r/politics • u/Zipper222222 • 4h ago
Possible Paywall Young Voters Say They Are Turning Their Backs on Trump and His Party
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/16/us/politics/young-voters-fleeing-republicans.html•
u/MaximumEffort433 Maryland 4h ago
Please, for the love of your country, stay turned.
As someone who was young during Bush II, trust me when I say that the Republican party never gets better, it only gets worse.
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u/nono3722 4h ago edited 4h ago
As someone who watched reagan, then bush 1 then bush 2 then Trump its like watching a horrible train wreck, then another train runs into that horrible train wreck etc. etc. etc.. really if you go back has there been a good GOP president since T roosevelt?
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u/Khayman11 3h ago
Eisenhower was pretty good. He’s ranked 5h overall. Brought us the highway system. Created the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare as well as NASA. Signed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the Civil Rights Act of 1960 to protect voting rights. And warned against the military-industrial complex we have now.
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u/9a61a6b7 2h ago
Heather Cox Richardson spoke about the 1956 Republican platform. It had strong labor protections, raising the minimum wage, asylum for refugees, equal pay for equal work, etc.
Today's politics has swung so far to the right that mainstream Democrats would have been considered "conservatives" during Eisenhower's time.
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u/SoglinBottomBoy 4h ago
My man Ike was the last decent Republican president
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u/AcrobaticWrangler330 3h ago
Ike was pretty shit when you look more into it, especially with regard to foreign policy. He wasn’t as awful as these modern republicans but he gets a lot of leeway for being a hero of WW2.
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u/I_PACE_RATS South Dakota 1h ago
One of his own advisors said he saw a lack of leadership from Ike when it came to fighting McCarthyism and standing up for nuclear arms controls. He squandered a lot of possibilities because he put a priority on political wins or survival over doing good works. He gets entirely too much credit for finally speaking out on the day he left office. He also gets credit for the payoff that came from the work Truman put in with setting up the rebuilding efforts worldwide and weathering the post-war recession. Beyond all that, Eisenhower did everything he could to undo civilian control of nuclear weapons, creating the runaway proliferation and genocidal war planning that the Air Force SAC championed.
Ike was a moral and political coward.
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u/PNWoutdoors America 3h ago
When I was 18-20 I was the naive little idiot who thought "both sides are the same" and was very disaffected.
As I've grown older and wiser, it's clear to me that there hasn't been a single Republican in my lifetime (born early in Reagan's first term) that has been good for the United States.
I can only encourage the young voters to look at history and see the pattern. Don't make the same mistake I did, it'll bother you the rest of your life.
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4h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/MaximumEffort433 Maryland 4h ago
Young voters care more about results than party labels.
The Democratic party has produced better results than the Republicans for a hundred years now, and Trump sure doesn't look like he's about to change that trend line, hopefully young voters are starting to realize that.
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u/7ddlysuns I voted 4h ago
Young people generally just don’t vote when times are good. Which is why Dems get caught in a bad cycle. If you fix the Republican fuckup then people tune out and the anti - gay/trans/immigrant rhetoric wins
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u/ChopperChange 4h ago
Good. They should be ashamed for even supporting this criminal in the first place and learn from their mistakes about trusting con artists and their propaganda going forward.
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u/mstpguy 4h ago
Calling Andrew Tate and Donald Trump "hyper masculine" is an insult to masculinity.
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u/Toutatous 4h ago
I like what Jimmy Carr said about them.
Donald Trump is the poor people's representation of what a rich person is.
Andrew Tate us the 15 year old boy's representation of what a man is.
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u/Antique-Plankton9573 4h ago
This is why campaigns matter. Young people vote based on what affects their lives right now.
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u/purpledubloon 4h ago
I always thought young people would be the ones leading change in a positive direction. I'm sorry but today's youth in America is the first time I thought the younger generation are dumbasses.
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u/bellyofthebillbear 4h ago
I remember 10 years ago everyone was saying that republicans were done for whenever Gen Z got to voting age. Terrible miscalculation that was.
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u/MaximumEffort433 Maryland 3h ago
Haven't heard a lot of people talking about the "demographic cliff" lately, it used to be all the rage.
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u/bruin396 4h ago
Hitler Jugend (boys) and Bund Deutscher Mädel (girls) were among the most fervent believers in Nazi Germany because they were steeped in propaganda from an early age.
