Ari Kastello ’30 is an intended government major from Charlottesville, VA. He is voter registration chair of Young Democrats and enjoys spending time with friends, reading mysteries and photography. You can contact him at akastello@wm.edu.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own.
Last Christmas, as I often do, I found myself in my grandma’s Nashville living room discussing politics. A Reagan Republican and devotee of Fox’s “Sean Hannity Show,” she and I hold profound political differences that often lead to spirited debates. During this particular one, she made an offhand comment along the lines of: “Your generation is all extremist.” Something about that remark struck me; that sentiment had been reflected by countless Instagram comment sections and columnists who try to pin down the ideology of my deeply mercurial generation.
On the surface, these critiques have some degree of merit; Generation Z is incredibly distrustful of the status quo. A Harvard Institute of Politics youth poll found that only 15% of young people trusted the government to do the right thing all or most of the time, a record low. Even more interestingly, a poll from the Cato Institute, a free-market-focused think tank, shows that 57% of people aged 18-29 hold a favorable view of socialism. This polling data shows a clear picture of anger and distrust of the current system. This is not just a trend of the left; a Tufts Circle poll showed that 45% of young Republicans have shifted towards the right in recent years. These shifting political trends are unsurprising; in my lifetime, I have watched costs and debt rise, the climate worsen, forever wars persist and Washington gridlock.
To us, the American Dream of prosperity seems to be just that: a dream ended by awakening to the reality of our society. A 2024 Pew Research poll states that only 39% of respondents aged 18-29 believe it is still possible to achieve the American Dream. This extreme pessimism becomes almost believable when one looks at the litany of challenges that face our generation. We face skyrocketing prices and crumbling economic prospects. Since 2020, the U.S. has experienced inflation rates approaching 30%, led by rent increases of almost 40% and college tuition prices almost doubling over the past 30 years. While new graduate wages have risen slightly, the gap between pay and costs is widening. All of this has been met with apathy in Washington, D.C., and our current Congress is on track to become the second least productive one in modern history. To a generation that sees dimming prospects, the establishment looks unable to address these growing crises. There is a reason, according to the same Harvard poll, a majority of adults aged 18-29 think that politicians prioritize the interests of the elites and special interests over their own.
The social contract feels broken; the promises offered by decades of neoliberal moderates seem hollow. Our whole lives, we have been offered a future where hard work offered reward, where we could meet the cascade of crises and create a better world. Yet, this future seems increasingly distant; a Harvard Youth Poll study found that only 26% of young people think they will be better off than their parents. Thus, it’s unsurprising that Gen Z has lost faith in an establishment that seems unable or unwilling to provide meaningful improvement. This wave of anti-establishment anger from young voters has finally started to show an effect. For better or worse, we have chosen candidates who offer a change from the flailing current system. This wave of antiestablishment sentiment has swept reformists like Zohran Mamdani into office with 75% of the youth vote, according to a Tufts Circle exit poll. Outlets like the New York Post were quick to dismiss Mamdani and his supporters as left-wing reactionaries, but they provide a clear example of young people voting for change. As long as material conditions continue to deteriorate, we will see young people continuing to vote for outsiders, and if establishment figures want to maintain their hold over the youth vote, they need to show a commitment to addressing the structural issues that affect young people.
It is not as if Gen Z has suddenly embraced a form of militant radicalism; instead, we are reacting to a system that has failed to deliver on its promises. My generation increasingly feels unheard and unsupported by the current political establishment and is reacting in kind by choosing an alternative. While from an outside perspective it might seem like a sudden shift away from the center, it is a reaction to the perceived failures of our current system. I once again considered my grandmother’s line and assessed why she found so much of Gen Z to be extreme. To her, the system worked; the dream was alive. She built her life in the decades of postwar prosperity when the mythos of the American Dream was formed, and to her, the wild political swings of my generation seem unreasonable. To young people, it seems to be a system that’s crumbling and failing to meet the promises that it once did. That is the core difference: It is not that this generation is extreme; it is instead an unprecedented response to difficult times.
