LEMON DROP | The Kids Aren't Alright: The Gen Z Political Divide
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What does the new Yale poll reveal about a Gen Z political split?
The kids are not all right. The kids are not all right. I've been saying that for a couple of months now, and now I have the evidence to back it up. So I want you to check this out. This is a brand new polling. It's out of Yale University. What does it say? It says there's a sharp divide emerging within Gen Z voters, folks between the ages of 22 and 29 years old. They are D plus six, which is like Democrats plus six. Right. But the youngest, the folks between 18 and 21, they are R plus 12. What is going on here? Because usually you think young folks, you think like maybe more liberal, maybe more Democratic on the Democratic side. So it is a matter of is it a matter of young folks at the job market versus young folks who are not in the job market?
Is it a matter of TikTok rotting young Americans' brains? Is it a combination? Let's break it down now. Fortunately, the perfect guest to talk to you. His name is Manu Meal. He is the CEO of Bridge USA, one of the fastest growing student movements in the country. He's also the host of a weekly podcast. It's called The Hopeful Majority. Manu, welcome. How are you?
Don, thanks for having me on. I feel like the way that you introduced the segment is the perfect way to get started, which is the kids are not all right. So let's talk about it.
Why aren't the kids all right? And what do you think about that poll?
So I think it's important to understand a couple of things. So I started BridgeUSA back in 2017, which was my freshman year at UC Berkeley. I'm sort of the older part of Gen Z. And there's a whole generational divide that's occurring because there's students that graduated before COVID and students that graduated after COVID. And students that graduated specifically in high school after and post COVID. And the reason I bring that up is because when you talk to most young people, we have college chapters across the country, you see skepticism. skepticism across the board. Whether they support Democrats or Republicans, there's a skepticism of institutions. People are skeptical of trust. They're skeptical of quote-unquote elite institutions of power.
I know I'm preaching to the choir here. There's a deep sense of the people that... gatekeep our knowledge are not all right. So the way that we think about kids not being all right, kids think that our institutions are not all right. And I think what that's led to is a massive mistrust across the board in how students in general approach politics in terms of how they approach conversations. And so whether it's their information sources like TikTok you mentioned, or it's the people that they actually talk to, I think we've built these echo chambers, we've built these bubbles. And the key here, and I'll end with this, is that I think most students in the country, most young people in the country, whether they support Republicans or Democrats, believe in actually open-minded conversation.
They're craving connection. Loneliness is an epidemic in this country. So my job is, how do we actually elevate that silent majority of people? So I think the kids are not all right for a little bit.
Okay, let me ask you this. First of all, you mentioned COVID. You said post-COVID, right? Pre-COVID and post-COVID. Why does COVID make a difference? Why is it a dividing line? Was it that people were stuck in their homes? What is it?
Yeah, it's a great question. So it's something that we actually ask a lot of our chapter leaders. So when we started Bridge versus where we are now, we have students that are now, they graduated again post-COVID.
How does BridgeUSA’s founder explain the pre‑COVID vs post‑COVID generational divide?
And so when they have these dialogues, one of the things that comes up in these bridging conversations is that for students that graduated after COVID, a lot of their school experience, a lot of their friendships was dictated by lockdowns. A lot of their friendships and their lived experience was dictated by how they consume media. Everyone was in their homes, in their silos. And as you said, all they had to do was do TikTok, listen to Snapchat messages, and basically go to bed.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What does the new Yale poll reveal about a Gen Z political split?
0:14–3:29
2
How does BridgeUSA’s founder explain the pre‑COVID vs post‑COVID generational divide?
3:29–7:40
3
Why are Gen Z students feeling lonely and craving connection on campus?
7:40–14:58
4
How do social media and echo chambers fuel mistrust and polarization among young people?
14:58–23:21
5
Why are young men drawn to performative masculinity and support for Trump?
23:21–27:40
6
How can in‑person dialogue and BridgeUSA chapters reduce radicalization and outrage?
27:40–34:25
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from The Don Lemon Show
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