While more and more <a href="https://www.deseret.com/faith/2025/09/03/gen-z-millenials-faith-church-attendance/">young people</a> are searching for God, Catholic advocacy group CatholicVote is stepping up to meet the moment with the launch of its new platform, <a href="https://zeale.co/">Zeale</a>.
Zeale aims to put out high-quality, entertaining Catholic content – including news, podcasts, documentaries, and other special programming – while also building community and prayer life. And, most importantly, it promises to do so while never sacrificing depth or truth.
Surveys show folks in Gen Z are increasingly drawing closer to Christ, and churchgoers in this ever-online generation are actually more inclined to show up to service than other generations. Moreover, Catholic affiliation, in particular, is on the rise with young people.
CatholicVote hopes to guide and support those in this search. As the organization’s president and CEO Kelsey Reinhardt put it, Zeale is designed to “inspire every American to live out the truth through the lens of beauty and goodness.”
“Zeale engages people in the political and cultural discussions of our time through the heart and imagination,” Reinhardt said in a statement sent to The Daily Wire. The platform, she added, “helps you ‘live Catholic’ with confidence and enthusiasm.”
The new platform is accessible on mobile devices, <a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=co.zeale.app&amp;hl=en_US">available</a> to download on the App Store and Google Play, meeting Gen Z in their own space. The platform is also <a href="https://zeale.co/">available</a> on desktop.
<div id="attachment_1033907" style="width: 394px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1033907" class="wp-image-1033907 size-large" src="https://drwordpress.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Kelsey-Reinhardt-headshot-384x576.jpg" alt="" width="384" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/Kelsey-Reinhardt-headshot-384x576.jpg 384w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/Kelsey-Reinhardt-headshot-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/Kelsey-Reinhardt-headshot-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/01/Kelsey-Reinhardt-headshot.jpg 837w" sizes=" (max-width: 384px) 100vw, 384px" />Kelsey Reinhardt, Courtesy of CatholicVote</div>
Zeale will feature CatholicVote’s new Morning LOOPcast, which is a video roundup of the day’s most compelling headlines, in addition to the organization’s beloved daily news roundup, The Loop.
Users will also have access to a growing library of podcasts, documentaries, and special programming — covering everything from fashion and food, to sports and travel, prayers and spirituality, human-interest stories, cultural issues, and even games.
Prayer, unsurprisingly, is also a huge focus of Zeale. The platform allows users to access daily Mass readings and connect with fellow Catholics. Notably, you can pray with and for others, submit prayer intentions, and join the Zeale community when urgent news calls for collective prayer.
“Zeale is the hub for Catholics who want to stay informed and respond together, thoughtfully, collectively and prayerfully when crises arise,” Reinhardt said.

Screenshot 2026-01-26 at 8.23.37 PM

‘Gen Z Is Searching For God’: CatholicVote Meets The Moment, Launches New Faith Platform

Catholic Church

Gen Z

Religion

U.S.

As a member of Gen Z, I am often told my generation is a lost cause for conservatism — too cynical, too progressive, or just too far gone.
That assumption couldn’t be more wrong. Gen Z isn’t rejecting America; we’re demanding that it work again. And if conservatives are serious about reclaiming the soul of the nation, the path forward runs directly through the issues my generation lives with every day.
Gen Z came of age at the crossroads of stability and uncertainty. 
During President Trump’s first term, we witnessed a strong economy, interest rates that opened the door to homeownership, an end to forever wars, and a return to policies that prioritized the family.
Under President Biden, however, millions of young Americans graduated college and took entry-level jobs that barely covered their student loan payments, even as the cost of everything rose faster than their paychecks. They were told to follow the rules — go to college, take on loans, delay adulthood. Then, when those rules failed them, they were blamed.
What frustrates my peers isn’t tradition or responsibility; it’s a system that feels rigged against them. 
That’s precisely where conservatism, properly articulated, can meet the moment.
<h3>Homeownership</h3>
For Gen Z, homeownership feels less like a milestone and more like a fantasy. Sky-high rents that prevent us from putting money into savings, zoning restrictions that choke supply, and inflation driven by reckless federal spending have priced young people out of opportunity. 
Conservatives should call this what it is: a policy failure. Government rules make it harder to build homes, while bad monetary policy drains savings and pushes the dream of stability further out of reach for young families.
If we believe in ownership, stability, and opportunity, then we should lead on reforms that make it easier — not harder — for young Americans to buy homes and build wealth.
<h3>Student Debt</h3>
Then there’s student debt. Gen Z didn’t invent the student loan crisis; we inherited it.
Many borrowers were reckless, and they should repay what they owe. But recklessness was enabled by a federal loan system that treated teenagers as capable of signing six-figure contracts while shielding universities from the consequences of failure.
Subsidies have fueled tuition inflation and reduced institutional accountability, leaving students to bear the full cost of bad decisions — both theirs and the systems.
Conservatives should reject blanket loan “forgiveness” that shifts the burden to taxpayers, but we must also offer real solutions: ending the federal government’s role as a blank-check lender so private institutions once again have incentives to lend responsibly, expanding alternatives like apprenticeships and credentialing, and breaking the cartel between the federal government and higher education. Responsibility cuts both ways—and universities should finally be forced to bear some.
<h3>Building A Family </h3>
Most surprising to pundits — but obvious to anyone paying attention — is Gen Z’s renewed interest in traditional family values. After watching the loneliness, instability, and social breakdown of the last two decades, many in my generation are rediscovering what older generations once took for granted: marriage matters, family matters, and children are not obstacles to fulfillment but central to it. This isn’t nostalgia; it’s realism. Gen Z wants meaning, not just mobility. We want strong relationships, safe neighborhoods, and a culture that doesn’t sneer at commitment.
Conservatives should lean into this—not with lectures, but with policies that make it possible to start and raise a family. That means an economy where a young family has the chance to create a home and build a foundation for the future, a tax code that doesn’t treat marriage like a liability, and leaders who value faith, responsibility, and strong bonds across generations. When conservatives defend the family, we aren’t clinging to the past — we’re offering a future Gen Z actually wants.
The fight for America’s soul isn’t about writing off an entire generation. It’s about proving that our ideas can meet real needs in real lives. Gen Z is open, skeptical, and looking for answers. If conservatives are honest about the economic realities we’re dealing with and defend the institutions that make life meaningful, my generation won’t just listen — we’ll lead.
* * *
Jake Matthews is a communications manager for technology, economics, and energy at The Heritage Foundation.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Group of young multi-ethnic startup business team collaborating on project in modern office

Gen Z Isn’t Lost. We’re Looking For A Conservatism That Works.

