As the Zoom generation, we have to make a decision: Are we angry enough about Joe Biden to jeopardize President Donald Trump’s reelection? Or are we going to remember who Trump is and what it would mean for him to serve another four years as president?
Now that a former president has been convicted, the idea of him winning in November is even more terrifying and our responsibility even greater.
We have already proven that, as a generation, we have a strong sense of morality. We have been protesting our entire adult lives: against President Trump’s first administration, against sexual abuse, for Black Lives Matter, and now for Palestine. We know what we believe.
Now is the time to put these values into action. Polls show that Gen Z is unhappy with Biden. Personally, I have no enthusiasm for him as a candidate. I don’t think we’re as progressive as we should be as world leaders, and I think we need someone younger to run for president.
I’m still going to vote for him.
Yet if 2020 was a year of voter mobilization, 2024 looks set to be a year of voter apathy. This is especially true for my age group: the 18- to 27-year-olds that make up Generation Z.
Trump is leading in the polls despite everything
Trump is currently ahead of Biden in the polls. Yes, Trump is the candidate who recently evoked Nazi Germany in a post about forming a “united empire.” Yes, Trump is the candidate who has been embroiled in legal trouble. Yes, Trump is the candidate we cannot escape, the candidate who mobilized a mob to storm the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Last week, Trump was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records, adding the rank of convicted felon to that list — a fact that has not yet been factored into the polling data, but it’s still possible that it won’t affect people’s views of the former president.
Much has been said about Gen Z’s reluctance to vote for Biden. I’ve written a lot about this reluctance myself. Thankfully, recent polls are more optimistic. The latest Harvard University poll found Biden leading Trump by 19 percentage points among 18-29 year olds.
Biden is not:Why are Gen Z voters so unhappy with Biden? I decided to ask them about their frustrations.
That’s the same age group known for high voter turnout. We showed up to the polls. In 2022, in their first midterm elections, more Zoomers voted than any other generation, making it the second-highest midterm turnout since 2000.
So while I hope progressives give us a better option than Biden, this is still the chance to decide the election. And it can’t be Trump.
The 2016 election was a wake-up call for me.
Since 2016, I’ve realized that voting is not the only solution to our problems. In fact, voting is just one step in a long list of things we can do to shape the country we live in. Despite what we were led to believe as children, no president can singlehandedly fix all of the country’s problems. It’s a long-term solution.
I worry about what another four years of the Trump administration will mean and how it will roll back the gains progressives have made in recent years. I fear we will return to an environment where corruption is tolerated and hateful ideology is the norm.
Many people underestimated Trump in 2016. We cannot afford to repeat that mistake and should remember why we voted for him in 2020 and lost.
In 2016, I voted for Hillary Clinton in my first presidential election. I live in North Carolina and never expected the state to support Trump. After all, Trump won in a landslide victory in my home county.
For four years, as Trump’s antics became commonplace and we came to believe his administration was normal, I felt my fear turn to paralysis. While every recent Republican president has opposed progress, Trump has come to symbolize a deeper ill in American culture: Many voters seem comfortable ignoring racism, sexism and other bigotry as long as a well-known businessman speaks it.
MAGA still loves Trump.What do Trump supporters think about his conviction? I asked the court.
The past four years of President Biden have put some distance between our society and the policy decisions of the Trump Administration, making it easier to forget some of the worst parts of his presidency: the multiple impeachments, the separation of families at the border, the “support for both sides” at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, the response to COVID-19, and the countless lies told to the American people.
There’s no turning back.
Trump is now a threat to Gen Z
“It’s not fun having to make this decision every four years. I want Democrats to think less about young people and more about me, and especially about the world we’re inheriting — with all its prejudices, its government failures, its looming climate crisis.
I will vote too, and although I dislike Biden, I understand that it is my civic duty to prevent America from becoming a Trump presidency again.
The atmosphere Trump creates is poisoning the nation: it stimulates our worst instincts, guarantees corruption, and holds us back.
The Republican Party, the party of law and order, is surrounding itself with a candidate with enough legal issues to keep them busy for life. This is a level of hypocrisy that is shocking to me at this point, but it should motivate my generation.
Unfortunately, the options for solving that are limited, and Biden remains the best option for progressives.
Democrats need to prove their commitment to us.
Gen Z is at a crossroads: allow the country to fall into the hands of a corrupt man and an increasingly radical Republican Party, or vote for a man who, while disappointingly moderate, is nonetheless committed to the goals of our generation. Progress is incremental, and a Democrat in power means progressives have a broader path to achieve their goals over the next four years. It also means that young progressives can be part of a Biden administration and make political progress toward influence.
I also think that older generations need to remember what it felt like to be 18, 19, 20 or even 27 years old.
For those of you looking to Gen Z for answers, ask yourself if there are people in your life, in your generation, who will not vote for the president. They are out there, and they should be subjected to the same scrutiny that is being shown to Gen Z this year. We don’t know how Gen Z will vote, but we might surprise you.
We need to go vote, and I’m confident enough of us will come to this conclusion in November. We must not forget how bad Trump really was, or lose sight of all the damage the Republican Party continues to cause even after Trump lost.
Follow USA TODAY elections columnist Sara Pequeno on X. Formerly on Twitter, @sara__pequeno and on Facebook at facebook.com/PequenoWrites.
