Generation Gap

There may be some hope after all:

When Klein and Shor reviewed numerous charts, including one headlined, "2024 Democratic Support by Age – Split by Race and Gender," the pollster explained that in this chart in particular, "One thing you can notice is that among 18-year-olds, women of color are the only of the four [race and gender demographic groups] that Harris won. Trump narrowly won nonwhite men." The Times columnist seized on one "shocking" finding in the data that defies one of the Democratic Party’s core beliefs. NYT columnist Ezra Klein marveled at how old assumptions of the Democratic Party about the youth vote saving them have been utterly dashed by the recent election. "I find this part of this chart shocking. I sometimes talk about narrative violations, and if we knew anything about Donald Trump eight years ago, it was that young people didn’t like him. And Republicans had been maybe throwing away young people for generations in order to run up their margins among seniors," Klein said. "But if you look at this chart, 75-year-old White men supported Kamala Harris at a significantly higher rate than 20-year-old White men." "It is a real shift," Shor agreed. "This is the thing I am the most shocked by in the last four years — that young people have gone from being the most progressive generation since the Baby Boomers, and maybe even in some ways more so, to becoming potentially the most conservative generation that we’ve experienced maybe in 50 to 60 years."

The kids are rebelling...