This week, Rasmussen Reports and the Heartland Institute released three polls highlighting the views of likely voters aged 18 to 39 across a wide range of issues. Suffice to say, the results do not bode well for the future.
In the first poll, 53 percent of young people said they want a democratic socialist to win the 2028 presidential election, and 76 percent agree “somewhat” or “strongly” that “major industries like health care, energy, and big tech should be nationalized to give more control and equity to the people.”
In the second poll, 62 percent believe the “American economy is unfair to young people,” and 55 percent said they would support a law to confiscate “excess wealth,” including second homes, luxury cars, and private boats, to help young people buy their first homes.
In the third poll, 59 percent support a law that imposes a maximum annual income cap for individuals, 40 percent support punishing Americans who refuse to use others’ preferred pronouns, and 59 percent support giving the United Nations authority over the U.S. Supreme Court and presidency to “protect rights.”
It does not take a genius to find the common denominator: Young Americans do not cherish personal liberty, national sovereignty, and free-market capitalism.
However, it takes a sound and inquisitive mind to try to grasp why this is happening and what the potential consequences could be for the entire world if this trend continues unabated.
In all honesty, there is not a single reason as to why young Americans are embracing socialism, globalism, and authoritarianism like never before. Like most things in life, it is complicated and nuanced.
But it is a very necessary exercise to examine and understand why this happening, lest we could lose the opportunity to nip it in the bud before it metastasizes and spreads like cancer throughout our body politic.
In my humble opinion, there are a few main factors at play that have created the current situation in which most young Americans reject freedom of opportunity in favor of socialism and “equity.”
First and foremost, America’s public schools have utterly failed to properly educate generations of students regarding the unfiltered history of poverty, misery, death, destruction, and fundamental unfairness of socialism.
This is not a mere guess; it is something I experienced while teaching high school social studies in public schools in Illinois and South Carolina for several years. Make no mistake, if your son or daughter is in a public school, they are almost assuredly being indoctrinated with Marxist ideology. If they decide to attend an institution of higher learning, you can bet your bottom dollar that they are going to receive a huge dose of pro-socialist, anti-American propaganda.
Second, too many American parents have become derelict in their duty of instilling values like hard work, honesty, personal responsibility, obedience, discipline, etc. Although this is difficult to quantify and somewhat anecdotal, it is something I’ve observed as social media has gained outsized influence among young people in recent years.
Third, American culture is toxic. From academia to cable TV to Hollywood to social media, our cultural landscape thrives on victimhood, perpetuates the oppressor-oppressed paradigm, and endlessly paints the United States as the bad guy in world affairs.
Fourth, we’ve coddled generations and convinced them to believe the lie that everybody should get a trophy and that we are all winners. When I was a kid, everyone didn’t get a trophy; only those who earned one did. By shielding young people from failure and adversity, we are doing them a monumental injustice.
Fifth, and finally, we’ve embraced an ethos that one’s success comes at the peril of another. Life need not be a zero-sum game. We would do young Americans a big favor to remind them that a rising tide lifts all boats.
The good news is that we still have time to right these mistakes. America is still the world’s beacon of freedom. However, this is not written in stone. As Ronald Reagan wisely said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
Chris Talgo (ctalgo@heartland.org) is editorial director at The Heartland Institute.
Image: Heartland Institute