Voter Z

Voter Z

Voter Z

Jennifer Lambert

New Degree Press

Copyright © 2021 Jennifer Lambert

All rights reserved.

Voter Z

ISBN

978-1-63676-917-2 Paperback

978-1-63676-981-3 Kindle Ebook

978-1-63730-085-5 Ebook

Contents

Part 1.INTRODUCTION TO GEN Z

Winter

ZBELLION

Part 2.KNOWING ME, KNOWING Z

THE HOMELAND GENERATION

MEDIA LITERACY

Part 3.IDENTITIEZ

GEN Z AND RACE

LATINX VOTERS

WOMEN AND POLITICS

THE AOC EFFECT

THE PROUD GENERATION

PETE FOR AMERICA

Part 4.ORIGINZ

VOTING HABITS

FEEL THE BERN

YOUNG REPUBLICANS

MADISON CAWTHORN

ON THE GROUND

MALALA

THE PARKLAND KIDS

Part 5.DEZTINY

THE COVID GENERATION

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

Acknowledgments

APPENDIX

To my dad, Jim, who taught me to never give up on my dreams.

To my mom, Janet, who embodies courage.

To my sister, Rachel, who never fails to make me smile.

The earth belongs always to the living generation. They may manage it then, and what proceeds from it, as they please, during their usufruct.

—Thomas Jefferson

Part 1

INTRODUCTION TO GEN Z

1

Winter

As the eldest cohort of Generation Z entered their teenage years, many residents of the United States strived to figure out what events and beliefs defined these young Americans. For the purposes of this book, Generation Z (also known as Gen Z) is defined as Americans born between the years 1995 and 2012. I chose 1995 as the start date for this generation, as many other generational researchers have done before me, due to the idea that people born in 1995 were only in kindergarten in September of 2001. They had not yet developed a level of societal consciousness that would allow them to understand the magnitude of an event like 9/11. Many scholars debate over what the end date is for Generation Z. I chose 2012 because it is the year in which the Sandy Hook shooting occurred and Trayvon Martin was murdered. These events were turning points in American political discourse, igniting a gun control movement centered around American schoolchildren and a social and political movement declaring that yes, Black lives matter.

Gen Zers are often characterized in national discourse by their constant exposure to technology, high stress levels, and the coddled nature of their upbringing. The coddled assumption derives from the negative label some have adopted for Gen Z: the participation trophy generation. This label attempts to mock Gen Zers for growing up in a society that equally rewards effort and victory. It fails to account for the hardships many Gen Zers, particularly those who are people of color, have faced growing up in America in the 21st century. An example is the financial challenges of coming of age during a time when income inequality was rapidly increasing across the country.¹

The pervading characterizations of Gen Z miss the point of what has uniquely positioned this generation to enact sweeping changes in their workplaces, in schools, and in bastions of political power. These young people have lived through terrorist attacks on their home soil, the 2008 and 2020 recessions, the two impeachment trials of Donald Trump, countless mass shootings, and a pandemic all before many of them reached their mid-20s. These young Americans also organized a march on Washington, built followings of millions on social media, and are now setting record highs for youth voter turnout.² They reject the status quo of the world they were born into, but with every passing day they have succeeded in creating movements to change it. Generation Zers have a unique mindset for growth that originates from their status as the most educated and diverse generation in American history.³ The eldest members of Generation Z have the capacity to be a political force that changes the American political system.

This book will focus on the eldest cohort of Generation Z living in the United States, those born between 1995 and 2004, who were at least entering their mid-teenage years during the 2020 election cycle. Those Gen Zers who are born between 2005 and 2012 are likely to exhibit similar behaviors to their elder generational counterparts; however, at the time this book was written, those born in 2005 were just entering their mid-teenage years. This is a time when their long-term political beliefs are just beginning to take shape. Therefore, it is essential to focus on the eldest Gen Zers, who are deeply invested in the process of affirming their belief systems. In my research, I found this age group has a collective memory of certain core events that have informed their worldview and acted as agents of their political socialization.

These events span the time period from their earliest political memories in the years 2006–2008 to 2021. The exposure of the eldest Gen Zers to key historical events at the peak of their impressionability have turned them into engaged citizens who fight for a more just, inclusive American society.

