Fuck this strawman, every single (voting age) gen z person i know has already talked about voting in this election. Even if it’s just voting for “not trump”. When one candidate is actively claiming they will operate as a dictator “day one”, you have a lot of incentive to vote. Especially when you haven’t already been living with crushed dreams for decades.
“The logic of not voting for Joe Biden in 2024 is that the Democratic Party is supposed to be accountable to young people and diverse communities.”
Such an adorable take. I used to think they were accountable, too. That they gave a shit what I thought and would do things that I approved of, or have a good reason not to. That voting actually sent a message.
Give this kid another decade and he'll be as hopeless as I am.
Then there's this guy:
“[I’ll say], ‘Hey, you want to buy a house after college, right? You want to have a good-paying job after you graduate, right? You want to be able to have access to health care?”
I really don't think voting is the best way to get these things. Especially when Democrats never talk about access to health care, just health "coverage."
What voting for Biden will get you is more boring government. That's about the only thing voting will get you that you actually want.
This kid actually gets it:
And then there’s the Electoral College. For Lillian, it’s difficult to feel like her vote matters in a state that has gone blue since 1980 and a rural county that generally swings red. "The whole [voting] thing is a symbolic gesture,” she says. “If we had a more direct voting system, I would participate more. The Electoral College is scum.”
Want people to think voting matters? Make their vote actually matter. Outside of swing states votes for president just become meaningless statistics, especially since you don't need the popular vote to win the election.
Will the silence be loud enough to create actual change in how the Democratic Party approaches the youth vote in future elections[?]
It isn't just Gen Z. My own parents are tired of the bullshit, lesser of two complete won't do fuck all for Americans and are talking about opting out of 2024 because they don't want an old guy doing not a lot of them in middle America but don't want to vote for a criminal racist either.
That was a fun conversation about how you don't have to like the old guy, I don't really either, but fuck me if you'll roll over and let a literal fucking Nazi in the office by not voting for ineffective.
There's a Gen Z kid that I was talking to who said she liked Trump because he's so funny and crazy, and that was literally as much as she knew about him, just the stupid antics. I was horrified, like, "You've got to be kidding?" I hope I did a good job explaining how bad he was for the country, but sometimes I wonder about the kids today. Get off my lawn.
As a leftist, it's important to accept that the Dems will never, ever, ever move to the left unless there's massive grassroots organization such as Unionization and Socialists winning local elections.
People who abstain from voting as protest, however, still think ironically that voting is anything other than loss prevention. If everyone sits out and protests, literally everyone on the Dem side and Trump wins in a landslide, and Trump manages to keep elections for 2028, the Dems still won't move to the left.
That's why voting as a leftist is about loss prevention, rather than gaining material change. The movement leftward comes from upsetting the entire 2 party process by flipping the table itself. Mass Unionization and taking of key seats is exactly how you (non-violently) upset the process and force concessions or enable third party to be theoretically viable.
Until then, however, any leftist not voting Dem in the federal election is sorely misguided.
I guess it's just easier to blame the boomers for the state the country is in, comparing to bothersome things like exercising your right to choose. Kids. Go figure.
Young voters are going to make both parties hate them like we did when we voted in Obama. That was a great time. Watching dems and cons alike be low key racist for 8 years was such a huge reveal.
It's definitely not the majority but having spoken with my cousin and his friends I get it. Why even bother voting things aren't getting better so why try? Voting for the best of the worst is just defeating as you know you'll still be working 2 or 3 jobs just to put food on the table. Plus people literally can't afford to take time off to go vote they need the money. Some of them are trying to support their sick parents or even kids.