Today’s shift in young people’s views is real and large. A 2025 Cato/YouGov poll found 62% of 18–29-year-olds hold a favorable view of “socialism,” while favorability toward capitalism among young adults has fallen to around 39% in recent Harvard and Gallup polling down roughly 20 points over a decade. The question I have to ask is what is the reason for this change and why is it happening now?
I believe that there are many reasons for what we are seeing in the political arena these days especially with our young people’s views. Let’s start with our education system and how it has changed. The “No Child Left Behind Act of 2001” changed the curriculum by increasing time spent on reading and math while reducing time spend on social studies, science, arts and physed overall by about 35%.
Because of this curriculum change we have seen civic and historical knowledge among our children has measurably declined and the trend shows up clearly in our Nations Report Card NAEP where we find that 8th grade history scores dropped about 40% since 2014 and these kids cannot today identify simple historical concepts while large segments of Americans cannot identify the three branches of government or basic constitutional facts.
It is my opinion that our public education system has played a significant part in this change we are observing in our young people and it is by no means the crux of the problem as economic conditions have played a major role in how these young people think. This is a generation that came of age through the 2008 crash also that had to deal with eight years of Obama apologizing to the world for America being so successful along with spiraling costs for a college education. While they experienced four good years economically with Trumps election they also had to deal with the turmoil from left-over Obama appointees as they began their lawfare campaign to discredit Trump as he was turning our country around economically. Even with all of Trumps succesas economically it was not enough to get him a second term to complete the task as the liberal media did everything in their power to discredit him. It was Joe Bidens four years of hell that destroyed everything that Trump had built as he ushered in more rules and regulations spent trillions on the Covid fiasco gave us a 20% inflation rate which made everything more expensive.
Let us not forget the invasion of 14 million illegals who stole Americans jobs by working for low wages and caused the housing crisis as they all needed a place to live. Joe literally turned the American Dream upside down for these young college graduates. On top of all of this turmoil these young people were told a college degree was the path to security. Truth be known there was no guarantee as these kids took on huge amounts of debt and couldn’t find that security they were promised after getting their degree. This is just one more reason these young grads have concluded that the current economic arrangement isn’t working for them and they are asking the government to do more about it.
The engine that is driving this new socialistic attitude is that they are not being offered the same deal that their parents got. Let’s face it no one ever offered them the same deal as their parents got because inflation and the illegal invasion had taken much of that deal away. Truth be known it was the eight years of Obama and four years of Biden with the democrats in charge of congress that turned our country upside down but you will never hear the liberal media admit to that.
When we look at today’s economy, which is growing, it is hard to imagine that 45% of recent grads are living with their parents and that for the broader population (grads and non-grads together) they make up about 33% or one in three that still live at home. The documented reason is economic and I do believe that this is part of the reason for our young people shifting to the left however what the evidence does support is that unaffordable housing and debt have stalled independence which correlates with their more favorable views of socialism. We are not talking about Socialism in the truest definition but socialization where government would do something to give them a fighting chance for success. That would mean a bigger welfare state as young people themselves cite affordability and inequality as top reasons they have soured on the current economic system.
I believe this is the primary reason they are gravitating more towards the left and a socialist welfare society that so many of these progressive candidates are saying they can deliver. The problem is that these progressive promises of a new land of milk and honey are impossible to achieve without higher taxes for all. You need only look and see what is happening in New York City as Mamdani was elected by promising free public transportation, free childcare, a rent freeze for one million households, tax the rich and affordable city run grocery stores. The problem is that there is no way that these promises can be fulfilled. Because when you tax the rich they will take their money and leave for a better economic environment. This exodus by the wealthy in N.Y.C. has already started and is what will happen in every other city or state where these promises are made as a political platform by progressives should they be elected.
So, it is fair to say that the same economic squeeze that keeps college graduates living at home also plausibly feeds the leftward economic mood. While correlation isn’t identification plenty of grads living at home are politically moderate to conservative and plenty of young leftists live independently so it is hard to map one group on to the other. The worry about the DSA being the latest recruiting station for this group does not have any real support and is still very small but the economic frustration toward left leaning views has real support in the aggregate. The tidy calm that the stay-at-home grads are DSA socialists is an interpretation that reporting doesn’t actually establish.
What the recent Michigan Democratic Primary showed us very clearly is that while the “progressives” along with the liberal media want us to believe is that Michigan was a huge victory for them. What they won’t tell you about is this election was won by a very slim margin and the statistics were enlightening. What was of critical importance in this race was that in 15 Michigan districts with the least population of college graduates they overwhelming voted for Haley Stevens the traditional Democratic candidate. In the 15 districts with the largest number of college graduates, they supported Abdul El-Sayed. The real story that the liberal media doesn’t want to talk about is that Abdul won by a very slim margin of 1%.
I believe this shows us a break in the Democratic party that may be very helpful to Republicans in the Mid-term elections as many of the traditional democrats are seen breaking away from those ultra progressives’ candidates who are being designated as socialists. There are even some dem’s who have said they would rather vote for a republican than hitch their wagon to this DSA/progressive group. In any case the November midterms will be critical for both parties. I don’t like making political predictions when it comes to elections like the mid-terms but it is my feeling that if this split in the Democratic party is for real the Republicans will have a better than even chance of holding both the house and the senate and may actually gain a few seats in both.
As Benjamin Franklin once said: “It’s a Republic if you can keep it.”
“We Get the Government We Deserve.”
