While walking down the streets of Minneapolis I see one sign, and then another, plastered on the cement light posts saying, “join the revolution. visit socialistrevolution.org/join.” I was intrigued to see socialism propaganda outside of social media, yet not entirely surprised with the way our political environment has been going. I have been seeing that more lately, the words “socialism” and “socialist” on TikTok in particular.
A few days or weeks later, I walk past those same light posts to find the signs half ripped down, no longer revealing the message nor web address to visit and join said revolution. Although Minneapolis is rather liberal, I was not the least bit surprised to see the signs torn down. How dare someone challenge our great political system and all that it does for its people?!
All Eyes on Young Voters
As we approach the 2024 election, fear and anxiety intensifies amongst the population for various reasons. Most notably, is the fear and anxiety among Millennials and older Gen Z. After graduating college with student loan debt, joining the workforce, and yet still struggling to achieve the quality of life that was conditioned into their brains as adolescents, life is looking pretty… bleak. Not only is it expensive to rent, buy a home, and exist in general, civil liberties and human rights are being stripped left and right.
From overturning Roe v. Wade, to the US involvement in the genocide of the Palestinian people, America is not looking like ‘the land of the free’ nor a democracy that represents the beliefs of its people. Hatred and oppressive Baby Boomers are poisoning the systems that the Millennials and Gen Z suffer from, but will also eventually inherit.
All the while, capitalism knocks on our door every morning to remind us that we have a “duty” to support the businesses and the economy, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, even if the wages, salaries and benefits are lacking to support said workers in such an environment. These capitalistic expectations and behaviors are draining simple motivation and desire to achieve.
“What’s the point?,” we frequently find ourselves asking each other and within our own heads each day that we work and continue to exist. We’ve followed the directions and advisement we were given, yet still can’t unlock the alleged comfort and success we were to have achieved by now.
It’s no wonder Millennials and Gen Z yearn for a society that allows them to live in a society that doesn’t possess overwhelming gloom and doom. A society where homes can be bought, those who desire a family can start one, health care is affordable, the working class doesn’t suffer from financial struggle, civil liberties are intact, etc. Simple quality of life factors. And it’s clear that capitalism and its big-business leaders have no intention of providing those factors of life; Who can blame them for looking into other alternative options? It’s obvious we need, and crave, change.
Young voters (ages under 30) are feeling hopeless about the current state of the US government and are in need of a hopeful candidate to rally behind ahead of the election this fall. These individuals are desperate to address the many crises that plague our society and prevent new innovation & improvement in quality of life.
NPR asked young voters what their major concerns were as we undergo another election season, to which they expressed homeownership, student loans, transportation, the environment, and gun control. Young voters showed up in the 2020 election to get Biden in office, and yet, during his term, the issues this group cares about most have yet to be improved. Biden and the Democratic party’s lack of ability to mobilize and enact the changes they build their platforms on reinforces the fear that not even the Democrats are a safe & promising option to lead the country.
The two-party system’s lack of ability to reflect the ideologies of those who voted for them is driving some young voters’ desire to sit out of the election entirely. Before entirely giving up hope, this left-leaning group of individuals is also assessing all of their options before withholding their vote.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation
Candidate Claudia de la Cruz and her VP running-mate Karina Garcia have been making noise online and largely finding success in reaching young voters on TikTok.
TikTok has been a primary destination for discourse and education on the US involvement in the eradication of native Palestine and its peoples. De la Cruz and Garcia have been actively showing their support in a Free Palestine and calling for a ceasefire, which has stuck out to users on the app as no other politicians, especially presidential candidates, have spoken out as openly as them.
Although this has allowed the two to gain exposure, young voters still are not quite convinced that they are the solution to the 2024 election and are looking to hear more from the two candidates about how they plan to enact change if elected.
De la Cruz and Garcia are running under the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), which is entirely anti-capitalism and pro-socialism. Main headlines on their social media and website include topics that young voters also happen to be most vocal about, such as: climate change, the unhoused, eating the rich, addressing the cost of living crisis, and more. At first glance, De la Cruz and Garcia definitely seem to be a glimmer of hope, but the more traction they gain and the closer we get to November, the more doubt and uncertainty festers.
De la Cruz and Garcia’s platform mentions monumental changes, like disbanding and abolishing the Supreme Court, the Senate, the Federal Reserve, the FBI, and NASA, without specifying what exactly they intend to replace it with or how they intend to go about removing those entities. With such vast and radical ambitions, these third party candidates won’t benefit from a lack of detailed approach in their platform. Extra education and campaigning would need to be done in order to persuade voters into believing that a radical approach is the best approach.
The PSL’s radical approach and communist ideals are easily tarnished by the media, and frankly, the general public. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were both unsuccessful in securing the presidency in years past, which one could argue were more palatable than the platform that De la Cruz and Garcia are running with.
Despite an anti-capitalism belief being one that the PSL and young voters may share, the likelihood of the PSL becoming a major player in the 2024 election is low. There is a serious lack of readiness to vote socialist in the United States, let alone vote for a socialist revolution.
While the Democrats belief in ‘vote blue no matter who’ continues to divide the party, it would not be surprising to see this anti-capitalist and third party interest gain popularity among the younger generations in years to come with proper voter outreach and education.
Submissive go-with-the-flow democracy and its two party system are not working for younger generations. With 90 seconds to doomsday on the doomsday clock and 5 years left to prevent catastrophic climate change, these generations know they are going to have to be the changemakers if they want to live a life without uncontrollable crises.
The consciousness of these younger generations is changing – an inevitable change due in order to continue the evolution and development of society. Climate change is here and it’s real; and these generations very much so will be most negatively impacted by the incredulous greed of the ultra-rich, big businesses, and political officials.
Thankfully, we are not hopeless creatures who are unable to organize, demand, and create the change we want to see, and so desperately need. Maybe it’s a good thing Gen Z and Millennials are reaching their wits end, we just might see some improvements around here because of them.
THE IDENTITY CRISIS 