Conservatives

Heritage Foundation

Housing

Opinion

Real estate

Socialism is back. We see it with the election of Zohran Mamdani as Mayor of New York. We also see it in polling from the <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/81-say-they-cant-afford-pay-higher-taxes-next-year">Cato Institute</a> that suggests many young Americans view socialism favorably: “Among Americans under 30, 62 percent feel favorable toward socialism…”
Beyond the obvious economic and political dangers of socialism, one component receives relatively little attention: the culture of work.
People who live and work in socialist societies often report being far less satisfied and motivated than those who work in relatively free markets. When a nation’s government controls businesses, they lose a competitive advantage. As a result, employees who derive dignity from achievement and contribution experience disappointment.
At the same time, people uninterested in hard work are more likely to be coddled and protected. This often perpetuates an environment of mediocrity.
Talk to any driven person who has ever worked in a socialist country, or in an industry controlled by government regulation, and you’ll hear this sentiment. Hard work is not rewarded. Mediocre employees can’t be let go. Innovation is harder to sustain. Work becomes a matter of showing up, biding your time, and accepting that upward mobility is not possible.
I work with a young man who took great risks to escape a socialist country, and I have other colleagues who have lived in socialist countries. Their experiences convey a muted sense of hope that most people have about their employment.
Anecdotes aren’t proof, but they often show you what certain systems tend to produce. A vivid lesson about the dangers of socialism on the culture of work comes from a surprising source: people who have worked in “socialist-like” industries that exist within free markets.
When traveling for business, I’ve spoken to many flight attendants about their work experiences. The vast majority work in heavily unionized environments, and many have told me there is little incentive to do their job well other than their intrinsic desire to make people happy. Their careers are determined by seniority, and chronically underperforming colleagues are tolerated, rarely addressed, and almost never dismissed.
The fantastic flight attendants I met can’t be recruited by competitors — or even move to airlines that pay more or treat employees better — because they’d have to start over at the back of the seniority line. So the next time you experience great service on a flight, show some respect knowing they are often doing what they do out of love for others, not because they are rewarded.
The purpose of work should be to give people the freedom to provide for their families, use the gifts that God has given them, and experience the dignity of serving others well. When leaders organize work with these purposes, they give individuals incentive to tap into their best potential.
However, when organizations tolerate poor performance and remove the extrinsic rewards of achievement, they do a terrible disservice to the dignity of customers and employees alike. It’s important to understand that even underperforming employees lose dignity in socialist societies and organizations as they are prevented from experiencing the tough love necessary to become the best versions of themselves.
This is the real tragedy of socialist workplaces: people rarely become the best versions of themselves. In other words, they settle.
Despite all of this being true, why do large numbers of Americans still say they have a positive view of socialism? I believe there are three reasons.
First, many have never really experienced the impact of socialism. To them, socialism is merely a theory that involves more sharing and kindness. For example, according to actress Amanda Seyfried, socialism means <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/actress-amanda-seyfried-calls-socialism-gorgeous-idea">“taking care of each other.”</a>
Second, many people who say they like socialism already work in socialist organizations and have settled. They are accustomed to roles where competition is muted, and pay and advancement are constrained by rules, not results.
Finally, too many Americans work in very large organizations that mimic some aspects of socialism via crony capitalism and corporate welfare. Their industries are protected by lobbyists and elected officials who thwart authentic capitalism.
When addressing the false hope of socialism, we must not attempt to split the difference. In fact, we must advocate for more competition in all industries, as well as for real consequences for people who consistently underperform. Additionally, we must push for the enforcement of antitrust laws that prevent dangerous monopolies and oligopolies.
Perhaps most important of all, America must support one of the best sources of employment, dignity, and innovation in our society: small businesses. These small companies, where most Americans work, still have great incentives to find new ways to please customers and to attract and retain great employees. But in socialist countries, there is less capital and fewer incentives for entrepreneurs to take risks and start small businesses.
If America truly wants to defend human dignity, we can’t romanticize systems that smother the very drive that makes people come alive. Socialism doesn’t just weaken economies; it weakens people. America doesn’t need more managed mediocrity. It needs the freedom that lets workers, and the work itself, succeed.
* * *
Pat Lencioni is one of the founders of The Table Group, a pioneer of the organizational health movement, and the creator of <a href="https://www.workinggenius.com/about?gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=21520445429&amp;gbraid=0AAAAAD4dDHRyei0FFfuRCa63VdPO11RDk&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjwlaTGBhANEiwAoRgXBSUpr89SSKKSTeoiFk-LdSAKpBsTFlfYYrEIm9MHWtUL1HjC7imP1RoC65MQAvD_BwE"> The Working Genius</a>, which helps leaders understand workplace efficiency. He is the bestselling author of “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team,” as well as 12 other books, which have sold over 10 million copies and been translated into more than 30 languages.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Mamdani Takes Reins Of New York City After Historic Election Win

