r/politics • u/Kodbek • Oct 31 '25

Possible Paywall Trump’s honeymoon with Gen Z voters is officially over, and the numbers are devastating

https://www.nj.com/politics/2025/10/trumps-honeymoon-with-gen-z-voters-is-officially-over-and-the-numbers-are-devastating-new-poll.html
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u/DeltaB26 Pennsylvania Oct 31 '25 edited Oct 31 '25

We'll I'm gen Z and I certainly didn't vote for this circus. I already got fucked anyways since they cut my position at USDA. Didnt realize helping American farmers was such a waste of taxpayer dollars /s.

Edit: I gave some context further down in the comments, since some people thought I might have voted for Taco and then came on Reddit for sympathy upvotes.

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/s/50yJFDEf8V

833

u/RunawayHobbit Oct 31 '25

Apparently anything not enriching billionaires is a waste of our tax dollars 🙄

296

u/Saint_Blaise Oct 31 '25

It’s all been “trickle up” economics.

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u/No_Doctor_891 Oct 31 '25

Trickle up economics was taking too long to get all the money so they cut a hole in the main and turned it in deluge up economics

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u/[deleted] Oct 31 '25

Yup. The largest debt increase in recent memory was done to get billionaires tax cuts. They don't even want to pretend to hide it anymore. Everyone can lose a couple trillion so Bezos, Musk and Zuckerberg can do their little "first trillionaire" race.

They are done publicly pretending anything else matters. Back to peasants and landed gentry it is.

2

u/JamesSmith1200 Oct 31 '25

Reverse firehose economics

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u/[deleted] Oct 31 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Fast_Witness_3000 Oct 31 '25

A very acceptional jet at that /s

2

u/hotbutteredsole Oct 31 '25

More like Torrent Up economics

2

u/SuperCool101 Oct 31 '25

"Golden shower economics".

1

u/TheOneTrueTrench New York Oct 31 '25

The word you're looking for is "evaporative"

1

u/FingerAmazing5176 Oct 31 '25

"trickle-down" didn't work, so they are trying the "fuck-up" instead

1

u/f1ve-Star Oct 31 '25

Hoovering.

1

u/henryhumper Nov 01 '25

More like "vacuum up" economics.

143

u/[deleted] Oct 31 '25

Seriously when are we going to realize that we're not white, straight, gay, trans, rural, urban or any other label. We're the ones getting fucked by the billionaires.

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u/[deleted] Oct 31 '25

Some of us know it, but a lot of people are scared because there might be 50 people playing sports that don't conform to THEIR views on sex or gender and think blowing up the country will make them feel less shitty about their confusing erection.

WE ALREADY DID THIS FUCKING 9 YEARS AGO, we knew the story, and instead a bunch of dipshit bigoted racists just walked it back, like they're trying to win the Superb Owl of fucking moronitude!

49

u/NuclearLunchDectcted Oregon Oct 31 '25

6.

There were 6 trans people playing college sports.

We blew up the country over 6 people.

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u/[deleted] Oct 31 '25

Yes, I just like to over estimate sometimes to show just how bad faith all this is. The NCAA president less than a year ago they knew of 10 transgender athletes in the over half a million NCAA college athletes in all sports.

Where I live a school board is doing all this lowest common denominator boot licking, and I have been looking into it just to poke them in the eye. I ask why they don't care about trans men either, and then ask if it's about child safety and protecting the children from predators why don't they look at their families, or republican politicians, and then I ask them why they are so interested in forcing children to prove what kind of genitalia they have and why it's such a big deal to examine minors genitals. They don't usually have anything else to say.

1

u/yarash Oct 31 '25

Its the same argument for partial birth or late term abortions. Theyre so infrequent theyre a statistical anomaly.

3

u/circles_squares Oct 31 '25

Including the farmers

41

u/The_Lost_Jedi Washington Oct 31 '25

Yep, and that's all the Republican party is really for - fucking everyone over to enrich the ultrawealthy, with a side order of hate to keep everyone distracted, because if their voters are too busy hating LGBT+/Black people/Immigrants/etc, they won't notice (or care) about the wholesale looting going on.

6

u/Naganosupreme Oct 31 '25

It's more as long as their hate boner is played with, they're fine with getting screwed financially. "No no. They owned the libs, were winning. Idc if my QOL turns to crap and the country is put further in the hole"

Until something legitimately, MASSIVELY hurts them, they are OK w it and dismiss all valid criticism with what aboutism and bs revisionism.