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u/No-Distance-9401 3h ago
Unfortunately they are and they are the first generation to score lower on standardized academic and cognitive measures than their parents. Many believe it correlates to the screens and devices (tablets, phones and laptops) in every classroom and how they are taught while also having those devices do much of the cognitive labor that they just recite. So it may not be all their fault and hopefully we can change this or Idiocracy is fully going to be America in a few generations
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u/No_Diver6131 Wisconsin 4h ago
We’re completely fucked with the younger generations. My friends that are teachers are saying this is the first time in their careers they have students in middle school and high school that are illiterate.
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u/dragunityag 2h ago
I know so many teacher's who have quit because of how bad the kids are/how cowardly administration is.
I've consistently heard stories of students getting 10+ referrals and never once getting suspended.
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u/oliversurpless Massachusetts 4h ago
Yep, à la that guy who burned down the Temple of Artemis in the ancient world (and is unmentioned to history as the ultimate punishment) I had no faith in the youth being more enlightened ever since just how young that Charleston Church shooter was in 2015…
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u/drethnudrib 4h ago
Millennials wanted what their parents had, but didn't want to be like their parents to get it.
Gen Z wants what their grandparents had, and think they have to be just like their grandparents to get it.
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u/E1M1_DOOM 2h ago
Millennials wanted what their parents had, but their parents' generation just wanted to pull the ladder up and hold onto a shit ton of power, wealth, and property.
There. I fixed it for you.
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u/DeliciousAirline3077 1h ago
Baby boomers were brainwashed by the biggest propaganda campaign in human history and now make up weird aphorisms to explain why their kids lives are way harder than theirs.
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u/altsuperego 3h ago
X was the most right wing generation in the last election, Z seemed to be pulled by their X parents as well. Hopefully they saw that was a mistake, but most won't show up.
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u/cheekytikiroom 1h ago
Nah. Swaths of every generation that reaches late middle age, and approaching retirement, becomes bitter about taxes as more is taken from their increasing salaries. While also having a mortgage, kids in college, and trying to save. But rather than blame the extremely wealthy, they kick down - because it’s easier and more visible in their lives. Those fences and gates on billionaires homes are designed to keep you from seeing how much they have.
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u/altsuperego 26m ago
That may be some of it. But Republicans are always the most bitter about paying taxes complaining about some millions on this social program or that and never about the billions in the defense budget. They have absolutely no concept of "fiscal responsibility". But yes a wealth tax is the only solution.
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u/Stang1776 1h ago
To be fair. The younger voting generation has only been exposed to their propaganda since they were in elementary school. I get it...for them.
My parents? Not so much
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u/Loner2014 3h ago
Young people are always dumbasses, I certainly was when I was in my 20s.
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u/chriskot123 1h ago
This generation is literally dumber than previous generations. It’s the first time in history
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u/Bostonterrierpug 2h ago
Yeah, a lot of kids don’t realize this. They feel like their generation was the last cool and smart generation. It’s get off my lawnism
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u/Unfair_Web_8275 2h ago
Conservatives have a better media game than democrats. Mamdani is an exception but that guy oozes charm.
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u/ideaofrhyme 3h ago edited 55m ago
What exactly are young people supposed to do here?
DNC conspired to destroy Bernies campaign and then democrats went all in one identity politics so they didn't have to put effort into affordability, inequality etc.
Young people sent a very clear fucking message to democrats. Stop being weird and deliever something
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u/crinkledcu91 56m ago
DNC conspired to destroys Bernies campaign
Oh hey Mr. 4 month old account whose first language is precariously English! Did you mean Voters in States that actually had black people and weren't lilly-white like Vermont actually voted for who they wanted? And broadly rejected Bernie's campaign?
Because if you meant that then yeah.
Unless you're saying that voters voting in a Democratic Primary somehow equals "Conspiring"? Because if you want to make such a claim, then you're going to have a fun time trying to look serious doing it lol
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u/jizzmaster-zer0 27m ago
bernie got robbed in 2016 in nevada - i was at all the caucauses, it was obvious. then in 2020 he won nevada. a purple state.
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u/ideaofrhyme 49m ago
Why are people like you pretending like wikileaks never leaked the emails of clinton campaign and DNC which clearly shows them colluding with CNN to leak the debate questions to Clinton? Not only that DNC dictated the talking points CNN should be using about Bernie.
If Bernie wasn't winning, why would DNC go on such great lengths to disadvantage him?
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u/tani0521 4h ago
Don’t underestimate Gen Z. They may be the wildcard
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u/healywylie 4h ago
🙄
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u/tani0521 4h ago
Do you think the generation that grew up with anxiety, a pandemic, the Internet, being told by previous gens they’ll never own a home and it’s their fault…
won’t fight to get what they deserve eventually? Gen Z still is young is my point.•
u/jmobius 3h ago
I mean, kind of, yeah?