Why So Many Americans Romanticize Socialism — And Why They’re Wrong

Communism

Democratic Socialism

Employers

Labor Unions

Millennials

New York City

Socialism

Zohran Mamdani

Men, don&#8217;t rely on a woman&#8217;s Hinge profile to tell you what she wants out of a relationship. Lead, and date with the intention of marriage. 
At this year&#8217;s Turning Point USA America Fest, The Daily Wire&#8217;s Isabel Brown sat down with four Gen Z ladies who made that message loud and clear when it comes to what conservative women want out of a relationship: &#8220;Put a ring on it.&#8221;
“Waiting over five years to put a ring on the finger is not right,&#8221; Sophie Fuller said during The Daily Wire Dating Panel.
In a world where having a deep dating roster is considered a flex, conservative Gen Z ladies are dating for marriage (For non-Gen Z readers who don’t know what a dating roster is, it&#8217;s where people have multiple guys or girls to choose from, instead of dating someone exclusively). 
Dating for marriage means the girls aren&#8217;t going for just anyone. The four told Brown they want a Godly man, who is strong in his beliefs both spiritually and socially.
“We don&#8217;t have men who are strong in their convictions,&#8221; Katie Toepfer told Brown. &#8220;I think social media has had a huge impact on that.”
Caitlyn Harris is 19 and engaged to a man who did things more traditionally. He asked for her number instead of her Snapchat and took her to church.
&#8220;It was important to him before we even really started to date that I met his church family,&#8221; Harris said.
What? There are still people out there who want to do things the old-fashioned way? Settle down? Have some kids? Raise a Godly household? Turns out, a man of faith is the top characteristic the women on the panel are looking for in their future spouse, starting as early as high school. 
“I hope high school boys realize girls are paying attention to this,” Elle Anderson, TPUSA High School Student of the Year, said. “We are paying attention to how you treat your family.”
The four girls all agreed that God is the center of marriage. 
“You are connected to God more when you are married,” Fuller said. 
Wise women all around at this year&#8217;s AmFest.
Brown reminded the four ladies that what they are looking for in a marriage is exactly why Charlie Kirk emphasized marriage and family to young men so much. Kirk wanted marriages built the way God intended them to be, which is the man leading and loving his wife the way God loved the church. 
“It&#8217;s been an incredible journey being led by someone who wasn’t afraid to lead,” Brown said about her own marriage. 
So men, less focus on rizz and more focus on raising the bar when it comes to relationships. Flowers and cards are nice, but Gen Z women made it clear on the dating panel that they want something more meaningful. 
“I am so excited to see the younger half of Gen Z have such a huge heart for marriage and family,&#8221; Brown said. 
Conservative women want to get married, have children, and build a legacy. 
 &#8220;The truth is more than anything you will ever do, more than your college diploma, more than your job promotions … the greatest legacy you will ever &#8230; leave behind is how you love your family and being able to raise and shepherd this next generation,” Brown said.

The Daily Wire Dating Panel

Gen Z Ladies Talk Dating At AmFest: ‘Put A Ring On It’

Dating

Faith

Isabel Brown

Marriage

One of the big questions that has plagued American politics for the last decade and a half is: What the hell is going on?
In order to understand what the hell is going on, I think we need to understand the transformation that happened around 2014.
In 2012, we had what I consider to be the most consequential election of my lifetime, the one that everybody forgets. That&#8217;s the one that I think was really important. Why?
Because in 2008, Barack Obama, America&#8217;s first black president, was elected on the platform of unifying Americans around race. Racial optimism in the country was at an all-time high, according to the polling data.
And then, in 2012, Barack Obama, who had been a very progressive and left-wing president, who had pushed Obamacare through, lost popularity. So he decided that the best way to win reelection was not to broadcast a unifying message, but to divide Americans by race and then to cobble together enough racial coalitions in order to win a victory. He defeated Mitt Romney, the most milquetoast candidate in the history of American politics, in what was a fairly solid victory. 
And that seemed to change everything, because by 2014, race relations in the United States were on the decline. Barack Obama — who had made a lot of promises to a lot of people — needed to fulfill those promises, particularly on issues of race.
He claimed Trayvon Martin could have been his son. That was a racial claim because what he was saying was that any black person would have been subjected to the same treatment as Trayvon Martin, that circumstances did not matter. He said the same thing with regard to Ferguson, Missouri, where he claimed that nobody would make up the kinds of experiences that Michael Brown had undergone.
Of course, it turned out that in Ferguson, Missouri, Michael Brown&#8217;s acolytes, people who were pseudo-witnesses, actually did make up the story about Michael Brown claiming that he had raised his hands: Hands up, don&#8217;t shoot! and all of the rest.
Thus, by 2014, race relations were on a steep decline in the United States, and have never recovered.
That is because so much of this attitude is racially divisive. The attitude was then baked into American politics.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2336-how-white-men-became-the-targets-of-america-s-most-powerful-institutions?elementPosition=5&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
There&#8217;s a fascinating and important <a href="https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-lost-generation/">piece</a> in Compact magazine by Jacob Savage, talking about the realities of hiring and firing in the elite institutions of the United States, which became explicitly race-based around 2014.
He writes: 
<blockquote>The doors seemed to close everywhere and all at once. In 2011, the year I moved to Los Angeles, white men were 48 percent of lower-level TV writers; by 2024, they accounted for just 11.9 percent. The Atlantic’s editorial staff went from 53 percent male and 89 percent white in 2013 to 36 percent male and 66 percent white in 2024. White men fell from 39 percent of tenure-track positions in the humanities at Harvard in 2014 to 18 percent in 2023. In retrospect, 2014 was the hinge, the year DEI became institutionalized across American life. </blockquote>