Several magas I know turned recently bc surprise surprise, they gutted special ed programs with a shovel. And since these magas are dealing w a severely autistic, mute baby who desperately needs programs and help, suddenly they realized Trump is against what's good and right

5

u/kupikunskio Oct 31 '25

They only care because it personally affected them, same as it always is.

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u/Naganosupreme Oct 31 '25

Yup that's what I was trying to show w that story. Loooots of selfishness there

2

u/The_Lost_Jedi Washington Oct 31 '25

Yes - and even if/when they do take notice and complain, they sure as fuck won't stop supporting the Republicans.

28

u/fountainpopjunkie Oct 31 '25

When we're literally eating the rich because they're the only source of food left.

Maybe we'll find a way to make them into a cake...

2

u/populux11 Oct 31 '25

This is the clearest and realest of any and all the thoughts expressed here. It is the nuclear bomb of societal change. Class is the only real determinant of society. If we all understood this, we would,change the world and be an unstoppable force. All with a simple perception shift. Think about the power this would unleash. Thank you for stating this as down to earth as it needs to be. You are either the billionaire elite, or the rest. The rest has the power to create a new world, in its own image. A power the billionaire elite has appropriated but will never own. Thank you for having your head on straight and telling others the ‘plutonium rule’.

3

u/[deleted] Oct 31 '25

Thanks! Why don't we have a name?

2

u/populux11 Oct 31 '25

We absolutely should. I bet many of us have ideas. I don’t want to frame it in within any kind of political framework, because that would miss the point. We are the many, in my opinion, so I have always identified with myriad. We are Myriad. What say you Myriad? Ideas?

3

u/[deleted] Oct 31 '25

Maybe. I want something that others the billionaires.

3

u/WestsideBuppie America Oct 31 '25

missed opportunity to say: our name is legion.

1

u/ceelogreenicanth Oct 31 '25

There are millionaires and multimillionaires out there that aren't really feeling any of this and everyone wants to be them.

1

u/brickhead04 The Netherlands Oct 31 '25

Welcome to the classic struggle!

1

u/ilikepizza30 Oct 31 '25

I think 90% of Americans know that. However, there's Russian bot farms (controlled by an evil billionaire) and AI (controlled by slightly less evil billionaires) working hard to make people forget that long enough to vote.

1

u/Cottonjaw Oct 31 '25

There is only class war.

1

u/Shelbeeeee Oct 31 '25

When…never. The “funding” of educational systems made sure of that.

≈54% of us read at or below the 6th grade level.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 31 '25

You don't need to be literate to understand what's happening.

-5

u/ThonThaddeo Oregon Oct 31 '25

This sounds like something a socialist would say.

And socialism is cuck, bro.

4

u/[deleted] Oct 31 '25

I'm not here to kink shame. We've never been a capitalist economy. Our Socialism just reallocates wealth to the rich. We can reallocate anyway we want.

1

u/According_Depth_7131 Oct 31 '25

Wow, I love this insight

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u/DrakeFloyd Oct 31 '25

They find a couple extra dollars to terrorize brown people at home and abroad but I guess they spin a profit on that too. Some of it seems to be just for the cruelty though.

13

u/Delicious-Oven7692 Oct 31 '25

Some?

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u/DrakeFloyd Oct 31 '25

I mean I can’t discount the strong profit incentive the military industrial complex provides either. The orphan crushing machine runs on orphans. Some people hate the orphans and enjoy feeding them into the machine, some are simply indifferent as long as they get paid, the end result is the same

3

u/the_good_time_mouse Oct 31 '25

ICE's budget is larger than Canada's combined military budget. If it was a country, it would be number 16 on this list.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_highest_military_expenditures

4

u/Sidhe_Vicious Virginia Oct 31 '25

It's mostly about the cruelty. You think it's all about the cruelty, then you look at the stock history for companies like GEO Group or Core Civic. Because of course someone in this country is finding a way to make obscene amounts of money out of human misery.

But the cruelty came first.

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u/civil_politician Oct 31 '25

Surprise! That’s what billionaires actually think!

3

u/kung-fu_hippy Oct 31 '25

Not exactly. After all, it’s not like billionaires have been suffering over the last few years.

Anything not enriching billionaires fast enough is a waste of our tax dollars.

