Reality Check: Gen Z Voters' Scathing Analysis of The Democrats

And who they say is the current leader of the party.

You can’t say President Donald Trump hasn’t made moves these past nine weeks. It’s been a minute since he took office, so I checked in with my Gen Z network to hear how they’re feeling about the first few months of the new administration – and the current state of U.S. politics in general. Beyond what’s unfolding at the White House (and, I guess… on Signal) there’s a massive realignment underway within the Democratic Party.

The young people I spoke with are clear eyed about what Democrats need to understand if they want to rebuild. Their perspectives were nuanced, and defied traditional tropes about party labels; in fact, I heard from quite a few independents.

To get a read on how young people are feeling this week, I held a virtual listening session to break down some of their most pressing concerns. I also sent out what I’m calling a Reality Check – an ongoing series where I’ll ask young Americans questions across politics, culture, and media.

For this week’s Reality Check, I asked for participants’ take on both parties’ politics, who they view as the current leader of the Democratic Party, who they trust for news and information, the role of cancel culture in politics, and what they would tell future voters about this moment in history, among other things. Respondents ranged in age from 17 to 31 and came from 15 states and Washington, D.C.

Photo by Colin Lloyd on Unsplash

I have to say, there’s been a lot of conversation – shock, even – about young people’s move to the right in 2024. But it completely tracks with what I’ve been hearing for the past few years. This week, each listening session participant described some kind of movement to the right in their own politics – even if that just meant going from ultra-progressive (like, a registered Green Party member) to something a bit more moderate.

But for others like Nivriti – a 20-year-old student in Washington, D.C. – the shift was more stark. In 2020, she described herself as “very very liberal.” She mentioned that if you look deep on the internet, you could find a video of her at a Black Lives Matter protest (she said it like it was something that would surprise people who know her now). Today she identifies as an independent and says she’s far more conservative. She voted for Trump in November and said the controversial far-right political commentator Candace Owens is one of her favorite podcasters. Asked about her change in perspective, she said it comes down to feeling betrayed by institutions.

“I’m trying not to become a reactionary conservative in that sense, but it’s also because I’ve just grown up and realized that the world is not good vs. evil. And corrupt politicians have incentives to act corrupt and that’s fine, we’re not going to make politics better by weeding out the evil, bad people, that’s just not how it works. I’ve come to the consensus that if the government is corrupt then why not just take power away from the government and put it in the hands of the people?,” Nivriti said.

There was a ton more shared – too much for one piece – so consider this part one. Check back for more next week.

In the meantime, here’s *some* of what I heard from this week’s Reality Check, broken down question by question.

When you think of Democrats right now, what comes to mind?

• Sell outs

• Sad

• Inadequate leadership

• Disorganized, but well-intentioned

• Rebuilding but still winning

• Embarrassment, capitulation, honestly cringe

One answer that really stuck with me came from an independent 25-year-old in Tucson, Arizona, who voted for Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024: “Putting civility over defense of working class needs.”

Another independent from South Carolina (who also voted for Harris) said: “Democrats have shifted their focus so heavily to LGBQT rights that they are losing focus on civil rights as a whole.”

Takeaway: There was very little positivity in the answers about Democrats right now, even (and especially) from young Democrats who feel let down by a lack of party leadership.

Who would you say is the leader of the Democratic Party right now?

• No one. The Democratic Party needs to stand up and do something

• They’re leaderless but (Gavin) Newsom or AOC/Sanders

• Hakeem Jeffries

• Bernie and AOC

• Tim Walz

• No one… it’s dividing into factions

• AOC

• Harris

• Chris Murphy, Hakeem Jeffries, Tim Walz

Takeaway: Young people feel the Democratic Party is rudderless, but are clearly directing their attention toward the most vocal and outspoken party members (IRL and on social media).

When you think of Republicans right now, what comes to mind?

• Sell outs, misogyny, transphobia, etc

• Evil

• Gloating without a real plan

• Divided, anti-democratic

• Ignorant

• Increasingly big tent party

• Corrupt

• Elon Musk

• Evil but effective

• Bold, destructive, brash, shattering

• Bragadocious but also focused, hopeful, serious, and talented

Takeaway: Even self-identified Republicans described their party (especially congressional leaders) as “sold” and caught between loyalty to Trump and a fear of primary challenges.