There are people who are DEI advocates who will claim that this is the natural state of things, that white people were being artificially elevated. And when that ended, thanks to DEI, white people fell out of positions of power. 
But the reality is the opposite: America had been, for at least a couple of generations, generally a meritocracy, particularly on issues of race. For example, when you go back to how hiring was done in TV studios, some of the most Left-leaning areas in American life in 2011, it wasn&#8217;t that the heads of the writers&#8217; room were selecting for white people; it was that they were selecting for the funniest people. 
And then they decided to radically shift how they did hiring and firing, thus dispossessing people of the positions that they had earned in favor of other people based on group characteristics.
I&#8217;m 41. People of my generation were brought up in the 1990s, and we were taught from a very, very early age that Martin Luther King Jr.&#8217;s exhortation to judge people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin, was morally correct.
That’s because it is morally correct.
And then an entire cadre of elite institutional professionals decided not to do that anymore. Not only that, they decided, in many cases, that the majority of potential employees in a potential applicant pool were bad because of the immutable characteristics, the color of their skin, or their maleness. The idea was that these people were somehow lesser, that they had participated in systemic discrimination, and even if they themselves were not racist, the system was racist and thus these people had to be dispossessed. 
They took the most tolerant cohort of people, people who had been trained in the idea of a colorblind meritocracy, and told them that colorblind meritocracy was for them, but it wasn&#8217;t for anyone else. These people were told that they should continue to adhere to an idea of colorblind meritocracy because it was morally correct, but they were the beneficiaries of racialist systems, and therefore, they had to pay.
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That is unsustainable. There&#8217;s one system for everyone. And if you are told that colorblind meritocracy is something that you should morally accept — which is true — and then you are told it doesn&#8217;t apply to you, it only applies to everyone else, you are likely to get a generation of people who start to reject a colorblind meritocracy and start to look at race relations as a zero sum game rather than an additive bonus.
They start to see everything as a question of who gets the job based on immutable characteristics, and start to view themselves as a put-upon identity group, because they are a put-upon identity group. If a group is determined to be lesser on the basis of immutable characteristics, they&#8217;re going to start seeing themselves in identitarian ways.
That doesn&#8217;t mean that they are right to do so. It does mean, however, that the only way to destroy all of this, this new identitarian moment we are living in, where there’s an identitarianism of the Left that adheres to the idea that group identity is really, really good except if you&#8217;re talking about white Christian men, and an identitarian Right that is formed in counter-response that says, “Fine, you want to play that game? We&#8217;ll play that game, too,” is to go back to a system that we were all taught as kids, and that was natural to us: Colorblind meritocracy.
Colorblind meritocracy is good. It is right.
Why?
Because meritocracy is the only system of human relations ever devised that has positive externalities. When the people who are best at the job, get the job, you get greater efficiency, you get better job performance, you get better innovation, better products.
People are able to expend their best abilities to the benefit of everyone else.
Every other system, every other anti-meritocratic system has negative externalities. They help the people who are inside the system and hurt the people who are outside the system.
Meritocracy benefits everyone because even if you didn&#8217;t get the job — let’s say you lost the job to a person who is better qualified than you, better at the job than you — that means that the person who filled the job is going to perform the job better than you would have, and so that company will do better. They will perform better, the prices will be better, and the products will be better.
Moreover, you will end up in a job where you are most meritorious.
If you want a happier human society, meritocracy is the way.
We were told by the leftists that meritocracy is inherently bad. Why? Because people looked at the outcome numbers and they judged for themselves that if outcomes were not equal, the system was unequal and bad.
But if you don&#8217;t use meritocracy, then you have to prejudge. Either you are going to judge a system based on the effect of the system, or you&#8217;re going to prejudge a system based on your perception of fairness between groups.
There is nothing just or fair about the idea that a person should be hampered in their capacity to succeed because of their immutable characteristics.
That is just wrong.
Grievance-based politics need to end. Yes, white male American millennials, Christians do have reason for grievance.
But the solution to that grievance is meritocracy. It is not, in fact, reversed grievance. Otherwise, we&#8217;re just going to ping-pong between grievances. It will become a question of who grabs the government gun and crams down their preferred solution.
That is not what America was built on.
And it is not what is going to cause America to succeed.
The negative externalities of the DEI system have been felt everywhere from the social sphere to the job sphere to the governmental sphere. And that spiral will keep on swirling in the drain unless we reverse it and go back to what we all taught our kids and what we were taught as kids: to treat every individual human being as an individual, and not on the basis of some sort of immutable characteristic.
What happened over the course of the last decade was a sin against decency, and the fact that so many people are still invested in that sin, or who now want to pursue the same sin, but with a different color at the top, will not make for a successful America.

