It turns out Generation Z has a significantly pessimistic view of the world at large — especially when looking through a political lens. Evan Roth Smith, the head pollster of a recent survey conducted by Blueprint, said, “They see a dying empire led by bad people.”
More specifically, the survey revealed, “Young voters do not look at our politics and see any good guys,” and 54 percent of the respondents believe America is going “downhill.”
Further statistics from the poll, which surveyed almost 1,000 18-30-year-old registered voters, showed a “sour mood” toward the American political system.
As the results demonstrated, “49 percent agreed to some extent that elections in the country don’t represent people like them; 51 percent agreed to some extent that the political system in the U.S. ‘doesn’t work for people like me’; and 64 percent backed the statement that ‘America is in decline.’ A whopping 65 percent agreed either strongly or somewhat that ‘nearly all politicians are corrupt, and make money from their political power’ — only 7 percent disagreed.”
The results indicated that, in part, these opinions stemmed from a negative outlook of President Joe Biden’s leadership, as well as “lasting” effects from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Regarding the latter point, “77 percent said that the event changed the country for the worse, and 45 percent said they feel less connected to friends and acquaintances compared with five years ago,” Semafor’s Shelby Talcott reported.
When analyzing the findings, Smith believes the first step moving forward “is more fully admitting that people are hurting … particularly around the economy [and] inflation.” Talcott agreed.
“Broadly speaking, Blueprint’s polling reveals young voters in America are not doing OK. But the pessimism about the country, its leaders, and more is also a concerning trend for Biden — whether he’s directly responsible for why voters feel the way they do or not, he’s currently in office during a time when many seem to be,” she said.
However, Joseph Backholm, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for Strategic Engagement and Biblical Worldview, shared with The Washington Stand there are deeper ways to interpret the results of the poll.
Is there no hope for America?
For instance, he said, “One challenge of living in an information age is that people are aware of problems that have nothing to do with them. Many people live wonderful, comfortable lives but take up grievances vicariously.” As a result, Backholm emphasized, some of what is seen in the poll “is perception rather than reality.”
Backholm explained how “young people have long been rebelling against their parent’s generation. They see, often correctly, things that need to be different and try to do something different.”
However, he noted, “The risk is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Change is only good if it’s change in the right direction,” which also makes it “important to have a point of reference that doesn’t change.”
Ultimately, “God defines goodness, and if our change is in that direction, it will” be a good change, Backholm said. “But if our idea of change is to create a world in which more people follow their heart, that will just lead to more pain.”
As for young people who think the world is changing for the worse, Backholm said, “We know change will happen because it’s inevitable. Whether that is good or not depends on what the motivation and goal for the change is.”
Backholm gave advice for how Christians, in particular, can respond to the pessimism revealed in the survey: “The best thing Christians can do in this situation is communicate hope that transcends circumstances. The gospel is not for a certain group of people, in a certain nation, under a specific set of circumstances. It’s for everyone, in all places, at all times.”
And as believers, he said, “we should live lives that are concerned about the decisions we make because ideas have consequences, but also lives that are unmoved by the circumstances of life because our hope transcends the circumstances.”
As Backholm pointed out, “If our joy depends on cultural or political developments, we’ll never have joy,” as evidenced by the poll. However, he concluded, “If our joy depends on what Jesus has done and will do in the future, we’ll always have joy, even when things are hard.”
This article appeared originally on The Washington Stand.
