By Tom Gaitens
There is a warning printed on virtually every automobile side-view mirror: “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.” It is a useful metaphor for what is happening in American politics.
The political movement toward extremism among younger voters may be much larger than it appears today.
Look at Florida. James Fishback, a Republican gubernatorial candidate who has aggressively courted Gen-Z voters, was polling at 32% among likely Republican primary voters ages 18-32, compared with just 10.5% overall. That is not evidence that young voters belong to one political camp. It is evidence that younger voters are increasingly willing to embrace candidates and movements outside the political mainstream, it is a cry for help politically.
The same phenomenon is visible on the left. Democratic Socialists of America candidates have demonstrated an ability to mobilize younger voters, most dramatically in New York, where Zohran Mamdani’s campaign drew overwhelming support from voters ages 18-29. DSA itself has celebrated the youth component of that victory.
This should concern Democrats and Republicans alike.
Extremism is growing because an increasingly anxious generation believes the American system has failed them. The typical first-time homebuyer is now 40, according to the National Association of Realtors—the highest age ever recorded in its survey—and first-time buyers represented only 21% of purchases. Meanwhile, America’s national debt has now crossed $40 trillion, after rising by nearly $3 trillion in just one year.
Young Americans are looking at these numbers and asking a legitimate question: Where is my future?
Gallup found that 49% of Americans ages 18-34 held a positive view of socialism in 2025, compared with only 30% among those 55 and older. That does not mean half of young Americans want communism. But it does mean millions are receptive to ideas that previous generations understood differently.
And that brings us to education.
When students leave school without a strong understanding of history, comparative political systems, economics and the documented failures of authoritarian socialism and communism, political slogans can fill the vacuum. If we teach young Americans that America is fundamentally broken without teaching them how other systems have performed, we should not be surprised when some conclude that radical alternatives are the answer. If we fail to teach American Exceptionalism at the Smithsonian and the Arch Museum in Saint Louis and only about our blemishes, we should not be shocked a generation has been lost to the allure of socialism and communisms promising lies.
But there is another group we must consider: the parents of this generation.
Today’s 18-to-25-year-olds will soon become the parents, teachers, business owners and community leaders shaping the next generation. What they believe will not stop with them.
We have already seen how a small, determined faction can exercise enormous political power. It took only a handful of members of Congress to create extraordinary turmoil around the speakership and force the removal of Kevin McCarthy. Imagine what a disciplined DSA bloc could accomplish inside a much larger progressive majority, even if DSA members remained a relatively small minority.
This is not a call for Republicans to dismiss young voters. Quite the opposite.
It is a call to understand them.
The anxiety generation is not necessarily voting for socialism. They are voting against a system they believe has left them behind. If conservatives want to prevent socialism from becoming their answer, we must offer something more compelling than criticism: economic opportunity, upward mobility, affordable housing, fiscal responsibility and a renewed American Dream.
The objects in the mirror really are closer than they appear.
And if we fail to recognize what is coming, we may discover too late that the next generation has already decided to change the road ahead. As Reagan said, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