Car engine assembly, workers adjusting engine block valve

Renewing The American Merit Ideal

Bias

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Legacy Media

Racism

White Men

Young Americans aren’t just drifting toward socialism. They’re running toward it, convinced that the American dream skipped their generation. Candidates openly embracing socialist labels are winning elections in major cities, and rhetoric that was once confined to radicals is becoming mainstream. The irony is that the very policies they think will save them are the ones that pushed them to the edge in the first place.
At first glance, none of this makes sense. Socialism has produced disaster everywhere it has been tried. Capitalism has lifted more people out of poverty than any system in human history. So why are the children of its success so eager to abandon it?
The easy explanation blames TikTok, activist professors, and influencers who distrust Western civilization and condemn capitalism. There is some truth in that, but it misses a deeper and far more important cause. It confuses the spark with the fuel.
Beneath the slogans is a generation that feels economically cheated. Many young Americans no longer believe they will achieve the stability their parents took for granted. They face higher tuition, heavier debt, steeper housing costs, and a stagnant job market. Upward mobility feels elusive. The milestones of adulthood feel delayed or impossible.
A whole generation was raised to believe they deserved certain outcomes, and now those outcomes aren’t materializing. They look at the system around them and see barriers, not opportunities. And when people believe a system is rigged against them, they don’t try to fix it. They try to tear it down.
Capitalism becomes the obvious villain. If America runs on capitalism, and America feels broken, then capitalism must be the cause. And if capitalism is the cause, socialism must be the solution.
But what if their diagnosis is wrong? What if the system crushing young Americans isn’t capitalism at all, but the layers of socialist-style policies woven into the economy over the past century, policies that subtly push wealth upward and shift long-term obligations downward?
America has built an economy where one generation’s comfort is paid for by the next generation’s sacrifice. Over the last century, the United States has added an expanding array of redistribution programs to its market system. These programs were often passed in the name of compassion and fairness, but their structure consistently produces unintended consequences. Chief among them is a subtle, ongoing transfer of wealth and opportunity away from the young. That intergenerational transfer, not capitalism, is the real source of the resentment so many young people feel.
To be clear, we’re talking about generational systems and policies, not the moral character of individuals. No generation is monolithic. But the economic structures we’ve built have produced consistent patterns that burden the young generations far more than prior ones. 
Here are three examples.
<h3>1. Student Loans: A Program Intended to Help that Ended Up Doing the Opposite</h3>
Federal student loans were created to help lower-income students attend college. In practice, they allowed universities to raise tuition year after year with impunity. If students can always borrow more, colleges can always charge more. The result has been runaway tuition, bloated bureaucracies, and an entire ecosystem built on the assumption that young people will take on enormous debt to obtain a degree whose value steadily erodes as more people have one.
Universities prospered. Administrators prospered. Students did not. Many began adulthood burdened by debt so large that it delayed every milestone from homeownership to marriage to starting a family.
This isn’t capitalism. It’s a government-engineered system that transfers wealth upward and locks the young into financial servitude through a student-debt burden that is nearly impossible to escape.
<h3>2. Social Security: A Safety Net That Became a Generational Burden</h3>
Social Security began as a modest safety net. It has become a demographic time bomb. With declining birth rates and rising life expectancy, fewer workers now support a growing number of retirees. Younger Americans pay heavily into a system they know won’t give them the same benefits.
The trust fund they’re told exists is filled with IOUs, because previous generations already spent the money. Today’s young workers aren’t contributing to their own retirement. They’re funding someone else’s.
Again, this isn’t capitalism. It’s the socialization of what was once the personal responsibility to save for your own retirement, now transformed into a compulsory system whose costs fall increasingly on the younger generation.
<h3>3. Government Debt: One Generation Enjoys the Benefits, the Next Pays the Bill</h3>
Government debt isn’t like personal debt. Individuals repay their own loans. Governments create social debt that hands the bill to future taxpayers. Jefferson warned that one generation has no moral right to bind another with debt. Yet that is precisely what we’ve done.
When borrowing finances bridges or innovation, future generations share in the benefit. But when it finances entitlements or political consumption, future generations inherit only the cost, through higher taxes, inflation, and a rising cost of living.
Now put the pieces together.
Student loans transfer prosperity upward. 
Social Security transfers income upward. 
And government debt transfers obligations downward.
The younger generation isn’t imagining things. They’re up against a system that limits their progress while shielding older generations from the consequences of past decisions. It’s no surprise they’re angry. It’s no surprise they want dramatic change.
What is surprising is the conclusions they’re drawing and where they’ve aimed their anger. Socialism now looks appealing, and capitalism gets blamed for problems created by socialist-style policies. Young Americans aren’t wrong to feel betrayed. But they are wrong about who betrayed them.
Capitalism isn’t the culprit. Intergenerational redistribution is. Policies designed to protect the vulnerable have, in practice, stacked the deck against the young. Intentional or not, socialist-style programs have loaded a massive financial burden onto the rising generation.
Unless we acknowledge the real source of this injustice, we won’t have any chance of correcting it. And if we don&#8217;t correct it, the crisis simmering beneath the surface will eventually erupt.
We’re approaching a turning point. A society cannot survive if its young are convinced their future has been taken from them. While their frustration may be misdirected, it isn’t baseless. And until we confront this generational injustice, the revolt against capitalism won’t fade. It will intensify, fueled by a volatile mix of youthful anger and misguided ignorance.
There’s still time to chart a different course. If society can finally acknowledge the injustice, and the young can understand how socialist-style policies have undermined their economic future, we can avoid the tragic outcome of a generation that destroys the very system that remains its best chance for a prosperous future.
* * *
Rabbi Elie Feder, PhD, and Rabbi Aaron Zimmer host the “<a href="https://www.physicstogod.com/">Physics to God</a>” podcast.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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Artificial intelligence has been taking the world by storm, beginning a whole new technological revolution that has already influenced tens of millions of Americans and encouraged hundreds of billions in <a href="https://hai.stanford.edu/ai-index/2025-ai-index-report/economy">corporate investments</a>.
A recent Elon University <a href="https://www.elon.edu/u/news/2025/03/12/survey-52-of-u-s-adults-now-use-ai-large-language-models-like-chatgpt/">poll</a> found that over 50% of Americans now use large language models like ChatGPT and Google Gemini, some of the most popular artificial intelligence resources in use.
As a student, I can validate these findings.
When ChatGPT was released almost three years ago, many of my classmates and I quickly adopted artificial intelligence as part of our daily routine, using it for tasks like summarizing texts and exploring topics that would normally require far more time and effort. My phone now includes a quick access button linked directly to Perplexity AI’s voice mode, allowing me to directly open the app and verbally ask questions or verify comments.
An <a href="https://cdn.openai.com/global-affairs/openai-edu-ai-ready-workforce.pdf">OpenAI report</a> confirms this trend, finding that three in four college-aged users desire to use AI in their education and career.
Personally, my work and education has greatly benefited from this technology, as I am able to selectively choose the AI most applicable to my research and generate clear, yet expansive information on any subject that interests me, all without cheating or stealing information.
But, as everyone who pays even the slightest bit of attention to the news knows, there are plenty of valid concerns associated with artificial intelligence and its uses.
<a href="https://datascience.hawaii.edu/profile/peter-sadowski/">Dr. Peter Sadowski,</a> an Associate Professor at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, has been examining this issue. His work focuses on machine learning and artificial intelligence, specifically how to use these methods to address the most challenging problems in science and engineering.
As a teacher, Dr. Sadowski has noticed a massive shift in the way AI has transformed education as we know it.
