1y ago

‘I was not voting before, now I am’: gen Z voters on what they think of Kamala Harris

www.theguardian.com

American gen Z voters share how they feel about Kamala Harris’s presidential bid, why they like or dislike her as a candidate and whether they think she could beat Donald Trump, as the vice-president races towards winning the Democratic nomination for November’s election.

‘I think she’s just what we need’

“I think [Kamala Harris] is the only one that makes sense. She will get the votes Biden couldn’t. She could get the Black, Asian, Latino, women’s, LGBTQ+ and youth votes. She stands more for progress and equality than an old white dude and if she wins it will be historic. The Democrats need a bold move and I think she’s just what we need.

“I hope the Democrats realize what an opportunity this is for them.” Will, 22, construction worker from Portland, Oregon

…

91 comments

This is why I keep repeating "vote for the administration, not the candidate". Just look at the damage the Trump administration circus did futing the shit show that was his term. Now look at the good that the Biden administration has done in its term. Harris would likely keep a large portion of the team.
The only real deep blemish on the Biden administration has been its support of the Palestinian genocide. If Trump was president, he would has encouraged Netanyahu to be far more brutal. You can also kiss Ukraine, human rights, and democracy goodbye under a Trump second term. But sure...don't vote.
- Vote for the administration AND JUDGES!
  we've had a front row seat to what happens when idiots don't vote (for Hillary because butterymales or whatever) because they're too focused on the personality of the candidate... Who picks the judges matters!
  
  Alito and Thomas have both signalled that they'll retire if Trump wins. I find forcing them to either remain in a job they both clearly dislike or get replaced with a judge who'll reverse the harm they've done to be pretty motivational.
  
  For sure. I throw judge selection under administration. The President doesn't know any of these judges, they are presented to the President by the team the President put together.
  
  Yep. Trump pulled his judge picks right off the wish list of extremist judges the Heritage Foundation hand-picked for him. It's sickening how many judges he got to appoint, on top of getting to choose 3! 😭 SCOTUS justices (one of the seats was stolen by McConnell).
  Of course one of those judges was Aileen Cannon who after delaying the classified docs case against him as long as possible, finally went ahead and tossed it out completely on the ridiculous grounds that there shouldn't have been a special prosecutor for it.
- As a professional circus performer, please don't bring us down to their level. Most of us are bleeding heart communist hippies, and circuses take a TON of coordination to run.
- The only real deep blemish on the Biden administration has been its support of the Palestinian genocide.
  Definitely the biggest, but not the only. Two others that stand out to me are his breaking of the rail strike, and his border policies.
  But of course, this all comes with the caveat that all of this, under Trump, would be unimaginably worse
  
  Congress broke the strike with a veto-proof majority, Biden didn't have much choice in the matter.
  At least Biden was able to negotiate and apply pressure to get most of the demands met for the rail workers after the strike was prevented. The unions were largely grateful for the administration's efforts on the issue.
- If Trump were pres we'd probably have troops there helping with the genocide.
  We definitely would be helping out Russia against Ukraine.
  
  The sad truth is no US president can go against the Israeli lobby unless some major changes are made.
  But I agree with you, Trump would have happily and loudly complied with Bibi's Government.
- These people are voting. Biden is no longer the candidate. You no longer have to lecture people into voting for him.
  
  These people are voting.
  These people are saying they are going to vote. Everyone needs reminding of the consequences of a second Trump term. Also, the "Kamala is a cop" narrative is also in full swing.
- But muh inflation /s
- Ahhh while Biden has generally supported Ukraine he has handicapped them and extended the war by the constant wishy-washy support.
  "You can have these weapons but not these better ones that you actually need" 6 months later they get the weapons they actually need anyway
  "Okay you can have the good weapons but you can't use them inside Russia" a year later they can use the good weapons in some areas of Russia
  Constant weak minded actions like this from Biden are a big problem.
Look what happens when the party listens. Maybe they'll keep listening if they see this works.
Maybe Biden stepping down heralds the tipping point away from arrogant, ineffective, conservative gerontocracy within the Democratic party and toward a more progressive future.
- It doesn't, sorry. That won't happen with FPTP voting.
  
