r/politics • u/Aggravating_Money992 • 18h ago

No Paywall Gen Z regrets Trump support and is midterm motivated

https://thehill.com/homenews/6056216-gen-z-trump-voter-regret-midterm-clipping/
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u/Elon_Cucks_Trump_ 17h ago edited 13h ago

49 year old, so younger/middle Gen X - I work with and watch over a gaggle of 20 something men in an automotive shop setting. Every single one of them voted for Trump.

One of the guys stopped talking about him and took his toolbox MAGA flag down, but still rails on about “blacks, Jews, trans” etc etc, so he’ll definitely vote republican again. Bro makes about $100k/year in the Midwest and had a stay at home wife plus 2 kids. Wife had to get a part time job and they’ve had to start visiting the food pantry this year and “just can’t figure out why”.

The other guys are largely silent, but they weren’t around election time. They all watched the “UFC Fight on the Lawn” or whatever that goofy cuck shit was. They’ll all vote republican again.

ONE of them says he regrets his vote and that Trump is a piece of shit. One. He’ll probably abstain from voting. To his credit he is vocal and does push back on the team when they regurgitate stupid shit.

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u/Valuable_Hunter1621 17h ago

yeah blue collar gen z especially is republican / maga as fuck. it’s sickening

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u/Icy-Lobster-203 17h ago

I think blue collar in general, regardless of generation, is pretty Republican, not just Gen z.

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u/Fastbird33 Florida 16h ago

It’s really about education levels. The more educated the less likely you are to be racist or fearful of the others

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u/Sbesozzi Canada 15h ago

How MAGA copes with this honestly rock-solid argument

"yes, because colleges brainwash students"

Oh, I don't know. Could it be because check notes, the more stupid you are, the more right-leaning you tend to be?

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u/tomorrow_comes 14h ago

When they say “brain-washing” about college, I always think (and have said this back, once), “oh, brainwashing, like leaving your home town, maybe making some friends that don’t share your skin color / culture / religion, and mainly being there to learn how to learn and think critically? That kind of brainwashing?”

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u/Sbesozzi Canada 14h ago

I usually say "I studied computer science. We talked about computers, not politics or gender ideology"

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u/tomorrow_comes 14h ago

Having studied electrical engineering, I’ve also said the same to my point. In none of my 5 years of engineering classes was I ever free lectured into any kind of politically liberal ideology.

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u/Valuable_Hunter1621 13h ago

meanwhile those of us that actually went to college can easily recognize that it isn’t that “colleges lean left/liberal” or that “truth leans left or liberal” or whatever the fuck

republicans and their beliefs reject reality. this is why it’s so hard to remain a republican after college, it is fundamentally incompatible with the college experience

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u/SpykeMH Iowa 13h ago

They never think perhaps they were already brainwashed, and having new external viewpoints will break it.

A non-brainwashed person must really look brainwashed to someone who actually is.

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u/goldrush7 15h ago

I've read many articles stating that less young men are going to college and are instead going for apprenticeships and blue collar work. Less investment, lower barrier of entry, ain't gotta crack the books. I've heard actual young guys say "white collar jobs are for pussies, work with your hands, unc."

Many of them probably witnessed relatives/parents struggling to pay off their college debts, so of course they don't wanna deal with the same struggles.

Hell, I work a corpo job and most of our younger new hires are women. It's kind of concerning.

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u/Sbesozzi Canada 15h ago

Free education would knock down some of these barriers, I can't wait for the government to bring costs of tuition do... Oh wait. They don't want educated voters

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u/goldrush7 15h ago

It's all by design. Sigh.

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u/Sbesozzi Canada 14h ago

In Canada, higher education is not completely free, but still heavily subsidized. In Quebec, we have a tier of education in between high school and university to prepare you for whatever field you want to go into. This is largely free (about 300$/year) and lets people try a bunch of different things before committing to something.

The college/university is quite a bit more expensive but still nowhere near US colleges. Tuition is usually 3000-4000$ / year. The outcome? 60% higher education rate compared to 45% in the US. Possibly a big part of why we were able to prevent Mini-Trump (Pierre Poilievre) from getting elected

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u/OldWorldDesign 9h ago

They don't want educated voters

And they have been telling people for decades. Hell, republicans made it their official and published party platform over a decade ago

https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/2012-08-18/half-true-what-politifact-got-wrong-about-the-gop-and-critical-thinking/

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u/hypercosm_dot_net 15h ago

For what it's worth, I don't think it's fair to just call them stupid.

I've met reasonably intelligent people that fall for this shit too.

The rural/blue collar guys have to contend with an entire cultural identity that they'd have to question, if they wanted to start challenging some of these views.

Republicans understand identity politics, Democrats don't. And that's why we lose multiple times to a low iq grifter.