Most of those traits are debilitating or distracting, and youth is the time to be fighting for serious change, because it's a hell of a lot harder by the time you've got a family to take care of. If they can't collectively find the motivation to band together and take action now, then I expect them to largely just roll over and accept what life hands them in the future, too.
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u/AmberDuke05 3h ago
I work in schools. They are just so stupid and entitled. I don’t want to just blame social media and the complete lack of respect for education but it is definitely a reason.
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u/TheGringoDingo 3h ago
Yeah, they’re the second or third (can’t remember where Gen X fares) generation in a row to have lower prospects than the generation before them. They’ve had a bunch of once-in-a-lifetime events during their lives and politics has always looked messy and just a BS show.
It’s no wonder they’re prone to the “blow it all up” strategy; what’s been the norm hasn’t helped them whatsoever.
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u/Aware_Cheesecake_519 America 4h ago
Turning your back on Trump and his party is a good attitude.
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u/BeverlyHills70117 4h ago edited 4h ago
I always rail against the "Leopards ate my face" thing as I try to err on forgiveness...but the guy who mobed here from Liberia 10 years ago and convinced the 15 members of his family to vote Trump because he saw too many males in womens sports and now is bummed her has to work 2 jobs is giving me one of those moments of clairity that democracy is unworkable.
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u/VagabondReligion 4h ago edited 3h ago
Sounds like the Liberian was a typical Repiglican: railing over a problem that never included more than a hundred athletes across all college and professional sports, but is now crying because actual issues are affecting him personally. I'll err towards forgiveness when I see anything other than ignorant selfishness running the show.
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u/Sigili California 4h ago
Democracy is the worst form of government, after all the others. It sucks, but the other options give even more power to Trump and Musk-types. We're just currently in the "lose it" part of "use it or lose it."
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u/ilir_kycb 4h ago
What democracy? US America has been a plutocracy since its founding.
When the preferences of economic elites and the stands of organized interest groups are controlled for, the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.
I think part of the problem here is the belief that the US has ever been democratic. Since the end of WWII, the US has literally been the greatest enemy and destroyer of democracy worldwide.
At the same time, Americans believe that the US spreads and defends democracy and freedom around the world. The incompatibility between the American self-image and reality is almost impossible to put into words.
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u/fantastic_carrot 4h ago
No fucking way, I still see tons of clips of Ohio/louisiana/red state college kids praising Trump. They’ve been following their parents politics and will continue to do so. ‘This will end when boomers die’ thought process is not reality. Don’t assume a blue wave is gonna happen, red voters assemble…Dems need to as well
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u/Viper_Visionary North Carolina 4h ago
I won't even consider voting for a Republican until Trump is dead, and even then probably not. Trump and his sycophants have permanently ruined the Republican party as a whole for me, they're beyond redemption at this point.
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u/TheGOPisTheDeepState 4h ago
Young people voting Republican to further regress their future; propaganda is working sadly. Hopefully they are waking up.
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u/TraditionalWinter890 4h ago
Should have realized he’s the worst politician ever a long time ago but i’ll take now than never
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u/BeenDragonn 4h ago
They may turn their backs now, but they won't in the voting booth
These sheep are lost. They will vote for whoever or whatever fox News tells them to
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u/boofcakin171 3h ago
Young people arent watching fox news. They are on reddit hearing about how the democrats hate men and are keeping them from getting laid.
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u/boriskin New Jersey 3h ago
Dumb ignorant TikTok High School graduates gave us Trump 2.0 in the first place. Now they are turning backs on him. Who's to say they will not unturn their backs the moment "economy feels bad" under the next Democrat? That's exactly what will happen, and it can only be avoided by fixing education system in this country. Good luck with that, Democrats, whenever you show up. Hope it's even on your priority list.
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u/altsuperego 3h ago
They are like the smallest voting demographic and I think went Trump by 1-2 points. Look at their X parents, 5 points. Or white men, 20+ points.
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u/idster 2h ago
Democrats have to run a better campaign to make it clear they are the better choice on the economy so that low information voters are able to take that into consideration. Democrats in 2024 did not "run on" the economy. I would say it was the worst campaign since Dukakis.
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u/PolicyWonka 1h ago
Yeah, it’s hard to talk about the economy when the economy kinda sucked for a lot of your presidency.