  Trump shows that FPTP doesn't have to result in a closest-to-center career politician. The DNC likes to pretend that it does in order to prop up their most centrist candidates, but as long as there is a large group of radicals and non-voters, a candidate who appeals to those voters can defeat a candidate who appeals to the center.
  There were people who switched from Bernie to Trump. There were people who didn't want to vote Biden because he supported Palestinian genocide too much. Those people are idiots, but they still vote. Lower class workers tend to vote left-wing if they trust that fair competent government is possible and right-wing if they don't, with most of them in the US voting right-wing, especially in rural areas.
God, progressives suck. Conservatives vote. Every election. Doesn't matter what the polls say. Doesn't matter what the weather is. Doesn't matter who is running. They fucking VOTE. That's why a small minority is able to run roughshod over the interests of the majority: the majority doesn't fucking vote!!
- That's because their party reflects their voters' will. More than two-thirds of Democrats said that they didn't want Joe Biden for a second term, but they forced him through the nomination process anyway, without any challenge or debate. Meanwhile, the Republican party elites didn't want Trump on 2016 or 2024, but when their voters chose him, they accepted it. They didn't make back room deals with the other candidates to make Jeb the nominee, like the Democrats did for Biden.
  
  No. It isn't. And no, it doesn't.
  They vote no matter what. They vote even if they hate the candidate. Even if they hate the platform. They vote out of a sense of moral obligation that progressives entirely lack.
  Their party works against their interests. I know it, you know it, and anyone who looks at it critically for half a second knows it. And yet they still vote.
  There was that interesting research ten years back about the pillars of conservative and progressive morality. I seem to recall conservatives having five nearly universal core values, while progressives had only three of those. Conservatives value tradition and loyalty on an equal level with eg fairness and truth. Liberals still value tradition and loyalty, but they are not core values, and so things like truth take a higher priority. Conservatives literally don't care about the facts when they feel like their loyalty is tested.
  
  And then Democrats convinced Biden to not run for a second term. Sounds like the party did in fact listen to the voters' will, and that's being reflected in the excitement that we're seeing across the board.
  And you know what? I wish Republicans made backroom deals. I wish they recognized Trump was a significant threat and aligned to go against him.
  
  I mean... Even when we do have a primary, most of the left just stays home. It doesn't help that most people just can't be bothered.
  
  I honestly think it's more accurate to say Republican voters reflect their party's will (or more accurately Trump's will). Trump can say and do anything and Maga voters will fall in line behind him no matter what. Even if what he says or does goes against what Republicans have historically been in favor of. Like when he sunk Nafta for his own terrible plan. He runs a cult of personality and the republican party had to either nominate him or be abandoned by their enflamed base.
  Dems should have absolutely nominated Bernie. But if Bernie started spouting hateful rhetoric like Trump does he wouldn't have a base anymore.
  
  People actually voted for him in the primary.
- Conservatives vote. Every election.
  Turnout has varied enormously over the last twenty years. Conservatives are riding the same waves as the rest of us. A lot of that is built into home ownership. We're seeing a more migrant population that needs to constantly re-register and re-engage with the local political establishment after every change of address. Republicans are no longer the home-owning majority, now that the college demographic has shifted over to the liberal side of the spectrum. And Democrats are no longer the freshly migrant urbanites of the post Jim Crow era, fleeing the brutality of the Dixiecrat states.
  Dems have eclipsed Republicans on voter registration, they consistently out-compete on turnout, and they've had a number of wave elections in off-years precisely because they're more consistent at voting than their Republican peers.
  That’s why a small minority is able to run roughshod over the interests of the majority
  No. Gerrymandering, vote caging, and strategic disenfranchisement at the county and state level are why small minorities are able to run roughshod over the interests of the majority. States like Ohio, North Carolina, Florida, and Texas have absolutely batshit insane maps, with a handful of districts packed to the gills full of liberal voters while conservatives are spread thinly across the remainder. Wisconsin just broke the GOP gerrymander that's kept the state legislature locked firmly red with barely 40% of the popular vote.
  That's been a clever stopgap against popular governance in the short term, but its also a dangerous game when a suburban cohort shifts or defects on razor thin margins.
  When Dem wave years happen, you can see thousands of seats flip overnight. But without that supermajority of voters, you'll see those same seats collapse red again. That was the story of 2008 -> 2010 and 2016 -> 2018 -> 2020. Suddenly influxes of Democrats would appear for a cycle only to get obliterated in time for Republicans to recement their gerrymanders.
  Consequently, the Republican strategy has been to run out the clock on incoming Dem administrations, confident that they'll be back in control as soon as the wave passes. Democrat strategy has been to... fuck around for the two years they have a significant majority and then bitch at voters when the moment passes.
- This implies that progressives are the majority which, as a progressive, I highly doubt.
  