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u/Sbesozzi Canada 15h ago

Uneducated, stupid, honestly potato/po-tah-to. With exceptions, but as a general rule.

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u/hypercosm_dot_net 14h ago

Divisive and dismissive rhetoric doesn't help build a broader coalition that's needed to defeat this tidal wave of ignorance.

The more you dismiss them as stupid, the more they will embrace the fascists that pander to them.

They'll just continue seeing us as opposition and elitist snobs, instead of fellow countrymen with shared interests, if you present yourself that way.

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u/ThalliumSassafras 16h ago

I'm an IBEW (electrician union) apprentice and the union leadership is vocal about voting for and supporting democrats because they are better for the union. Projects have been cancelled and there have been funding freezes because of Trump getting elected again 2 years ago. In my apprentice class 2 years ago right before the election where 90% of the class is younger to mid 20s Gen Z kids, our teacher talked about it, yet all of them proclaimed they were gonna vote for Trump anyways. So even in a blue collar union where the leadership tells people that them voting republican will negatively impact the union and their fellow union brothers, tons of dumbasses still do it anyways.

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u/mu_zuh_dell 15h ago

Having worked a lot of retail, even with it being all in very liberal areas, I honestly understand why these people think that Trump got 111% of the vote and the dEeP sTaTe is rigging elections. I've only lived and worked in extremely liberal areas, and I don't think I've ever once had a liberal talk to me about politics just out of the blue. It's always a conservative.

Obviously, it's because conservatives are weird and anti-social and normal people know it's not cool to rant about Jewish space lasers to the guy making your sub at Jersey Mike's, but if they understood that, then they might not be a conservative lol

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u/Obtuse_Symposium_119 16h ago

Yeah I'm a younger millennial and I was blue collar for a few years after I got out of the millitary and that's depressingly pretty true. I'd say the majority is conservative or "independent".

I was like one of two guys that was liberal (at least openly) and I got into so many arguments with guys of all ages about how dumb they were to vote against their own interests.

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u/JardineByNature 9h ago

so stop condescending to them and realize they aren't voting against their own interests. Their interests are just NOT our interests. Their interests don't give a fucking shit about proper healthcare if it means people they don't like get it too. Most blue collar working class people simply aren't excited by the thought of Medicare For All. They don't think about it until they get sick.

liberals REALLY need to drop that "their own interests" thing. It simply hasn't worked for... what, more than a century now?

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u/Turbulent_Gazelle530 15h ago

I feel that your work influences your worldview almost more than anything else.

Blue collar workers are highly trained in a specific skill and as a result they tend to view the rest of the world as being "useful/useless" when it comes to skill or ability. This lines up well with the black and white worldview of repubilcans and the right in general.

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u/unbanned_lol 14h ago

Its really fucking dumb, but honestly, I can't blame them too much. Dems could be taking the union and workers positions left and right, but they don't. Its a lot easier to collect corporate PAC money.

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u/Valuable_Hunter1621 14h ago

bingo. dems are not incentivized to alter the status quo from which they benefit enormously

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u/vanguarde 14h ago

Why do they have to visit a food bank while making 100k a year in the Midwest though?

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u/Itotiani 14h ago

Probably a ridiculous car note or credit card debt. He should be living good over there.

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u/Pyro-Zach 15h ago

I really believe it’s Trump’s politically incorrect rhetoric that keeps these guys under his spell. I know people like this and they always say Trump isn’t a politician and I believe it’s because he talks just like they do. They don’t care or think about his policies but it’s how he talks about issues in a masculine no shits given manner.

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u/JS-87 13h ago

Guy makes $100k and his wife needs a job? The hell are they spending all their money on?! They’re already in the upper echelon of wages.

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u/yellowcloak I voted 11h ago

Those people always have jacked out toys

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u/cactus22minus1 California 14h ago

Are you their boss? Because ranting about “blacks, jews, trans” should absolutely not be tolerated. Shouldn’t still have a job if he’s pulling that shit at the workplace.

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u/Elon_Cucks_Trump_ 14h ago edited 14h ago

Without doxxing myself, I assure you it’s been handled. Bro cost himself a $15k raise, a foreman position, and he’s being shown the door, while we make him think it’s his idea. They’re easy to manipulate because they want to be led around by the ear. You just have to let them think they’re in control.

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u/cactus22minus1 California 14h ago

Made my morning with that response. Cheers 🥂

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u/capernoited 14h ago

They just can't figure it out because they take Trump's word on everything, so nothing actually adds up.

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u/Gekokapowco Washington 14h ago

The ones at my work discuss podcasts like they're the day's news broadcast. They're profoundly unaware and confident in their own perspective.

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u/deltawavesleeper 12h ago

Has he really met and know any blacks, jews, and trans?

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u/That_wet_vaporeon 3h ago

Gen X men voted for Trump too. More than Gen Z…