These events include:

•The Iraq War

•The Great Recession

•The Sandy Hook shooting

•The Parkland shooting

•The Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015)

•The Black Lives Matter movement

•The election and two impeachments of Donald Trump

•The coronavirus pandemic and resulting recession

•The reason these events bear such significance to Rebuilders, the elder cohort of Gen Zers, has to do with their timing, wide circulation of news coverage surrounding them, and the passionate discourse prompted by them.

Generational Theory

According to generational theorists Neil Howe and William Strauss, Americans born between 1995 and 2004 are part of a hero generation that will team up to survive a crisis period in the United States.⁴ The Strauss-Howe Generational Theory, also called the Fourth Turning claims American history occurs in eighty-year cycles.⁵ Each cycle is composed of four twenty yearlong turnings, with each turning being equivalent to a weather season.⁶

Current Cycle

First Turning (also called the spring or high)

•During highs, institutions are strong, and individualism is weak⁷

•Spanned the post-World War II era and happy days of the 1950s⁸

•Ended with the assassination of JFK, which served as a violent end to the idealism that reigned during that American high⁹

Second Turning (the summer or awakening)¹⁰

•During awakenings, institutions come under heavy scrutiny due to a renewed push for personal autonomy¹¹

•The second turning ended with the tax revolts of the early 1980s that propelled Ronald Reagan to political superstardom¹²

Third Turning (the fall or unraveling)¹³

•During unravelings, the institutions attacked during awakenings become weak as individualism thrives and distrust of government grows¹⁴

•Came about quietly through the culture wars of the 1980s and the long economic boom of the 1990s¹⁵

•The third turning came to a startling halt in 2008 with the onset of the Great Recession¹⁶

Fourth Turning (the winter or crisis)¹⁷

•Americans are currently living through the fourth turning¹⁸

•During crises, the institutions that had been weakened are scrapped and revamped as America deals with some kind of calamity that could threaten the nation’s survival¹⁹

•America will remain in this crisis period until 2030²⁰

•The eldest members of Generation Z are uniquely positioned to play a key role in surviving this crisis period

Defining Generation Z

Despite having experienced different world events during their impressionable years, the eldest half of Generation Z does share some of the same hero traits as the Millennial generation. Both cohorts are teaming up with their peers to survive the current crisis period and revive the civic backbone of America. As Neil Howe said, there are symbiotic relationships between historical events and how these generations react, shape, or cause these events as a direct consequence of these generational archetypes.²¹ Strauss and Howe’s classify babies born in 1995–2004 as part of the Millennial generation, but some distinct characteristics separate the eldest Gen Zers from Millennials.²²

I believe lumping late 1990s and early 2000s babies with Americans born in the 1980s misrepresents the events that have forged each cohort. The events that occur when one is coming of age matter greatly in terms of the shared generational outlook they create. These events, the discourse surrounding them, and our reactions to them help shape an individual’s political belief system when they enter their teenage years.

For example, people born in 1995–2004 cannot remember what life is like without the internet or before 9/11. Their digital nativism makes them advanced technological communicators who value swiftness and transparency. The experience of growing up in a post-9/11 world has exposed them to the realities of war, terrorism, and foreign policy through the lens of conflicts based in the Middle East. This worldview formed the foundation of their political belief systems. This collective generational outlook based around certain historical events of the 2000s and 2010s distinguishes Gen Z from the true Millennials of the 1980s and early 1990s. Millennials had already begun, and in some cases completed, the work of forming the basis for their respective political belief systems based on world events prior to 9/11. While political belief systems can change over the course of a lifetime, Americans are most likely to adopt long-lasting political beliefs between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two.²³ During this time period, younger people have less clearly defined political beliefs, which makes them more likely to be influenced by key societal events.²⁴

Concepts and Methodology

The term Americans will be used in this book exclusively to refer to residents of the United States of America. The label of progressive will be used in this book to refer to political ideologies that focus on social progress and thus will not be used solely as a synonym for the political left. The terms GOP and the right will be used to refer to the Republican Party. The left will be used to refer to the Democratic Party. References to areas as red indicate a general Republican lean in that area’s electorate. References to areas as blue indicate a general Democratic lean in that area’s electorate. While I will be using the term Gen Z throughout this book, any findings or generalizations presented about this group are based off of my research on the 1995 to 2004 cohort. Younger Gen Zers have not yet reached the age where they are most politically impressionable so it is not yet possible to determine what their political belief systems look like; however, there is reason to believe they will share many traits with their older generational peers.