  If you look at the Republican parties platform 70% of America is to the left of it
- Not the senate which gives 4 seats to represent 1M people who live in the Dakotas and 2 seats to represent the 40M people who live in CA? Not gerrymandering effecting seats in the house? Not the fact that the way EC votes are apportioned making it doable in practice to win the EC with 45% of the popular vote and possible to win it with as little as 35% of it?
The other danger to avoid (again) is the assumption that because polls and news looks good for a candidate, a single vote won't matter, which results in a lapse of not voting. Repeat a few million times. Lead suddenly gone.
Vote, even if everyone is claiming it's a solid win. Vote as if your vote does matter, don't even debate if that's true or not.
- And vote blue to the bottom of the ticket! Let's take the whole government and then push them hard to fix this broken system!
  
  Local is always as important, if not more, than the Presidential race. Midterms as well. In a world so highly interconnected and real time, we should be so much more democratically inspired, and yet apathy reigns.
- Well said. Even if you are in a solid-whatever state, the degree to which that is true is important. A 5 point lead is different from a 10 point lead, is different from a 20 point lead. The closer you can make it, the more you force people to pay attention to you.
  
  At the same time, if you know your candidate is going to win and you live in a shitty two-party system, then the only means you have to protest about the policies of the party you primarily support is to give them a no vote when they're guaranteed to win.
  Example, everyone knew the Labor party was going to win in the UK election, it was guaranteed after the 14 years of incompetence from the Tories. That being said, Labor really wasn't promising much. The only party that were offering any real change were the Greens.
  So what do you, knowing that Labor are going to win but not agreeing with their policies? You let them know by voting for other parties, and then Labor reassesses their policies on the votes they lost.
I get very frustrated when I see a few voters clinging to their "uncommitted" status even now. And the ones who do this often look like the kinds of people that the Trumpists will put into camps if he gets re-elected. Stop acting precious about it and commit to the obvious choice. The election is not about you, it's about the future of the country and whether or not we want to embrace or reject fascism.
- I’m incredibly suspicious of anyone who still calls themselves uncommitted. And I’m convinced that anyone who makes that claim is more likely to vote for Trump or to not vote at all than to ultimately vote for Harris. If someone is reasonable enough to end up voting for Harris in November, I highly doubt they’re genuinely undecided about it now.
  My best guess is that they’re just afraid to admit that they’ve already committed to Trump.
  If the choice isn’t clear as day, maybe they’re nocturnal.
  
  In many cases I think you'd be right. But not in all cases. Here's an example of what I was talking about:
  https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/gen-z-voters-largely-optimistic-harris-say-needs-prove-campaign-trail-rcna163215
In politics it's the opposite of "devil you know". It's why Congress flips so much after a presidents first election.
People know Biden know, and the more people know Biden the less they like him.
I don't think Harris will be great, but there is a chance she will be. That's enough to get a lot more votes than Biden.
If she hits the ground running we could even gain seats in 2026 for once. But she can't just "look into" shit to run down the clock. She needs a list of shit they can accomplish, and how many votes in Congress to accomplish each.
Be totally upfront about what we can do, and actually try to accomplish what we can do on day 1.
People will remember that come midterms.
- Campaign finance reform to stop unlimited money into politics and voting rights protections would be a huge win. If election day was a national holiday, that's something people would feel.
I have heard irl from a few of us who moved out of the us, that they are now going out of their way to register to vote. So, that is a lot of hope, anecdotally.
Ok good but if you planned to not vote against trump in any case, you’re with the fascists.
- For many late Gen Z'ers, this will be the first election they even get to vote. I remember being in high school and I couldn't wait to vote when I was 18 because I followed politics very closely. My peers on the other hand, not so much. For every kid at my school who was politically active enough to care about issues that mattered to them, there were about 4-5 more that were completely and utterly apathetic or didn't have a clue about the candidates or the issues.
  The danger in assuming that people who are making the decision to vote now were somehow complicit with having Trump is that they may not have been aware of the problem to begin with. A lot of young eligible voters miss their first few elections because they haven't developed a political opinion beyond whatever their parents might think, they haven't taken the time to properly educate themselves on the issues, or there's still a disconnect between how the election results might affect them in their daily lives.
  A fresh new candidate that is pumping energy into the race is getting young people motivated to vote, and that's a good thing. Let's not look a gift horse in the mouth.
  