“With these language models, it is just so easy for students to take an assignment and run in through ChatGPT and get results,” he told The Daily Wire. “It can write an essay, it can solve a programming assignment, it can solve math assignments. That is just a huge shift.”
In response to this new challenge, Sadowski made some changes to his teaching model.
“The first week ChatGPT went live, I immediately abandoned take-home tests, since ChatGPT could just do all the questions … Most schools have some evolving AI guidances and policies, but the best way to learn is to experiment to become familiar with the capabilities of these technologies.”
Many schools have introduced AI policies to inform both students and faculty on how to use the new technology responsibly. For instance, my own school, the Franciscan University of Steubenville, introduced <a href="https://franciscan.smartcatalogiq.com/en/2024-2025/undergraduate-catalog-2024-2025/academic-and-university-policies/academic-integrity/use-of-artificial-intelligence">guidance</a> on using artificial intelligence, including <a href="https://magazine.franciscan.edu/articles/navigating-ai/">discussions</a> on its use in the <a href="https://magazine.franciscan.edu/articles/artificial-intelligence-in-the-classroom/">classroom</a>.
“The teaching profession has to adapt to these new technologies,” Sadowski said. “We need fair ways to evaluate student learning — more in-class exams, more careful assignments that test student learning beyond what they can do with AI.”
While many students like me largely support a responsible integration of AI into academia, sentiments remain divided among the American public, with 42% believing that it will make life worse, according to an <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/nbc-news-polls/poll-americans-form-views-ai-divided-role-school-everyday-life-rcna212782">NBC News poll</a>.
Some have a far darker view of the technology, with a new <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/article/poll-most-americans-think-ai-will-destroy-humanity-someday-212132958.html">Yahoo/YouGov poll</a> finding that 53% of the 1,770 individuals polled believe that AI is likely to someday “destroy humanity.”
“It&#8217;s become so easy and free for students to do this that it&#8217;s just shaken up education,” Sadowski said. &#8220;In computer science, the process of building something yourself helps you learn to think clearly and break down problems. If you let AI do all your homework, you will miss out on important learning opportunities, and when the AI fails, students get stuck. I see that happening in the classroom.”
Despite the possibility of cheating and outsourcing labor through AI systems, I’m optimistic — and so is Sadowski.
“In my own field, it takes students a long time to learn these technical skills to make progress on the research side,&#8221; he said. “I’m excited about the ability of AI to help student scientists accelerate research. That’s the hope.”
* * *
Simon Olech is a reporter studying journalism at the National Journalism Center in Washington, D.C.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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This Thanksgiving, parents across America have much to be thankful for — their children, their health, and the simple gift of gathering around the table with people they love. We’ll share food, laughter, and stories about how quickly the kids have grown. And yet, many parents will also feel a quiet, unspoken worry about the world their children are growing up in.
Today’s kids face a culture that’s louder and more confusing than ever before. From social media to entertainment, they’re bombarded with messages about identity, relationships, and sex that can leave them adrift. They’re told to “follow your feelings” and “do what feels right.” Commitment is treated like a burden, and pornography is always one click away. It’s no wonder parents worry about how their kids will turn out — or whether they’re equipped to guide them through it all.
But amid the noise, Thanksgiving gives us a moment to pause and remember there’s still so much to be grateful for. Because despite the cultural chaos, research continues to show there is a proven path that works, one that’s as practical as it is hopeful.
It’s called the Success Sequence.
Researchers Ron Haskins and Isabel Sawhill at the Brookings Institution <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/brookings-scholars-ron-haskins-and-isabel-sawhill-make-history-as-the-first-joint-recipients-of-the-daniel-patrick-moynihan-prize/">uncovered</a> this refreshingly simple roadmap to stability. Finish high school. Get a full-time job. Get married. Then have children, in that order. It may sound old-fashioned, but the results are remarkable. Only about 3 to 4% of young adults who follow this path end up in poverty. What once seemed like common sense has become one of the strongest predictors of lifelong success.
And it’s not just about money. Young people who follow this path will have fewer sexual partners, fewer sexually transmitted infections, and more stable families. I’ve seen this to be true throughout my medical career. Decades of experience tell us that children who grow up with both parents in a committed home are more likely to thrive emotionally and physically.
That’s something to be thankful for, not just as researchers or clinicians, but as parents and grandparents who want to see the next generation flourish.
So this Thanksgiving, as we give thanks for food and family, let’s also give thanks for the wisdom that still lights the way forward. Let’s be grateful for the teachers, mentors, and parents who still model responsibility, hard work, and faithfulness. And let’s be grateful that even in a changing world, some truths don’t change.
The future isn’t fixed. Despite what the headlines say, our kids aren’t doomed by the world around them. The choices we encourage and the examples we set can profoundly shape their lives. The Success Sequence isn’t about restriction, it’s about freedom. It gives young people a sense of direction and the structure they need to build meaningful lives, one decision at a time.
That’s what I’m most thankful for this year, the privilege and responsibility of guiding the next generation. As parents and grandparents, we get to be the competing voice our children need. We get to show them that real joy doesn’t come from instant gratification, but from purpose, discipline, and love.
So yes, be thankful for the turkey and the laughter, but most importantly, be thankful for the family gathered around the table. Look at your children and the generations below you and be thankful for truth that still holds, for children who still turn out right, and for the grace that allows us to keep trying.
The world may change. The challenges may look different. But the truth doesn’t change, and that’s something worth celebrating every Thanksgiving.
* * *
Joe S. McIlhaney, Jr., MD, is a board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist who resides in Plano, Texas.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
* * *
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There are plenty of reasons to criticize Gen Z.
Their snide disinterest in social graces, the way they’re chronically online, safe spaces, weird music… it’s all a bit much. But credit where it’s due: they’re the first group in a long time to push back on mindless overconsumption, preferring to own things of value that have deeper meaning.
This group is also at the forefront of turning away from thoughtless gift cards and corporate-branded clutter that’s been dominating holiday gift cycles for years. This season, a new wave of holiday shoppers, led by Gen Z, are trying something different.
What they’re choosing could mean a culture headed in the right direction.
According to new <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/articles/beyond-generic-why-gen-z-190006375.html">survey findings</a>, more than 38% of Gen Z “gravitates toward gifts and interactions that carry emotional weight, favoring customized experiences and personal touches over standardized offerings.”
In other words: Gen Z wants gifts with identity, including items that reflect a person’s values, humor, beliefs, and personality. They’re sick of throwaway gadgets that will get tossed in the trash in six months.
McKinsey research partner Bo Finneman said, &#8220;They&#8217;re looking beyond tangible products and actually trying to understand what it is that makes the company tick. What&#8217;s its mission? What&#8217;s its purpose? And what is it actually trying to build for us as a society?&#8221;
That shift in consumer habits has helped fuel a surge in niche gifts that are chosen for the recipient’s unique personality and interests. Those are exactly the kind of items flying off the shelves at the <a href="http://Store.DailyWire.com">Daily Wire Shop</a> this season.
From unapologetic graphic tees to meme-ready drinkware, bestselling books, and premium holiday bundles, The Daily Wire’s lineup taps directly into this “identity gifting” trend.
Daily Wire Shop doesn’t just carry products for the masses — it offers gifts with a point of view. Gifts you choose with your most sane-minded, “facts don’t care about your feelings” bestie or recently red-pilled great uncle.
And it’s not just Gen Z shoppers driving this shift. Retailers report that older generations are quickly embracing the trend, choosing gifts that align with their beliefs instead of whatever’s trending in the Target ad.
With the holidays approaching and everyone seeking out more meaningful gifts, shoppers are turning to Daily Wire Shop to fulfill all their gift giving needs. For Gen Z, for Gen X, for Millennials… there’s something for everyone.
Shop curated holiday gifts at <a href="https://store.dailywire.com/">Daily Wire Shop</a>.