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u/idster 1h ago
It’s really not that hard to draw a distinction between the Biden administration and that of Trump. Biden’s economy was more favorable in numerous aspects. They should have talked about those and given an explanation why inflation occurred.
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u/PolicyWonka 1h ago
If you’re having to explain something to the voter, you’ve already lost. Voters don’t want to be lectured about problems and why they exist. They want solutions.
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u/Regular-Dust3378 1h ago
No democracy can survive if the electorate is that disengaged and ignorant. It doesn't matter what the democrats do or don't do.
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u/Fit-Programmer1992 3h ago
As if until now there was ANY reason for young generations to vote red?!?
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u/flatpetey 1h ago
I don’t know how else to say it. Too late. You guys really fucked over everyone because you were conned by the most obvious conman in history.
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u/WontArnett 1h ago
Dear Young Voters,
You’d better. You helped get us into this shit hole. You better help get us out.
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u/TheRealZero 4h ago
I think they should actually keep their eyes on them, but walk slowly away backwards making themselves look as big as possible. No telling what they’ll do behind your back.
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u/Joebranflakes 4h ago
They might turn their backs, but they’ll be looking over their shoulder for a well spoken, “devout” Christian white guy who plays into all their fears after the democrats fix everything. Then they’ll go running back in droves. Doesn’t matter if the man’s policies are the exact same as Trump’s, as long as HE is making them feel afraid in those familiar ways, they’ll love him without question.
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u/killarneykid 4h ago
Hopefully there’s enough of them; they are our future leaders and they need to build the future they want.
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u/Unlikely-Star-2696 3h ago
Nice article but based on interviewing 8 people. Too small sample to arrive to that general conclusion.
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u/Adventurous_Test_296 3h ago
Great credit to young minds who recognize this criminal regime for what it is, and the damage it is doing.
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u/Psychological-Video5 1h ago
This generation doesn’t even know who Hitler was. I asked an 18 year old employee if he knew anything about the civil war. He asked me what civil war. When I said the American civil war he said with a surprised tone “ we had a civil war”
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u/Ordinary-Leading7405 4h ago
Trump and his party turned their backs on America. This is the only appropriate response.
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u/Hesychios 4h ago edited 3h ago
When Bush senior was president there was enough interest in global warming for him to set up a commission to look into it.
By the time of Bush junior most Republicans were under the thumb of the Coke Koch brothers and were routinely denying global warming was real. The Cokes Kochs were also the major contributors to the Tea party and those ideas infested the rank and file Republicans.
That’s when I decided to stop supporting Republicans. I came to understand that one issue could be more important than any other and the Republicans were in total denial, due to the control of the donors.
This showed me they were guns for hire, going to the highest bidders, not representing the best interests of the people…
Then came Trump. Shocking.
I expected it to be bad, but I was in no way prepared for Trump.
The Republican leadership should have opposed him, even to the point of splitting the party if necessary rather than compromise their principles. They did none of that, they made a Faustian bargain … a deal with the devil.
F”ck ‘em
EDITED for spelling
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u/Kinesquared 3h ago
So you knowingly supported Reagan as he destroyed black communities?
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u/Hesychios 2h ago
I am in my 70’s now. I can still remember when there were liberal and moderate Republicans and moderate & conservative Democrats!
Often Democratic lawmakers in Congress would cross over and vote with the Republicans. Some liberal Republican lawmakers would cross over and vote with Democratic lawmakers and bills with bipartisan sponsorship were not uncommon.
I never supported Reagan, I actually detested him (especially after he broke the Air Traffic Controllers union) but I occasionally voted for local Republicans in my state depending on the issue. Some I really liked.
I did not affiliate strongly with a political party for quite a long time. I ‘leaned’ Democratic or ‘leaned’ Republican over the years.
What I wrote in this account reflects when I stopped supporting Republicans at any level. It was well before Trump came along. So I consistently leaned towards the Democrats for a few election cycles.
I consider myself a Democrat these days but that was not always the case.
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u/Kinesquared 2h ago
Nixon? Goldwater? What national republican was worth supporting in your lifetime over the party of the new deal
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u/Prairie-Peppers 2h ago
They said locally. They voted R in local ridings occasionally when they liked their policies over the D in the riding.
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u/11_25_13_TheEdge 4h ago
10 years later and Republicans and Trump are back to being the establishment and young voters will always swing away from establishment candidates.
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u/FlySyde_Gaming 4h ago
I think people are starting to realize they don’t want to be the ones left holding the bag.