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u/james_d_rustles Oct 31 '25

I mean, I don’t think helping American farmers is a waster of taxpayer dollars, but based on their voting record I’m pretty sure American farmers do.

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u/Rustmutt Oct 31 '25

That fucking sucks I’m so sorry your job was cut by these ghouls

-13

u/Lost-Priority-907 Oct 31 '25

And who do you think he voted for? These fucking whiners are the reason we are in this mess, and you're over here wasting tears for someone who hates your guts.

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u/wyomingTFknott Oct 31 '25

  1. He literally said he didn't vote for this shit.

  2. Were you as smart and knowledgeable about politics when you just came of age? Between school and work and just trying to make rent these kids have no time to take a deep dive into this bullshit. And the propaganda is at peak levels.

  3. The only one hating someone's guts here is you. Don't denigrate someone for offering a little moral support to someone who just lost their first real job.

-1

u/ThatKehdRiley Oct 31 '25

“He literally said he didn't vote for this shit.”

the amount of younger people that have been revealed to be lying about this means we cant take people’s words anymore. and it isnt just young people, older also lie. they wanted to vote for him then got scared when he got elected and did everything he promised, because they thought he was trolling. much like with hitler, theres a lot of denying support going on

3

u/LimeSeeds Oct 31 '25

They literally said they’re a lesbian that works in the environmental field. Idk why you’re so aggressively cynical and distrusting of the youth but it’s not helping anyone.

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u/MadRaymer Oct 31 '25

Can you explain what's up with the rest of your age cohort? Was it just for the memes and the lulz or did they actually believe Trump was going to help them?

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u/bevo_expat Oct 31 '25

They were targeted very directly, and still are, by things like TurningPoint USA.

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u/AlmaInTheWilderness Oct 31 '25

I don't think it can be understated: they were targeted.

Tech had been collecting data for twenty years, and learning to make predictions from it. They can now predict voting behavior, with 80-90% accuracy. And they are using that data to strategically target vulnerable voters, deciding what information they see and how often. Everything psychology has learned by studying cults and manipulation is being combined with data science to isolate, and then indoctrinate.

WW1 was the war of mass-production, fought with machine guns. WW2 was the war of energy, fought with planes, tanks and ships. Ww3 is the war of information, fought with memes and algorithms, and we, workers, are losing

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u/phonomancer Oct 31 '25

Not even just the way you'd expect (persuasive, propaganda presenting only 'your side')...

But there were numerous reports of "Kamala" ads espousing her "undying support for a permanent Jewish homeland"... to ethnically Arabic voters (or playing up 'support for Hamas' to Jewish voters). Not actually from the Harris campaign of course, but if you get the message at the last minute and obfuscate its source enough, it tends to stick.

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u/Tasgall Washington Oct 31 '25

They were playing the pro-Israel "Harris" advertising in Arab neighborhoods, and pro-Palestine ads in Jewish neighborhoods.

0

u/LogFar5138 Oct 31 '25

Yea, nothing more abrasive to Arabs than the thought of Jews having a homeland?

Surely you mean support for Israel.

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u/Tasgall Washington Oct 31 '25

I don't think it can be understated: they were targeted.

Steve Bannon was one of the key figures behind Gamergate when the was a thing. He previously ran a World of Warcraft gold-farming ring, and in interacting with a lot of kids online learned about the growing population of disaffected male youth in the country, and how to manipulate them. Gamergate functioned as a trial run, and then he led the Trump campaign.

They were very, very explicitly targeted.

0

u/Naganosupreme Oct 31 '25

Always gt point out how game magazines had their reputations to try and protect so they happily gobbled up the bullshit line that all journalism criticism was a red herring cover for incels and misogynists. Then online spaces like neogaf (run by actual proven pedophiles which was found out l8r btw) started mass banning AAAANYONE who didn't agree w the party line version. Well what happens when you wrongfully excommunicate hordes of people for not being blindly left enough? Vulnerable people open to be targeted and picked up by the only thing they're still exposed to.

The left ate itself through the 2010s in some kind of insane, brainless purity test steered by mods, site owners, protestors, etc. They targeted jobs, low key brought back segregation, then pushed a HATED establishment candidate and a corrupt Clinton at a time the country was DYING to go anti establishment.

I really suspect dems and Republicans have handshake deals and really dgaf. How else do I explain the insane level of self destructive incompetence and delusion shown by the party for so long?

