism and there's no political representation for that in US democracy, so people feel disenfranchised.

desarrayed.bsky.social•5 days ago

all the more reason to get more people like David Hogg involved and put Jasmine Crockett, AOC, and Maxwell Frost front and center

Those are people that younger generations might see themselves in and think that democracy is worth fighting for

https://www.nbcnews.com/data-graphics/congress-age-2025-third-oldest-us-history-rcna185742

thewanderingjew.bsky.social•5 days ago

yeah, this is the scary politics of despair. It's not that something else is BETTER than democracy in their minds, it's just that it's not good enough to be worth fighting for.

joshuafoust.com•5 days ago

And again, I really cannot blame them. I think it is a rational response.

pauljnadeau.bsky.social•5 days ago

It's a purely anecdotal data point, but I tried making a similar point to my American politics class trying to explain that for people their age Trump is "normal" and the vast majority of them screwed their faces at me and said "nah, we get that this is definitely not normal"

joshuafoust.com•5 days ago

None of them, even the conservative ones, think it’s good, per se, but also they don’t have any counterexamples in their own memory to say “this is how it should be.”

Hell, my first presidential election was Bush v. Gore and I don’t think I have one of those “better” memories, either.

pauljnadeau.bsky.social•5 days ago

In my experience with the youngs, Obama left a big (positive) mark on their conception of what's possible, if anything there's an annoyance that there hasn't been something like that since so his presidency at least seems to be where they draw the baseline

joshuafoust.com•5 days ago

Probably the first one they remember forming their own opinions about, like me and HW

pauljnadeau.bsky.social•5 days ago

They almost always mention their parents' reaction and how excited they seemed and I think that left a big impression.

Which is also to say I think we might need to wait a decade-ish before we see the bottom fall out completely on the youngs' perception of democracy

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