Democrats are desperately searching for any hope they can cling to. With Biden now officially out of the race and his VP Kamala Harris up to bat, there's definitely a new gain in energy but, if we're being honest, it's not much. Republican nominee and the once and (likely) future POTUS Donald Trump leads in almost every metric.
But one group the Democrats think might see a new surge in excitement is the youth vote. David Hogg, for one, said he's seeing a new resurgence in "attitudes" for "the better."
I don’t think the media understands how much millions of young voters attitudes just changed for the better.
— David Hogg 🟧 (@davidhogg111) July 23, 2024
To be sure, there might be a bump from the female youth vote just out of virtue of Harris being a woman, though that might not be exactly why the female youth vote Democrat. Gen Z women have been trending Democrat in a big way for some time, even without the leader of the party being a woman.
However, there are two things the Democrats need to understand that might throw a wrench in those hopeful gears.
Firstly, Gen Z has been trending more and more Republican, and that's because the standard of living issues are getting more and intense than the social issues young voters tend to run on. The economy is in the dumps, inflation is on the rise, the job market is garbage (unless you want to work for the government) and it costs too much to fill up your gas tank, pay your bills, and shop for groceries.
Like I covered earlier this month, polls showed the youth vote has gravitated rightward over economic issues. While the left wants to please it on issues like abortion and Gaza, reality has crashed in on Gen Z at home due to the Democrat's incompetence. It's hard to care about abortion when you're struggling to keep your phone, car, and stomach paid for.
(READ: The Youth Are Abandoning the Democrat Party in Droves, Gravitating Toward the Republicans)
Harris's campaign is already trying to ingratiate herself with youth culture, but it looks so out of touch and weird that it's giving off Hillary Clinton vibes. It's very male-oriented and doesn't look at all appealing to the entirety of the youth, namely male youth.
And here is where Harris is going to have a major problem. The male youth is going to be a thorn in the side of Democrats this election season, but before the left starts accusing the male youth of sexism, let's be real here. They've been pushing the male youth away for years.
As I've been covering for some time, the Gen Z youth has been leaning more and more conservative thanks in large part to Democrats pushing the narrative that men are awful, dangerous, stupid, and every other negative label under the sun. Democrats have pushed feminism in all shapes and forms, and modern feminism has been incredibly denigrating toward the male of the human species. So it's no wonder that young men began walking away in droves, to the point where this election season will see a major chunk of the youth vote completely absent.
It's an issue that even has Democrat strategist James Carville growing hair just to pull it out.
“I’ve been very vocal about this,” Carville said on his podcast. “It’s horrifying, our numbers among younger voters, particularly younger blacks and younger Latinos and whatever, younger people of color. Particularly males. We’re not shedding them, they’re leaving in droves.”
But none of them seem to be able to figure out that the messaging towards men has been anti-male. The Democrats either won't or can't push away from their gyno-centrism. Not that they care about women all that much, either. You can see how much they stand up for women by how much they abandon them whenever a man claiming to be a woman demands he get all the privileges and accolades a woman should get, but I digress.
The Democrats have really lost it if they think the male youth will come crawling back because their new candidate is a woman. If they believe this will turn the tide, then they haven't been paying attention.