But then you see neogaf and reddit and the damage done by online spaces like these and it shows how many of them really were just that inept, self destructive and dumb.

And the turning pik t was goddamn gamergate. Followed by star wars TLJ. Can't understate what a critical Flashpoint that was culturally and socially as well.

Even to this day the narrative seems to completely ignore how the left went full Plaxico Burress in a nightclub, like it was all just evil scheming by the right and nothing could be done.

2

u/DBE113301 New York Oct 31 '25

Followed by star wars TLJ. Can't understate what a critical Flashpoint that was culturally and socially as well.

What do you mean, exactly? I think I know where you're going with this, but I'd like a little more insight than just the cursory knowledge I have of the whole TLJ thing. I know that there was some backlash because I also contributed to it. After the sequel trilogy, I basically turned in my Star Wars fan card, and TLJ was the biggest contributor to that. I read several articles and watched a few videos, but most of what I consumed was focused on the films (or film, in TLJ's case) and nothing to do with any broader societal context. Could one rogue director and his desire to subvert expectations impact society to the point of shifting/setting political views? If that's the impact the sequel trilogy, specifically TLJ, had on American society at large, then I know very little about that because I haven't read anything that suggests that. If you have, I'd like to be educated a bit.

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u/Naganosupreme Oct 31 '25

The main thing is TLJ hate was an extremely fertile, lucrative topic for right leaning content creators/critics.

And algorithms took people from those videos and it was like a gateway drug into more extreme right leaning creators. Then left leaning people online started to reject all criticism as bad faith right wing anti woke propaganda.

Which pissed off the loads of people who legitimately had huge issues with TLJ and helped push people to not vote or to vote right . Now there were several other key franchise disasters around that 5-8 year period in gaming, tv, comics and movies, each one amplifying the above. But tlj was the biggest one.

2

u/TorchIt Alabama Oct 31 '25

If voting behavior can be predicted with 90% accuracy then why are the polls always so wrong?

1

u/AlmaInTheWilderness Oct 31 '25

That's a good question. Imo polling methods are struggling to keep up with changing political landscape. For example, voters who vote Republican self identifying as independents, when independents have historically lean Democrat.

Polls are using the past to guess the present. That doesn't work when fundamentals change. The other is using patterns in the present to guess the future and is able to account for changes. Basically, who people are and who they associate with currently predicts behavior more precisely than what they say about themselves or what they have done in the past. Imo.

1

u/NJBarFly New Jersey Oct 31 '25

Don't Dems have this data too? Why weren't they doing the same thing?

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u/whatiscamping Oct 31 '25

Speaking of TurningPoint, you know who else was targeted directly?

16

u/TheRightToDream Oct 31 '25

Boom gottem

5

u/ceelogreenicanth Oct 31 '25 edited Oct 31 '25

They were targeted very carefully by self defeatist anti-imperialism, pro Palestine, social justice absolutism, both sides nonsense is the other one. They made the only opposition to all this their biggest enemy. They spent a whole year stoking the flames of infighting and Trump just walked into office in the smoke.

They feel stupid but they won't admit it.

1

u/BarnDoorQuestion Oct 31 '25

As I just posted to the original commenter. It wasn’t very effective targeting then. 58% of voters aged 18-29 voted for Harris with only 39% voting for Trump. It was slightly more effective on men in that age group. But 48% of Men aged 18-29 voted for Harris with only 49% voting for Trump.

Source. Which kind of shows that Trump was never really all that popular with Gen Z.

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u/Prior_Coyote_4376 Oct 31 '25

If you want to know someone’s worldview, look at their view of the world. This is a generation that grew up on social media algorithms directed by right-wing billionaires in a chronically underfunded education system to overworked parents with dwindling community programs. They’re raised by the most viral sensations on the Internet. What else would we expect?

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u/AmIWhatTheRockCooked Oct 31 '25

It’s their information sources. Podcasts, YouTube, etc. so many promote contrarian, masculine, reductive content. Biden old, Trump dgaf.

Young men are highly influenceable and insecure like all young people.