  Don’t overcomplicate a very obvious and easy matter.
- you could also just be stupid
All they have to get the gen Z votes is create an anime featuring Kamala doing cute chuckle stuff, expressing her love for venn diagrams and doing other geeky stuff. done.
the big winning factor for kamalas voter base is literally just her age. She's nearly 20 years younger than trump. 20 years
literally nothing else matters. Especially among gen z, it just helps that he has such a comprehensive background in government and around other politicians as well.
- the big winning factor for kamalas voter base is literally just her age.
  Its her (relatively thin) track record. Biden's been wading through the blood of a hundred Palestinians a day for the last six months. Kamala's kept her hands relatively clean.
  I suspect the Kids Today are going to sour on her as her profile rises. She's got a long history of saying shit that turns off youth voters at the actual polls. But for the moment, people are exuberant about Genocide Joe being shown the door. That - plus JD Vance getting caught with his dick between a pair of couch cushions - is giving her campaign a healthy bump.
  
  Anyone who is holding Biden responsible for Israel is an idiot. Congress is the one who votes for or against aid. Not handing the aid that congress approved in an election year is bordering on political suicide with the moderates knowing that moderates in swing states will entirely decide this election. Harris' big virtue on this issue is that she isn't president and has virtually no power to do anything so she can talk more. Blame ought to accrue to Israelis, their leaders, their hard liners, congress, and the US population for still cleaving to Israel after all their behavior.
  
  Its her (relatively thin) track record. Biden’s been wading through the blood of a hundred Palestinians a day for the last six months. Kamala’s kept her hands relatively clean.
  i doubt this is a significant voter motivation across the youth. You think gen z voters are going to vote for someone who wasn't biden just because of palestine? Only the disillusioned right wingers are voting for RFK jr, and even those people are fucking insane. They might not be happy voting for biden, but it's not like you really have any other options, other than not voting, obviously, which is likely why we saw an increase amongst registered voters.
  its definitely going to get worse as it goes forward, but that happens for almost every president. There is nothing that changes that.
  I suppose kamala might shoot herself in the foot later on, but honestly, i'm not expecting her to do that, i imagine she knows how to read the room significantly.
  people are excited about joe stepping down because of his disastrous debate performance, and his apparent decline over time. Also he's 80 something years old. Nobody wants an 80 year old president.
Gen Z is about to have their Obama moment like how millenials did, I'm taking bets for it now. Everything has happened before, time is a flat circle, I'm willing to bet.
It's Kamala all the way!!!! 😁😂😁 Let's just vote now to lock it in! I can do without the 12 weeks of YouTube ads.
Also don't pay YouTube for ads, they are now evil.
Fuckin Battlestar...
It's going to take real effort for me start reading her name as KAmala and not KaMAla
Do you hear the people sing?
If you weren't voting before you have already announced that you are a moron. Chasing 22 year old votes has limited utility. Most of them just don't turn out. We should avoid putting too much stock in the words of morons who rarely bother to show up.
- If you want to fight voter apathy in later years, getting young people tuned in and engaged is probably the best way to do it. Sure, there's always the chance they still might not show up now, but showing you are listening to young people still helps solidify your party as worth supporting and can lead to stronger support when they get older and are more likely to find the time to get out and vote. 22 year olds don't stay 22, and the recent trend of people not becoming more right-leaning as they hit middle age might be in part due to Obama and others making young people feel heard 15 years ago. Saying "young people don't vote, don't listen to them" is short-sighted at best.
  
  I didn't say don't listen to them I said don't over-weigh the importance of people who haven't shown up in the past

91 comments