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For all the attention Generation Z gets, we need to start talking about Generation Alpha while there is still time to save them from their older siblings’ dismal futures. Born between 2010 and 2024, Gen Alpha is the youngest living age demographic with its members ranging from toddlers to younger adolescents. Most still have all of high school ahead of them and none have entered the workforce as adults.
American twelfth graders, who are on the younger side of the Gen Z cohort, are at their <a href="https://www.wsj.com/us-news/education/test-scores-low-reading-math-naep-d87099b6?mod=Searchresults&amp;pos=1&amp;page=1">lowest reading proficiency levels</a> on record. Our broken education system has enabled that steady decline over the last two decades as K-12 schools push forward failing students who cannot read, and college curriculum has made it possible to earn a degree <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/11/the-elite-college-students-who-cant-read-books/679945/">without reading a whole book</a>. Poor literacy levels have, of course, led to a national crisis with <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/07/05/lifestyle/gen-z-turns-to-ai-for-homework-essays-and-college-apps/">writing ability</a>.
This confluence of trends — combined with the rise of AI — risks Gen Alpha’s future success in work and in life. The good news is that the solution is found at home. Parents can make the home life more conducive to their children’s future success by prioritizing off-screen reading … yes, physical books. Reading books is vital to keeping children ahead of the AI curve. And the home is where children need to become good readers so they can go on to become good writers.
Writing is the necessary transferable skill young people must perform to apply critical thinking, self-awareness, and logic to their jobs, tasks, and everyday lives. Lack of proficiency in the classroom leads to lack of accountability and responsibility in adulthood.
It is impossible to be a good writer without being a good reader, which makes fixing reading proficiency all the more urgent for today’s elementary and middle schoolers. As <a href="https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/agentic-ai-vs-generative-ai">generative and agentic AI</a> reorganize the workforce, high social and economic status will not be won by those that can simply use AI well, but those who think better than AI and can apply the technology in the production of new knowledge.
The urgency is today. A grown adult with poor reading proficiency is already lost and will spend the rest of his life behind the curve of those that can read, write, think, and do better. That string of verbs is not a list — it is a sequence of inseverable skills necessary to achieve success. If that prognostication seems bleak, that’s because children who use AI to do schoolwork do not see the pitfall lying beyond short-term convenience.
Children&#8217;s futures may come to resemble Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World in which the lower castes of menial workers toil under the elite few who are capable of intelligent output. AI <a href="https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/02/ai-can-catalyze-and-inhibit-your-creativity-here-is-how/">does not create</a> new ideas or knowledge; it produces and iterates content based on past information and results. It yields answers derivative of other people’s intellectual labor without activating or engaging critical reasoning skills in the user.
The solution is for children to read good books that stand the test of time and have complex sentence structure. Reading early and reading often in childhood <a href="https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_reading_is_important_children_brain_development#:~:text=We%20discovered%20that%20reading%20for,time%20spent%20on%20electronic%20devices.">unlocks</a> intellectual and productive potential <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/education/brief/foundational-learning">later in life</a>. Parents should replace at least some of their children’s screentime with good books. The number of books children read is less important than the quality of stories they read. They should mix non-fiction with fiction. The topics and sub-genres do not matter. It is the complement between truth in fact, and truth in expression that helps cultivate minds and critical reasoning.
Millennials are the parents of Gen Alpha and their childhoods model how to select rewarding books in a digital age filled with screentime. Millennials grew up on Reading Rainbow and Wishbone. Reading Rainbow brought children’s books to life with lively narration and Wishbone retold William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Walter Scott, Walter Irving, and other great authors. 
Parents can find worthwhile books about the animals, fantasy settings, sports, historical figures, and situations depicted in their children’s favorite shows, movies, and games. That is the strategy Reading Rainbow and Wishbone deployed: limited but enriching television content as a tool to catalyze lifelong love of reading and intellectual exploration in children. 
Technology has crushed the inner drive and desire to read, and AI is poised to turn that absence into personal failure on a mass scale. Meeting children where they are with a physical book can transition them away from complete dependence on digital technology for entertainment. Exposing children to slightly more literature can open up their worlds and increase chances for success.
I already dubbed Gen Z as the <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/gen-z-shaping-itself-into-wasted-generation">“Wasted Generation”</a> in early 2024, and that still holds true. But if nothing changes substantially, Gen Alpha will suffer from more severe and longer-lasting consequences than the arbitrary concentrated learning-loss Gen Z underwent during COVID-19.
Even with the lightning speed of President Trump’s educational reforms, it will still take years for reforms implemented today to take hold and reverse prevailing trends. Let’s focus on where we can make a long-term difference for most people. That focus needs to be on Gen Alpha. Let’s help them now while we can. Cultivating and encouraging reading at home is the best way for parents to set their children up for success in our brave new world.
* * *
Zachary Marschall, PhD is Editor-in-Chief of Leadership Institute&#8217;s Campus Reform and an adjunct assistant professor of arts administration at the University of Kentucky.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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There is something deeply wrong with young people in this country.
There&#8217;s something bizarre going on in the New York City mayoral election. People don&#8217;t actually love Zohran Mamdani’s policies, but he&#8217;s likely to win anyway.
A poll released on Tuesday found 58% of respondents feared that making buses free could make them into roaming homeless shelters, while 33% believe all fares should be eliminated. Thus, by a 25% margin, people believe that Mamdani’s free bus idea is incredibly stupid.
His proposal to get rid of the city&#8217;s gifted and talented program is wildly unpopular. 64% of the same voters who are giving a plurality of their vote to Mamdani believe that gifted and talented programs should be expanded. Only 21% believe that it should be scaled back in early grades.
When it comes to repealing bail reform laws and returning to the bail system before 2019, 55% want to go back to the system before “no cash bail.” Only 29% support the current program, which is what Mamdani backs.
Mamdani’s policies are not that popular among voters.
So why is he popular?
<ol>
<li> He&#8217;s running against lousy competition. Andrew Cuomo is a particularly bad candidate.</li>
</ol>
<ol start="2">
<li> Generation Z. Generation Z is the most Left generation by a country mile. It is not close. They are far to the left of the general population on every single issue. The bizarre idea on the Right that Generation Z is going to carry us forward into a conservative future is not supported by any hard evidence.</li>