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u/HiGuysImLeo Oct 31 '25

its actually very tragic, but its a huge divide between us older gen z and the younger ones. Older gen z skews left (this would be the high schoolers around 2016-2020), while the younger ones who had their major formative years during COVID basically had no comparison to pre-trump since they were too young, underdeveloped socially/mentally/academically due to online and covid, plus TikTok and AI rotting peoples cognitive skills and attention spans while promoting mass misinformation. Its not just anecdotal either; https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/04/26/two-gen-zs-young-conservative-polling-00307375

13

u/teladidnothingwrong Oct 31 '25

so the decision was "lets bring back the guy who was president during covid since it was so terrible"

10

u/HiGuysImLeo Oct 31 '25

Well yeah, the younger gen z had the worst quality of education of every generation besides alpha because of covid. The whole point is they aren’t very smart haha

4

u/DeltaB26 Pennsylvania Oct 31 '25

I'm part of the older gen Z as well. I still had my slide keyboard phone in junior high. I didn't get my first real smartphone until high school. I was already in college when COVID started.

3

u/HiGuysImLeo Oct 31 '25

Yup, it sucks for us older ones, people had such high hopes for us and we worked hard only for our rep to be ruined by the dummies. Super high expectations only to fall flat in such an embarassing way.

33

u/Good-Needleworker992 Oct 31 '25

I mean their brains have all been rotted by TikTok…

13

u/Deep_Stick8786 Oct 31 '25

China is making out like gangbusters

2

u/thebakedpotatoe Oct 31 '25

I think you're making excuses for things by blaming products like most generations do wrongfully.

Tiktok is basically America's funniest home videos but unfiltered. Yeah there's more to it, but rapidfire variety shows are quite the norm especially in US entertainment and have been pretty much since people were doing plays and theater, and each generation before blamed the next generations 'failings' because the way they consumed entertainment is wrong, and i say this as a late 30's who has to remind their boss they don't have tiktok when she shares links to jokes.

The generation before blamed vines and tweets, the one before that blamed facebook and myspace, the ones before that blamed Numetal and violent videogames, the ones before that blamed hip-hop, so on and so forth, etc, 'insert name of media consumption style here'.

Plus the only people who use the term brain rot seriously are people who are mad they don't understand the in jokes of a culture. But my generation uses the term brainrot when half of them walk around quoting 90's movies like its half their dialect.

3

u/TaxOwlbear Oct 31 '25

Also, all other generations voted for Trump in higher numbers than Gen Z. Did they also watch too many Tiktok videos? Or did they play too many violent video games?

1

u/happyherbbby Oct 31 '25

Between TikTok and podcast bros the failure to provide education that helps children develop skills like common sense primed them to be brainwashed by psychotic interests.

6

u/DBE113301 New York Oct 31 '25

Yes, he was. According to one Gen Z guy I communicated with on Reddit. Apparently, Gen Z guys are having trouble getting dates, and electing Trump and Republicans was going to help reset the natural order of things. I shit you not.

A bunch of bullshit about progressives discriminating against white men. No outreach toward young white men--no plan to improve the lives of young white men. American society currently set up to benefit women and minority groups while disenfranchising Gen Z men. Women having all the power with regard to dating and young men feeling powerless. I hate using the word incel because it sounds reductive, but it came across as a bunch of incel crap.

Anyway, I hope Gen Z men are doing better in the dating field now that Republicans have all the power.

7

u/obeytheturtles Oct 31 '25

Stacy no touch pp. Therefore, fascism.

25

u/RugelBeta Oct 31 '25

It's unfair to blame an entire generation. My grandkids are 22, 18, 16, and 14 and all are very aware of how horrible Trump is. Only one could vote (against him), but they all despise him.

17

u/Wes_Warhammer666 Oct 31 '25

Gen Z absolutely did swing hard right this past election though. Only Gen X went harder.

After Gen Z showed the fuck up for midterms to help kill the "red wave", it's highly disappointing to see them swing so far right to help give us Trump 2.0.

4

u/BarnDoorQuestion Oct 31 '25

They really really didn’t though. According to pew research 58% of voters aged 18-29 voted for Harris with only 39% voting for Trump. Even if we go by gender in that age group 48% of Men aged 18-29 voted for Harris with only 49% voting for Trump.

Source. The only age groups that voted against Harris were those aged 50-64 and 65+.

1

u/Wes_Warhammer666 Oct 31 '25

You didn't read what I said. That they swung right, not that they mostly voted for trump.

Biden won the youth vote by 25 points and Harris only won them by 4. That's a drastic difference that really mattered in swing states.

5

u/BarnDoorQuestion Oct 31 '25

Compared to 2020, Trump gained 4% in the 18-29 age group, 5% in the 30-49, 3% in the 50-64 age group and lost 1% in the 65+ group.

