After 4 years in office, former President Joe Biden tried to run for a second term, but was replaced by his vice president, Kamala Harris. With only 107 days before the election, Harris worked tirelessly to beat the Republican candidate, Donald Trump. However, by election day, it became evident that Trump would be president for a second term.
Although Harris had 48.3 percent of the popular vote, it has been noticed that there’s been a growing rise in conservatism, especially by young, Gen-Z men. A poll by NBC noted that there was a 23 percent gap from both genders in approval ratings of President Trump. However, the causes of this could be ascribed to many things.
“I’ve noticed, probably even more so with boys, that social media has had more of an influence on them than it ever used to. I think that’s, various, whatever podcasts that kids watch or listen to on youtube, I think that’s how it’s influenced young boys,” Ap Government and civics teacher Tak Ready said.
Radicalizing events, like the recent assassination of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, have been described as playing a role in the shift away from liberalism in young men.
“I think coming up to the election cycle of 2024 and onward, men definitely been more prone towards the right and I think especially now with the assassination of Charlie Kirk, which is just a bit more recent, especially with that young men -probably college-aged and younger -have definitely moved more to the right,” senior Vincent Germaine said.
However, social media is not the only potential influence of the rise in conservatism, as political opinions will always change in contrast to the current president. Although, that may not be exclusive to young men.
“And now I think whoever is president ends up, you know, obviously ends up making decisions and sometimes making decisions that people don’t like and so then there’s kind of a reaction against them. And so now I think that, I’ve noticed this year that I have more boys who, in class, and girls who just don’t like some of the things that Trump has done. So I think there’s just a natural reaction about who’s president is to not be happy with their decisions and therefore at least entertain the option of the other side. Last year that was helping Trump and the republicans, and I think this year it might be helping, hurting, president Trump and the republicans,” Ready said.
At West however, there has been a general trend towards conservatism. However, there tends to be an even split between both parties in the AP Government classes.
“Politically, I think there [were] a lot of centrists. […] As far as [the] candidate party it was mostly even, but like on individual issues, I found it tends to be a lot more liberal,” senior Adam Ranieri said.
Despite the general consensus of a more conservative lean with men; not every single male leans conservative, and not all women are liberal. Political socialization arises from a variety of factors which leads to different beliefs.
“What leads most, of all the different factors that influence your political socialization is […] family, or schools, or the media,” Ready said.
