I’m a Gen-Z, first-time voter; demographics are not destiny.
My name is David. I am 21 years old, mixed race, and queer. 2020 was the first year I voted, and I am furious.
I’m furious at many things: the candidates, the parties, the media, my peers. The election was held last Tuesday, and as the dust settled and it appeared that Joe Biden has won the Electoral College, I watched the news anchors exclaim that we Americans had voted for a “return to normal.” I clicked through countless Instagram stories celebrating that “we can finally go back to brunch!” — I even saw people dancing and singing in the streets of my city in the nights following the election.
This morning, I walked from my apartment into downtown to get some groceries. In those same streets that people had popped champagne the night before, I walked past tents, sleeping bags, human excrement, needles, and trash. I walked past a woman shrieking in apparent agony as she lay on the ground, I walked past several men urinating on walls and in alleyways, I walked past people wearing only ragged T-shirts and torn shorts in November.
When will these people “return to normal?” When will they be able to “go back to brunch?”
These people I walked past were only the most visible instances of human misery that I can catch on my Sunday morning walk. There are countless more in my city, my neighborhood, even my apartment building, who are facing eviction, repo’ed cars, disconnected utilities, all amidst the worst public health crisis in a century.
My city and state are both controlled by Democratic supermajorities. In fact, they have been controlled by Democrats for decades. The citizens have dutifully voted for the lesser of two evils for many years now, even as they watched their city rot from the inside as opioid abuse, homelessness, and income equality surged. Believe me, I understand the Republicans would have done just as bad, if not worse. These problems are caused by urbanization, not by political parties. However, neither political party seems to have a clue how to address them.
The Democrats are socially liberal and economically conservative, while the Republicans are both socially and economically conservative. I believe that many of America’s deepest, most intractable problems could be solved by economic liberalism (no, I don’t mean neoliberalism, I’m talking about progressive policies). In such a situation, who can I vote for that would adequately represent my beliefs?
It’s nice that Kamala is black, and that Pete is gay, and that Nancy knelt with some kente cloth on. I appreciate that the Democrats do their best to be inclusive of people of all races, religions, and sexualities, including me. Having said that, this standard should be the absolute bare minimum we expect of a political party. The Democrats should promote inclusion and diversity, but they should also fight against the military industrial complex, give every American healthcare like every other developed nation on Earth, and prevent companies from paying their workers poverty wages that taxpayers subsidize through public assistance.
The reason I have lambasted only the Democrats up to this point is because I wrote off the Republicans long ago — they are antithetical to almost every belief I hold. However, there does seem to be some hope that they can turn around their sinking ship. Trump ran on economic populism, on ending the illegal wars overseas, on rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, on reworking the clear failure of a healthcare system that is Obamacare. He didn’t deliver on any of those things, mostly governing like an average Republican politician, but his rhetoric triggered a massive groundswell of support. It even looks like he managed to win more PoC and women voters this year than he did in 2016, only losing support among white men.
If the Republicans can run a candidate that will actually deliver on economic revival in our urban centers, on preventing multi-national companies from shipping manufacturing jobs overseas to developing countries, on making healthcare a human right, on breaking up the Big Tech and Big Pharma monopolies, on giving everyone a minimum living wage, on ending the illegal wars abroad that we fabricate to prop up Raytheon and Lockheed-Martin, and on leaving my generation a habitable planet in the coming decades, I could see myself voting for them. I have very little faith that they will actually commit to any of the changes I’ve mentioned above, but if they don’t pivot after this election, they will consign themselves to irrelevancy.
I’m a Gen-Z, first-time voter, and I will not settle for any candidate who does not make healthcare a human right in the United States, or who does not ensure every American makes a minimum living wage of $15 an hour.
I’m a Gen-Z, first-time voter, and I will not vote for the lesser of two evils every election cycle until my children and my children’s children are left with undrinkable water and unbreathable air.
I’m a Gen-Z, first-time voter, and I voted for the Green Party in the 2020 election. Democrats and Republicans alike, come earn my vote in the next one.