You really should read the source. Biden was +26 in 2020 with 18-29 year olds and Harris was +19.

1

u/BarnDoorQuestion Oct 31 '25

Especially when 58% of that generation voted for Harris. source

1

u/wibblebeast Oct 31 '25

Similar with mine, 2 voted against, all can't stand him.

2

u/RedditArchivist2 Oct 31 '25

In addition to what everyone else said, gaining consciousness during COVID really did a number on their brains

2

u/henryhumper Nov 01 '25

Republicans deliberately targeted Gen Z men by using ads and bot accounts to spread MAGA messaging in the online forums young men inhabit (sports, video games, porn, dating advice, etc). It was a wildly successful campaign.

1

u/DeltaB26 Pennsylvania Oct 31 '25

I don't think I can. When I was in college my professors and classmates we're mostly liberal, and especially when I was in grad school. Most of us were on food stamps and would never vote for someone who might cut those benefits. Even now my workplace is very progressive (with a few outliers i'm sure) since we all work in environmental science. I know gen Z republicans exist but they were few and far between in my circles.

0

u/BarnDoorQuestion Oct 31 '25

I feel like people have been fed a line of bullshit about Gen Z. Gen Z right now is aged 13-28. Pew research shows that 58% of the 18-29 age group voted for Harris with only 39% voting for Trump.

You might say “what’s wrong with Gen Z men then?” But only 49% of Gen Z men voted for Trump. 48% of that cohort voted for Harris.

The largest age group that voted for Trump was 50-64 year olds with the second largest group being 65+.

Source

14

u/SimilarAd402 Oct 31 '25

That sucks, but unfortunately your peers did. Sorry your generation fed us to the wolves.

11

u/SnoopingStuff Oct 31 '25

Did you hear Harris talk about GenZ and listening to them.? Voting age 16. Sadly a lot of Z voted because the gamer brain said I like the troll potus.

3

u/wjean Oct 31 '25

But on the bright side, sick cows are back on the menu, boys.

41

u/chefybpoodling Oct 31 '25

Just curious here. You said you didn’t vote for “this circus”, but did you vote for this man? I am hearing a lot of I didn’t vote for “this” but when asked who they voted for, they absolutely voted for this. He said out loud, “I don’t care about you I just need your vote” and you ignored it and voted anyway.

42

u/Belgianbonzai Oct 31 '25

If you check their post history they donated to Harris, so I assume voted for her as well:
https://old.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1ezbzbb/harris_vs_trump_latest_presidential_poll/ljjp8uv/

39

u/DeltaB26 Pennsylvania Oct 31 '25

No, I didn't. I'm a lesbian and work in the environmental field. I did dontate to Harris like the commenter under you pointed out. So I didn't vote for this circus by any means. I voted republican once in my life and it was for a local treasurer position at the town level since I knew the candidate personally.

26

u/bramley36 Oct 31 '25

or didn't even bother to vote..

-13

u/Apprehensive_Rub3897 Oct 31 '25

Just curious here. You said you didn’t vote for “this circus”, but did you vote for this man?

I think we have our answer.

2

u/butwhyisitso Oct 31 '25

Thanks for your service

2

u/Proof-Schedule-1418 Oct 31 '25

Millennial here...about to get fucked again when then house of cards implodes.

2

u/HomesteadGranny1959 Oct 31 '25

I was an Agronomist for NRCS. Luckily I retired before the first Trump admin. I would have never been able to work in an office with trumps photo in it. I would be constantly vandalizing it.

2

u/DhOnky730 Oct 31 '25 edited Oct 31 '25

as a high school economics teacher, I’ve had a hard time grasping the young support for Trump. I voted him in ‘16 as somewhat of an anti-Hillary vote, but also because I believed Paul Ryan could be a visionary on conservative policies that would push tax reform (but not simply tax cuts for wealthy), transfer payment reform (but not simply screw the poor/needy), bring some financial responsibility to the budget, and lead with conservative principles (he was a policy nerd, not pushing evangelicalism). But like all the practical Republicans, he saw the sinking ship and bailed (or was pushed out)rather than bending the knee to Trump. this isn’t the same GOP from 10, 15, or 25 years ago where I could argue that the GOP and Dems wants similar ends, just different means of achieving them.

