Struggle and Unity: Young People Demand Change

This article was co-written by Abigail Romero and Jing-Jing Shen. Once bustling public spaces, now visited only by the occasional mask-wielding passerby. Funerals with no attendees. Blue tents dotting long-winded streets. These images bore into the minds of so many Americans amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Though the pandemic is not the genesis of our society’s … Read more

For America’s Youth, Structural Change Is Personal

This article was co-written by Joy Ashford and Henry Austin. It’s hard to talk about politics with young Americans without hearing three words: “big, structural change.” While some pundits brush off young people’s frustration as adolescent rebellion or unrealistic idealism, their calls for change are in fact increasingly specific and the result of the tangible … Read more

A Young Person’s Recipe for Hope in a Time of Fear

This article was co-written by Jing-Jing Shen and Rebecca Araten. Right now, the lives of young people are fraught: worries surrounding healthcare, debt, and the cost of housing weigh heavily on young consciences. A majority of America’s youth — 50.4% — describe themselves as suffering in some way or another. They worry about what the … Read more

Patriots may be Dying, but Patriotism is Still Alive

This article was co-written by Xavier Morales and Katie Heintz. In 2002, after the September 11, 2001 attacks, Americans were united by a common tragedy, against a common enemy. As a result, a huge majority of young Americans considered themselves patriotic: a youth survey by the Harvard Public Opinion Project at the time found that … Read more

Patriotism in the Media

This article was co-written by Sasha Barish and Katie Heintz. Over the course of the 21st century, the percentage of Americans who identify as “patriotic” has been falling. This shift is largely generational, and also differs vastly along partisan, racial, and other demographic lines, an observation supported by other analyses in this article series. In … Read more

Confusion, Alienation, Invigoration: The American Youth on Three Years of the Trump Presidency

As the 2020 elections draw near, the future presents two possible paths: the continuation of a presidency that has become emblematic of a global shift rightward, or a return to the liberal moderation that defined the term prior. This choice takes the form of the presidential contest between incumbent Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic … Read more