I teach at a public high school for “profoundly gifted” kids, and work pretty much exclusively with 16+ students. They’re all very smart, and range from libs to somewhat better than normal libs (we had one open ML, but he graduated a few years ago). They all think Trump is a fucking dumbass. As with every election, a big crop of our seniors is going to be eligible to vote for the first time this year.
For the first time in the decade or so that I’ve worked here, pretty much every single one of them has said they don’t intend to vote. They hate Biden almost as much as Trump, either because they condemn the genocide in Israel or just because they (correctly) believe that he has done nothing to actually benefit them. This is a population of kids who are much more politically engaged than your average teenager, and vote turnout in previous years has been high. I was actually very surprised at how many of them expressed contempt for the whole process this year, and indicated that they were totally uninterested in supporting Biden (and of course would not support Trump). I’m guessing this is part of a big trend that we’re going to see this year, and I’m preparing myself for libs blaming young people–for whom Biden has done little but make their future demonstrably worse–for Democrats’ loss.
I’m trying to convince all of them to vote anyway, just for some third party that speaks to them. Yesterday, we talked about PSL, Cornel West, the Greens, and Afroman for a bit. It would be incredibly funny to see young people reject Biden/Trump, and yet turn out in record numbers anyway. The narrative that kids are just too addicted to their phones to vote would fall apart. I’ll keep working on it.
No real point here, just
My school is probably 10% trans, at a ballpark guess. They’re mad as hell at how much their safety has eroded under Biden. It’s not surprising that they’re unwilling to support someone who has barely even just given lip service to their safety and their friends’ safety. They’ve also watched the economy get worse just as they’re about to head off to college, housing get more unaffordable, and the climate smash new heat records. These things are all literally existential threats to their generation’s ability to have a good life, and Biden has taken exactly 0 meaningful actions on any of it. Trump wouldn’t either, of course, but that’s why they aren’t voting for him either. I think it’s perfectly rational to look at someone who has done nothing to help you and is harming people like you and say “no, I don’t think I’m going to show up to support this guy.”