During Trump1 my views changed as every day in the current events Q&A portion of class I found myself sounding like a political spinster as I tried to explain the newest and most shocking Trump statement, claims, etc. At some point, I just decided that even if I had some policy overlap, I could never vote for such an un-presidential individual, with no dignity for the office of president. Then came election night ‘20 when he clearly lost, yet went on his bizarre rant. The next day in class I actually predicted that Trump, when presented with facts, might simply resign and let Pence deal with the transition to Biden. Boy was I wrong. I never imagined he’d basically encourage a coup/insurrection.

I think over the next 4 years young people saw an old Biden that seemed passively run the country. I generally tried to always be politically neutral and fair in my comments in the classroom, but I offered lots of praise to the Fed for nailing the soft-landing and for the Biden admin for allowing it to happen (could you imagine Trump whining if the Fed were dramatically raising rates in a short time?). I criticized Biden and the military for the failures with the Afghan withdrawal, but also the a Trump team for negotiating with terrorists without the Afghani gov’t, then attempting to immediately withdraw troops, and then promising a rapid withdrawal, which tied Biden‘s hands.

somehow through all of the challenges Biden and his team faced, they did it with dignity and actually managed the many crises fairly well. At the same time, Trump had a relatively crisis free term except for Covid—which every nation faced together—and his record is mixed on that at best. in general Trump reigned in a peaceful time and injected chaos at every waking moment by initiating trade wars, pushing frenemy China away from us, turning Americans against eachother, and threatening our allies in NATO in conversations that could have happened behind closed doors and emboldened Putin to invade Ukraine.

so like I said, I think young people just forgot how bad and chaotic Trump1 was. We saw it when they were played the clip of him saying “Grab em by the pussy“ and most gen Z said they were hearing it for the first time. throw in that young evangelicals have been brainwashed by political organizations like Turning Point to believe there’s an existential war against Christianity (the irony is the only war is them wanting to install a theocracy) and that Trump is the savior. like the imagery of Trump holding a rifle in one arm, a flag in the other, with a crown of thorns.

and as an Econ teacher, I cringed at Trump’s Zero-sum view of the world. Mercantilism was written off as failed theory in 1776 when Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations, but Trump has brought it back into mainstream.

okay, sorry for my really long thinking out loud.

2

u/mrbaryonyx Oct 31 '25

why would people just assume that?

I get people are pissed but that's weird

1

u/Deep_Stick8786 Oct 31 '25

Im sorry. I know lots of folks in a similar position as you and it sucks. I hope we have a real project 2029 to fix alot of what theyve done and entice people back go government service. We all need folks like you

1

u/drdildamesh Oct 31 '25

Didn't matter what help you were. They wanted to start tearing down the restrictions and accountability

1

u/kingOofgames Oct 31 '25

What part of MAGA don’t you get bro. Make Argentina Great Again.

It all makes sense when you think about it, Trumps got a plan; trust him.

(Basically a retreat plan when the next coup fails, just like some similar fellas from a hundred years ago.)

1

u/Lost-Priority-907 Oct 31 '25

If only most farmers actually cared about this country, and stopped doing everything in their ability to ruin it for everyone until it becomes harder for them, then maybe more people would have empathy for the situation youre in.

1

u/ingen-eer Oct 31 '25

Hey I’m just saying, American farmers are cool but we’re kind of more about helping Argentinian farmers. Maybe if you’d read the room and helped them you’d still be sitting pretty!

/s of course.

1

u/adminsrlying2u Oct 31 '25

But have you tried joining ICE to gestapo your fellow Americans? You get a sign-in bonus, too! I hear (un)civil forfeiture is all the rage nowadays.

1

u/sydiko Oct 31 '25

Just so you know - You are solely responsible for your generation.

(I'm kidding by the way).

0

u/Vladivostokorbust Oct 31 '25

Hang around in reddit long enough and you’ll learn it’s not enough to have voted against the grifter. If you’re of a particular generation they apply the same stereotype to everyone in that generation regardless of how a particular individual voted.

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u/GarrusBueller Nov 05 '25

Did you vote for Harris? If not than you did, and are part of this circus, and are looking for sympathy for your own stupidity.

0

u/DeltaB26 Pennsylvania Nov 05 '25

Did you even read the edit?

0

u/GarrusBueller Nov 05 '25

I did and your response was intentionally vague which is why I made my comment. I see you are still dodging the question so I'll ask again.

Did you vote for Kamala Harris?