Why Gen Z is fed-up with our two-party systemand will force it to change – New York Post

Gen Z is politically homeless and increasingly so. In just a year, 2020srecord-breakingyoung voter engagement has plummeted astronomically. This year, the California recall election saw a48 percentdrop in young turnout as compared to 2020, and the governors race in Virginia also experienced a62 percentslump in voters under 30.

This comes as Gen Zs faith in President Biden and the Democratic Partys effectiveness has faltered. Theyreportthe largest generational drop in approval of Bidens performance, tumbling20 percentsince June to a mere 43 percent last month. We appear to be growing politically apathetic and that should come as no surprise.

Gen Z came of age in the lesser-of-two-evils era of American politics. The first major political event many of us were old enough to understand was the election of 2016, when we watched our families tear each other apart over politics at the Thanksgiving table. While older Americans experienced a slow-slide into divisiveness, a disjointed America is the only one Gen Z has ever known and, frankly, many of us are fed up.

With roughlyhalfof Gen Z registered as independents, my contemporaries are dumping the partisan system in droves, and were looking for alternatives. The third party options before us, however, are uninspiring to say the least. The two largest are theLibertarian Party, which attracted a meager1 percentof the popular vote in 2020, and the progressiveGreen Party, which couldnt even pull in a third of a percent. For dynamic young voters, these lethargic and ineffective parties are far from a logical fit.

Thats where former presidential and mayoral candidate Andrew Yang would like to step in. Last month, he launched theForward Partywith the slogan, Not Left. Not Right. Forward, with a platform that endorses various alterations to our democracys status quo, includingranked-choice voting,independent redistricting commissions,accessible and secure voting, andopen primariesto increase voter engagement in choosing candidates.

I personally feel terrible that we left your generation such a disaster, Yang told me in a recent phone interview. I get why young people are becoming apathetic. You look up and say, This system is not designed to work for me or my generation. Why should I have faith in this? And the answer is that you shouldnt. If I were a sensible young person today, I would feel there isnt a place for me politically.

Yang, 46, wants to modernize policies to keep up in the digital age by establishing aDepartment of Technology,protect personal data as a property right, and even formallyendorse cryptocurrenciesand blockchain technologies, which promises to be particularly popular with young voters who make up astaggering majorityof crypto buyers.

The plan is to animate those who are fed up which is most of us at this point and to point out that the system is rigged, he said. The Forward Party is unifying independents, libertarians, disaffected Democrats and disaffected Republicans who want to make a process change that will allow new points of view to be heard.

The Forward Partys economic platform, however, has proven quite controversial. Policies include handouts of money in the form of democracy dollars for donations to political candidates and a $1,000 monthly universal basic income, which has drawn awidearrayofcriticism. While many Americans see UBI as better suited to a socialist state than the United States, its a clear point of generational dissonance. More thantwo-thirdsof Gen Z hold a favorable view of the policy, at a two-to-one rate over older Americans.

While Yangs vision is definitely bold and perhaps utopian, it just may gain traction among a generation desperate for change. Gen Zs mountingvoting powerand general disaffection are going to shake things up and future third party alternatives will likely meet their demands in the coming years.

Id say this to a young person trying to figure out where to go: Do you really think that the Democratic or Republican Party will be the vehicle thats going to change things for your generation, or do you think its going to be a new upstart party that changes the game? Yang asked. If you think that its the latter, then join us because were making common cause with everyone whos fed up with the status quo.

Rikki Schlott is a 21-year-old student at NYU.

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Why Gen Z is fed-up with our two-party systemand will force it to change - New York Post