This book will tell the story of the subset of Generation Zers born from 1995 to 2004, who I have dubbed the Rebuilding Generation, to figure out how the young heroes of this crisis period formed the belief systems that remain at the heart of their quest to reconstruct weakened American institutions. The reason I chose the name the Rebuilding Generation is because these elder Gen Zers will be tasked with the work of reviving the civic backbone of American society in the post-crisis period. They will have to retain the lessons key historical events of the 2000s, 2010s, and early 2020s taught them so they can reshape their communities and systems of government to better address systemic issues. They are well-educated, skeptical of the current government, and putting in the work heroes are expected to do during a crisis period. They overwhelmingly disapprove of Donald Trump, want a bigger, more efficient federal government, and care about the lasting effects of gun control, climate change, income inequality, and racial injustice in America.

I spoke to members of what I call the Rebuilding Generation’s activist class, the ones most likely to pursue a career in politics and run for office, for this book. I solicited survey responses from about forty of these Rebuilders and conducted in-depth interviews with twenty of them. These subjects were found via a variety of methods. Many of them came from Twitter, where I examined youth political discourse to find those users most likely to facilitate conversation and debate, and some came from my own personal connections to political science students. These interviews were not random. I carefully selected them to represent a diverse range of home states, sexual orientations, gender identities, religions, races, ethnic backgrounds, and political views. These interviews, along with my own personal experiences growing up as a Generation Zer and my political science education, inform the content in this book.

About This Book

This book is the result of my effort to understand the collective political identity of this generation and the major events, beliefs, and cultural phenomena that have shaped America’s young citizens into a strong political force. This book seeks to delve into the formative events that shaped this generation’s political beliefs in an attempt to understand how this generation will go about rehabilitating America’s economic, governmental, and social institutions. Those memories include the Sandy Hook and Parkland shootings, the elections of Barack Obama and Donald Trump, the death of Trayvon Martin, the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), the fallout from the Iraq War, and the COVID-19 pandemic. These events and the national discourse that surrounded them shaped Rebuilders’ outlook on America’s political system.

The primary political socialization of this generational cohort occurred around the 2016 Presidential election, giving them a bleak outlook on the American political system as a whole. The first political campaigns they truly followed occurred in 2016, when two candidates with dismal favorability ratings ran for office and were simultaneously ensnared in personal, political, and legal controversies.

The presidency of Donald Trump has thrown this mostly progressive generation for a loop, forcing them to reconcile their perception of the world with the reality of America’s dysfunctional political, financial, and social institutions.²⁵ This is not to say all Gen Zers are anti-Trump; 26 percent of young Americans surveyed by Harvard’s Institute of Politics for their Election 2020 Youth Poll supported Trump in the presidential contest.²⁶ That is still an overwhelming amount of youth support for Joe Biden, especially considering his status as a challenger to an incumbent president. In later chapters, the different political views of Gen Zers will be examined to show how young voters are pushing for both major political parties to adopt more progressive policy ideas.

My goal with this book is to fill the gap between generational theory and American political reality. My desire is to illustrate how exactly the Rebuilding Generation (as a cohort of Generation Z) has, and will continue to, live up to the hero archetype that Howe and Strauss forecasted over two decades ago. As a political science student, I find most of my academic coursework focuses on the study of past and present institutional leadership without focusing on the trajectory of these institutions and their leaders. It’s the nature of academic political scientists to resist conducting research with the aim of predicting future outcomes, although they do explore trends and theories that hint at potential shifts in political and economic institutions.

What Comes Next?

It is essential to American political discourse that the identities and beliefs of youth activists, voters, and future leaders are understood—especially as Generation Z bursts onto the national stage as they lead protests, spearhead mass mobilization efforts, and take to the voting booth. As a member of Generation Z, I believe I can authentically tell the story of my generational peers who I have been studying since the day I was born. I know this story because I am part of it. I have spent the past twenty years of my life living and breathing the experiences of Generation Z. I feel