Biden faces a decline in popularity among voters under 30, but his performance among older Americans is better. The generational divide comes amid growing criticism over his response to the Gaza war.
SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:
The youth vote played a big role in President Biden’s 2020 victory, but one of the many issues that has voters under 30 unhappy with the president is his response to the war in Gaza. Some of those young people spoke to NPR late last year at a march in Washington.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Gen Z cares deeply about human rights as a movement, and the fact that our commander in chief is not following through on that demand and supporting it is really disheartening.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Joe Biden will never, ever, ever get my vote again.
PFEIFFER: Not all young voters told us they felt that way.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: The far left does not support Israel, and Israel is a big part of who I am as a person.
PFEIFFER: Yet younger voters are less likely than their elders to approve of Israel’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. And a wave of campus protests has inflamed the final months of the 2024 academic year.
UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Singing, inaudible).
PFEIFFER: This week, we’re focusing on war and international conflict as part of our series “We, the Voters.” I talked about the generational divide on this issue with NPR’s Elena Moore, who has been speaking with young voters. I also spoke with Omar Wasow, an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley. We started by asking why he thinks President Biden is losing more young voters than older voters over Gaza.
OMAR WASOW: For older generations, Israel is defined by the Holocaust and the bitter wars fought for survival. In their eyes, Israel is actually seen as an outsider. I think for younger generations, Israel is increasingly defined by how it treats Palestinians, particularly under the right-wing governments led by Netanyahu over the last 20 years, and for them, Israel is seen as the leader.
PFEIFFER: That’s interesting. So in some ways, the lived experience or perhaps the lack of lived experience of young voters, because they’re just younger, doesn’t allow them to remember the history of Israel, which might give them as much support and sympathy among their elders. Is that a fair way to put it?
WASOW: I think that’s absolutely correct. Contemporary issues related to settlement expansion, for example, define the perception of younger generations of Israel, not the history of the response to the Holocaust.
PFEIFFER: I read a previous interview where you said that because many students today were in high school during the Black Lives Matter protests, they see the protests as a normal part of civic participation. Do you think that’s something that’s unique to this generation of young people and that it’s not true for all younger generations?
WASOW: Protest movements ebb and flow across generations. So there was a spike in activity in the ’60s, and then a bit of a lull. And then we saw, you know, a resurgence of protest movements during wars or, in the case of the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020. So I think some generations are more affected by protest movements than others. It’s also important to note that the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 were some of the largest in American history. So it was a defining experience for people who grew up during that time.
PFEIFFER: Omar Wasow, you’ve studied the protests in the United States in the 1960s, particularly the student civil rights protests. You know, it’s interesting that some of these students today may have parents who participated in those protests in the 1960s, but we also see parents who are appalled by their children’s protests. What do you think about that?
WASOW: Part of the logic of protest is trying to disrupt the status quo, which is to say that some form of inequality or injustice is no longer acceptable. And often, to an older generation, that kind of thing seems normal. The status quo is what they’ve lived with their whole lives, and to a younger generation, it becomes sort of unacceptable. And so it involves a cross-generational focus and a cross-tactic focus, where the disruption is meant to say that we no longer accept the current norm, but it means potentially getting in the way or doing things that make people in positions of power or people who are more established uncomfortable.
PFEIFFER: Oh, that’s interesting. Are you saying that in some ways, their parents have maybe become complacent or they’ve settled into a certain comfort level? They become more gentle as they get older and more comfortable, perhaps?
WASOW: I would say that as people get older, they get used to the status quo in some way, and things that might be problematic become acceptable. And for the younger generation, it’s trying to make sense of what’s happening, to interpret some forms of inequality, and not necessarily accept the status quo as natural or reasonable.
PFEIFFER: This is Omar Wasow, assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Berkeley. Thank you for your attention.
WASOW: Thank you very much.
PFEIFFER: And now we have Elena Moore from NPR. She’s looking at new voters in youth politics. Hello, Elena.
ELENA MOORE, BYLINE: Hi.
PFEIFFER: Elena, of all the young voters you’ve talked to about Gaza and Israel, how much opposition do you think they have to the way Biden is handling things that will influence their behavior at the polls in November?
ELENA MOORE: I think it makes the decision very complicated. I spoke to a young voter in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, not too long ago, in April. His name is Miles Medina (ph). And this is a really difficult topic for them right now.
MILES MEDINA: I’m not happy with Biden’s foreign policy, but at the same time, as a transgender person, I don’t want my rights taken away. And I know that’s a question that a lot of people my age are asking: What do I do?
ELENA MOORE: You heard Miles say he’s transgender. He told me he generally votes Democrat. And, you know, as an American voter, he’s made the case that voting for a Democrat like Biden would make more sense to him. But on this issue of the Gaza war, it really holds them back and makes the November vote much more complicated.
PFEIFFER: So some people might not vote for Biden. Do you have any idea how many people might vote for Trump or a third party candidate, or not vote at all? All of those scenarios could have different effects on the election.
ELENA MOORE: Right. Let’s look at Wisconsin. In a state like Wisconsin, where the margin was so small in 2020, voters could vote for different people, but it could have a very similar effect. So any vote lost by Biden is positive for Trump in a state that’s so close.
PFEIFFER: Of course, not all young voters vote as a bloc. Many support Israel. They support Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza. But Biden’s critics, the young people who are critical of Biden, have perhaps gotten a disproportionate amount of media coverage. To what extent do you think they represent the views of their generation?
ELENA MOORE: I mean, it really depends, because recent polls show that when you ask young people, voters under 40, what their top voting issue is, it’s again the economy, you know, and inflation in particular. In a recent University of Chicago poll, we saw that. The war in Gaza is on that list, but it’s less prominent. So yes, it’s an issue that mobilizes a group of people, but to say that it encompasses a whole bloc of voters is not true.
PFEIFFER: Elena Moore, NPR political reporter. Thank you.
ELENA MOORE: Thank you.
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