</ol>
In the latest <a href="https://www.suffolk.edu/-/media/suffolk/documents/academics/research-at-suffolk/suprc/polls/other-states/2025/10_27_2025_new_york_city_press_release.pdf?la=en&amp;hash=29E66C2E3D25A148940F2E3BB98DAC3E5A7C6D6F">Suffolk poll</a> on the New York City mayoral race, in which Mamdani is leading Cuomo 44% to 34%, Mamdani trails among all voters age 45+; among voters aged 35 to 44, he runs ahead by about 23 points against Cuomo, but among voters who are 18 to 34, Mamdani leads by a whopping 61 points.
That means he has support in the high 70s among people 18 to 34 voting in New York City, according to that poll. And this is not a rarity. Polls of young people show that they are wildly to the left of their forebears on virtually every single issue right now.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2306-generation-z-ohran"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957 aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
What is going wrong? Why are young people like this now?
There&#8217;s always been an explanation that young people are naïve; they don&#8217;t pay taxes; they&#8217;re not ushered into an actual real life where they&#8217;re participating in the normal institutions of daily activity. Thus, they can kind of live in “airy fairy” land, where everything is handed to them on a silver platter.
There&#8217;s truth to that. We have delayed adulthood for young people all the way into their thirties.
But there&#8217;s something else going on, too: Young people have been told that they never have to enter adulthood. They have been told that everything ought to be handed to them, and that when things are not handed to them, it&#8217;s because they themselves have some sort of deep, abiding illness, or society itself is victimizing them in some way.
All the things that would normally usher you into a more mature view of life — getting married, having kids, holding a job, and paying taxes — are things Generation Z is apparently not interested in doing and doesn&#8217;t believe that they will ever do.
This is not because Gen Z is some sort of truly victimized generation in all the history of all the humans on all the planet. The idea that American Generation Z is somehow the greatest victimhood class we&#8217;ve ever had is insane and bizarre. In fact, more Generation Z people hold degrees than millennials and Gen Xers did at their age. Generation Z will be the largest and richest generation in American history within just ten years.
So what&#8217;s going wrong? What exactly is happening? 
We have to understand that there is a radical thing that is happening with young people — on both the Left and the Right.
On the Left, there is a grievance culture that is resulting in revolutionary thinking, and on the Right, a grievance culture that is resulting in a different kind of revolutionary thinking. There&#8217;s some horseshoe theory going on, and these two revolutionary movements can sometimes hold hands.
You see it in a crystallized fashion with the Mamdani campaign. Canary Mission, which is a nonprofit that examines political issues from a right-leaning perspective, examined the impact of the Democratic Socialists of America, which has had an outsized impact on the Democratic Party.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was a charter member of the DSA. Mamdani is a DSA guy. The DSA is the jet fuel for the modern Democratic Party. This is not a Left-leaning, mildly progressive movement; this is a truly revolutionary movement.
How does that kind of movement take over the Democratic Party? Where does it come from? The answer is that it&#8217;s been inculcated by the Boomers for generations. The Boomers and the Millennials are responsible for their children. If your child ends up being a radical, it&#8217;s difficult to say that you had nothing to do with it.
The Boomers and the Millennials decided to inculcate a brand of vague anti-Americanism that then metastasized into a very virulent, cancerous form of anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism.
This is why whenever I hear parents talk about their kids and they say, “I&#8217;m just giving them the tools to think; I&#8217;m not telling them what to think, what values to hold,” that&#8217;s bad parenting.
You should be telling your kids what values to hold. That is the most important thing you should be doing as a parent: becoming part of that chain that Edmund Burke talks about between the past and the future, maintaining the wisdom of generations, and passing that on to your kids.
If you&#8217;re not doing that, you&#8217;re not doing your job as a parent. Instead, parents have been farming out their kids to universities filled with radicals, who then teach the kids radical politics.
We tell an entire generation of people that they are victims of a system that has made them the most wealthy, prosperous, and free people in the history of planet Earth. And then we sell them the soap that if you grant power to one of these people, one of these revolutionaries, they will fix all of their problems.
There are a lot of politicians willing to sell that soap.
The left-wing version of the grievance campaign is that America is an awful, terribly racist place that has aggrieved Third World minorities and cracked down on gays and lesbians and therefore must be brought low by the revolutionaries, that capitalism has brought us all to this horrible fate.
On the Right, there is an equal and opposite movement. It is growing in power. It is not taking over the Republican Party yet, but it&#8217;s attempting to. And that right-wing movement is saying the same thing, except the victims are white Christian males, and the idea would be that white Christian males have been brought low by the system, and that therefore the only corrective action is a complete revolution against capitalism, meritocracy, and all the rest.
In the seed of both of these movements, there is a grain of truth. There is truth to the idea that America, historically speaking, was not good to black people, and historically speaking, was not good to certain classes of immigrants. But it’s a flaw in the system, not a feature of the system.
The same thing is true on the Right. When people say white Christian males have been put under the boot by the system, there&#8217;s certainly truth to the idea that there is discriminatory policy — both socially and in governmental policy — that has discriminated against white Christian males over the course of the last 30, 40, 50 years. There&#8217;s truth to that.
But the idea that such actions are emblematic of the constitutional system or meritocracy or capitalism, and the only solution is some sort of dictatorship of the white Christian male proletariat overthrowing constitutional norms and boundaries, going after minorities, is just as revolutionary from the opposite point of view.
The vast majority of Americans are normies. The vast majority of Americans like meritocracy. The vast majority of Americans believe in the traditional American dream, meaning economic progress for them and for their children, meaning the capacity to build community and church and life in freedom. The vast majority of Americans like the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. The vast majority of Americans like America.
But if you let the radical revolutionary vanguard take over your party with some sort of benighted idea that you must unite with the radicals in order to achieve victory, you&#8217;re not going to achieve victory. And the victory that you achieve will be pyrrhic, because you will have sacrificed what you actually care about to people who hate that very thing.
If this were really working out great for the young, why are they so depressed? Why are they so upset? Why are they so anxious? Why aren&#8217;t they getting married or reproducing?
Inculcating a victimhood grievance mentality in an entire generation of people doesn&#8217;t just inhibit the working of the country, it makes those people miserable as well.
* * *
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