Is cancel culture good or bad for politics?

• “Good and bad. We need to hold people accountable but we are all valuable in our society. People are capable of change and ‘canceling’ them may push them further from change and accountability”

• “I don’t think cancellation actually exist, but the idea of it has been bad for Democrats”

• “It's heinous for our political culture. There's a difference between holding leadership accountable and ascribing our own moral frameworks onto other people. We can hold people accountable while also not imposing how we think onto them.”

• “It shuts down conversation instead of encouraging it. Democracy depends on debate, on learning from disagreement, not on fear of saying the wrong thing. Accountability is essential, but so is grace.”

• “I think cancel culture is a misunderstanding of justice. It’s good for a retributive justice model, bad for a transition to restorative justice.”

• “Good in most ways because it bring me a sense of accountability but bad because sometimes people will act different and not how they usually would make a decision because they are thinking of what others may say.”

• “Bad because it has not been successful. People who believe they have been alienated by cancel culture seem to take a hard right and I think that has been terrible for politics”

Takeaway: Cancel culture stifles conversation, pushes people further toward extreme positions, but young people believe we need something societally to hold people accountable.

Who do you trust most to deliver news/info about politics?

• Local news

• No one. Maybe Reddit comments.

• Independent publications

• AllSides Now, NPR, Reuters

• Reuters, Axios, Al Jazeera, Certain podcasts

• Independent news stations and journalists

• MSNBC

• Non-US based media or National Public Radio

• TikTok

• Hasan Piker, Ezra Klein, Taylor Lorenz

• Aaron Parnas, PBS, The News Girl, Jordan is My Lawyer

• Gzero, Ian Bremmer, Robert Reich

• Independent news outlets and local news

• Charlie Kirk

• Philip DeFranco

One 17-year-old from Las Vegas, Nevada said: “Honestly no sources, I feel that I have to do my own independent research on most topics.”

What’s one thing you’d tell future voters about this moment in time?

• “This is the most suspicious I’ve ever been. Read between the lines before voting next time”

• “DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH”

• “There are people who oppose Trump and want change”

• “The key to success is learning from mistakes and actively fixing the reasons you lost votes”

• “I’d tell future voters that this was a moment of quiet unraveling, where institutions felt fragile, leadership felt small, and people were more divided than ever. But it was also a moment full of possibility, if you were willing to tune out the noise and do the work to build something better”

• “Vote for policies not parties. No matter how small or insignificant you feel get out and vote, talk to those around you, vote with your dollar.”

As Patrick, a 23-year-old from Wallingford, Pennsylvania told me: “It’s an insanely hard thing to navigate politics nowadays. I feel like in a lot of cases, depending on where people are getting their information from. People are sort of currently living in completely different realities from one another, perceiving issues completely differently. And when you hear those sort of other viewpoints, sort of like being like, ‘Is this person crazy?’ Or like, ‘Are we living in the same country?’

“You have to absolutely do your due diligence and don't just be beholden to any sort of individual source of information, be it a person, news conglomerate, whatever, because it just does a disservice to yourself to be beholden to like these false realities, because at the end of the day, we all agree on a lot of the same things. We all want the same things. And we have to break out of the cycle of living in these different realities. We need to find what’s going on and work together regardless of what that may be to see those visions come to fruition,” Patrick added.

Takeaway: Gen Z isn’t checked out, but they’re tired of the noise. It’s all they know. They’re suspicious of traditional institutions, skeptical of party loyalty, and are searching for something more grounded, willing to hold heterodox opinions that don’t fit into a black and white binary they’ve been expected to accept as the only choice.

This is just part one. More to come next week, including these Gen Zers POV on the American Dream, the most underrated and overrated political issues, and the one thing they wish older generations understood about the systems they’re inheriting.

Noteworthy reads

• For Gen Z, viral videos are the new primetime, Eve Upton-Clark for Fast Company

• Social Media Influencers Are More Popular Than Movie Stars Among Gen Z, Sean Burch for The Wrap

• Battle of the Ivy League Influencers, Andrew Zucker for Town and Country

• Opinion: Have Young People Really Turned MAGA, Neil Gross for The New York Times