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u/Nifey-spoony 4h ago
If young men don’t have developed prefrontal cortexes until around 25, it’s possible they’ve just grown up and figured out the truth of Trump.
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u/No-Distance-9401 4h ago
It seems they are and Trumps regime and Republicans know it as in many states like North Carolina they purposefully got those states to remove early polling stations from most of the college campuses so kids have to uber to vote or walk a few miles like we saw 1000+ do today at NC A&T.
Would be amazing if all these gerrymandered states like NC get dummymandered because of Trump and its a huge blue wave
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u/Bishopjones2112 3h ago
How the fuck did anyone support a convicted felon and rapist, mentioned thousand of times in the Epstein files, incited an insurrection against the capital, ohh yeah and bankrupted six businesses. Please anyone explain to me how the united isn’t a piece of shit for allowing this man to be president. Go ahead and use some kind of logic to explain this. Not even the first time, when he recommended injecting bleach or asking if he could nuke a hurricane or looked at the eclipse, I’m talking after all that and the known connections to Epstein and everything like insurrection. Explain to me how the fuck the United States allowed this to happen. This isn’t Trump as a problem, it’s the united Yates that is a problem.
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u/AsassinProdigyX South Carolina 3h ago
Culture wars don’t put the food on the table. Social reform and government’s by the people for the people do.
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u/External-Example-292 3h ago
If they want a better future for themselves then they should! It's ridiculous enough that there's so many people failing to see that Trump is just a lying gaslighter.
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u/stunneddisbelief 3h ago
Then prove it by showing up at the midterms and voting for someone other than the Republicans that support this clown show.
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u/dakotanorth8 3h ago
Because they (finally) realized they likely won’t own a home, be stuck having a low paying job, and if applicable pay their student loans until 35.
Ya get what ya vote for.
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u/ScienceAlien 3h ago
How do you respect a press agency that sells out during hard times when the good times gone around?
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u/snoopingforpooping 3h ago
This generation of young people is so lame. Being young and conservative is like being young and conservative.
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u/BabyFishmouthTalk 2h ago
All of them?
Most of them?
Some of them?
The few interviewed for the article?
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u/chriskot123 1h ago
They should never have bought into his bullshit to begin with but then again our education system failed them.
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u/butwhyisitso 22m ago
Fan-fucking-tastic. Welcome. Now please prevent the next noob voters from spearheading fascism.
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u/AINonsense 7m ago
VOTE. Vote as early as you can. In person if possible. DO NOT TRUST THE MAIL.
Make sure you get everyone you know to vote. Do all that you can to help and encourage them. ESPECIALLY the ‘maybe’ voter and the regular non-voters. The ‘time to send a message (from the couch)’ voters. The apathetic, the disconnected, and the disaffected voters. Your democracy is in their hands.
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u/Slow_Investment_2211 4h ago
I have no hope for the future if these idiot youth can be so easily manipulated and fooled
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u/archronin 4h ago
How do I tell you, the younger gen, to fuck off a little, and suffer a little bit longer before all is forgiven, without pissing you off?
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u/LumberBitch 3h ago
The 18-29 age bracket went the most for Harris, by 19 points. When they're still the demographic that went for Trump the least let's maybe not throw stones at them from our glass houses
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u/lastres0rt Georgia 4h ago
As someone who turned 18 during Dubya's administration, I can only imagine the kinds of rabid leftists that are going to emerge from under THIS guy.
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u/Limp-Curve-1169 1h ago
Couple things here;
1.) It’s not Trump’s party
2.) Republicans as a majority support the policies advertised by Trump, not the man himself.
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u/AvocadoYogi 19m ago
Don’t just turn on Trump but also the billionaire-owned media landscape that got you there. Tune in to leftist streamers or Democracy Now or other independent media. Tune into foreign media. Learn to read in different languages so you aren’t trapped in US media. Recognize police and military shows and movies as copagandha. Ask yourself why a single worker used to be able to support an entire family and buying a house and how we get back there. Folks that were Trump supporters need to understand that their media literacy is broken or at the very least needs to be vastly broadened. Though that also applies to many folks of all political spectrums. Broaden your media consumption.
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u/DrCalFun 2h ago
The liberal movement went too far left and makes life suffocating for many young people who has to watch their every move and word. Otherwise, they will be ostracised and cancelled. Granted that this phenomenon may involve actors looking to destabilise the West but neoliberalism neither improve psychological safety nor inclusivity. There is a dogmatic right and a wrong, either you are in or you are out. People grow tired of this so called freedom movement. It is not free when you are morally policed.
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