Perusing Salon occasionally earths up nuggets of delusional reality gold. Take this from Salon columnist, Chauncey DeVega.

Chauncey makes the bold claim that while most feel the future is in the hands of our young people, our youngsters cannot “save Democracy” alone.

You think? Say it isn’t so, Mr. DeVega! From Yale University studies:

The student researchers … are finding that different experiences with COVID-19 and technology might be leading the youngest voters to lean more conservative than older Gen Z voters.

Consistent with evidence from Yair Ghitza and Andrew Gelman, young voters have not always leaned Democratic. Driven by political events in young people’s formative years (ages 14-24), sometimes young people lean Democratic, but other times they lean Republican. For example, young people born in the 1940s and 1970s tended to vote Republican, even when they were 20 years old. Differential experiences with COVID-19, the first Trump and Biden Administrations, and technology could explain why the student-researchers behind the Yale Youth Poll find this gap within Gen Z.”-Chauncey DeVega, Salon

Experiences with COVID-19 and tech. This is valid. There are two groups of young people who spend almost two years in virtual classes and at home. The ones who needed extra support, never got it, and fell captive to what the government, the media, socials and their schools were putting down during pandemic-(fear, racial division and more radical change behind-the-scenes.) These kids bought into the narrative that was getting pushed out. The kids on the other side of the spectrum? They embraced the ever-loving-suck that was pandemic. They put their heads down, they got their work done. They showed up to a classroom-faceless, with camera off-amidst a bunch of other virtual students who were also faceless. They picked up hobbies, they gamed with best friends across the miles. They enrolled in Driver’s Ed. When sports were back in-session, they wrestled on a sweaty mat, outside, with masks on.

They returned to school to find some of their peers socially awkward and afraid of everything. They saw fights break out at school which disrupted class, fights and bullying on social media, people identifying as girls one day and boys the next, or vice-versa. They were given assignments like “privilege necklaces” in Social Studies to further stoke division between their peers. Some of them decided high school assignments in the public school system were a joke and enrolled in community college to jump-start their career path-be it at university or a trade. They were so tired of the stench of bullsh*t around them, they voted for Trump in 2024. I know this because this is my 19 year-old son.

More from the Yale poll:

We have to remember that the young adults sampled in the Yale poll are the first to come of age politically after the Great Recession and during the pandemic. They don’t know what a functioning and fully-funded social institution is. Those in the 18-21 category were teenagers when the pandemic started. The most meaningful institution in their life, education, has been a mess. If we disaggregate the education data a bit, boys are suspended from schools way more than girls are. Black boys are suspended the most, prompting critics to point out a racialized school-to-prison pipeline. Fourteen percent of 25-year-old men are not in the labor force, a statistic that has been on the rise for decades. The 22 to 29-year-olds who are still “liberal” entered college after the recession. Basically, every state took advantage of the Great Recession to reduce public funding to state schools while increasing tuition, fees and housing costs.”-Chauncey DeVega, Salon

They don’t know what a functioning and fully-funded social institution is, Chauncey, nor do they want to. And, excuse me? Education has been a hot mess way before the pandemic. It only became worse after 2020. The funding that went into education went to pad DEI programs like SEL. This is what the government deemed was “good” for these kids. Math and reading scores plummeted because they did not care about them. They were more focused on reimagining education in the eyes of woke ideology. They seized this opportunity and ran with it.

DeVega argues that young people alone cannot save democracy.

Perhaps because breaking things and damaging people’s property in the name of “democracy” is counter-productive to the “Love All, COEXIST” ideology bumper sticker you put on your Subaru? (That is, if you’re not too afraid to drive a car…)

Dear Young Democrats-here are some words of wisdom. It is not your fault that Chauncey DeVega and th e rest of the liberals with TDS at Salon don’t have faith in you and are now rallying the old farts to pitch in and end this neofascism. It is their fault for coddling you and giving you a trophy when you did not deserve it. It is their fault for telling you to “live out your truth” when it is a lie. It is their fault for not showing up for you to make sure you knew how to add two plus two and read a simple sentence. It is their fault for silencing you on any opinion that is contrary to the ones they want you to have. It is their fault for electing an incompetent, old fool, establishment politician and putting up a middle-aged, equally incompetent woman on the 2024 ballot. It is their fault for making your peers like David Hogg their mouthpiece.

The future must be won in the present. Unfortunately for the future of American democracy and freedom, the current Democratic Party is still looking backward to a vanished status quo and an obsolete understanding of politics.”-Chauncey DeVega, Salon

Don’t despair, young Dems. Look to your grandparents. They’ll help you paint a nice swastika sign to take to the Tesla dealership. Saving democracy one Electric Slide at a time.

Featured Image: Young child throwing a temper tantrum. Created using Midjourney AI by Amanda S. Green.