The Kids are not Alright

For young citizens, none of this is unprecedented—it’s just American life

If you’ve found yourself stunned—shocked, mouth agape in horror—at anything Donald Trump has done in the past two weeks, I can’t relate. I expected all of this. Honestly, I thought it would be worse.

For older generations, it might seem relevant to point out the unprecedented nature of his blatant disregard for government institutions or the Constitution. But for young Americans, this isn’t unprecedented—it’s just American life.

For us, Donald Trump is the only real perception we have of American politics. He has always been the opposition.

That might sound hard to believe, so let me put it in perspective:

I was born a year after George Bush declared war on terror in the aftermath of 9/11.
I was in kindergarten when Barack Obama was elected for the first time.
I was in seventh grade when Donald Trump announced his candidacy for president.
I was a senior in high school when Joe Biden won the 2020 election.

So when I hear people say, “This isn’t normal,” the truth is—we wouldn’t know. This is all we know.

All we know is a Republican president who has always had sexual assault allegations.
All we know is a Republican president who publicly bullies and humiliates members of his own administration.
All we know is a Republican president who is Donald Trump.

Combine that with the world we were raised in. A childhood shaped by the economic crash of 2008, the faces of school shooting victims plastered across every screen, and a global pandemic that disrupted some of the most formative years of our lives.

Generational trauma after generational trauma, all magnified by the rapid growth of social media and technology—accessible to us at all times through the phones that never leave our hands.

The first three weeks of Trump’s second presidency has best been defined as shock and awe. Scare, intimidate, and overwhelm people into surrender. But shock and awe is all Gen Z has ever known. Not only have we lived through these realities, but we’ve watched them play out in real time—our phones acting as a window into people’s suffering all over the country, fueling an anger that has driven so many of us to action.

We organized protests and marches to combat gun violence in 2018.
We did it again in 2020 after the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.
We did it again in 2022 after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

An entire generation—dubbed Generation Lockdown—with a political nervous system fried beyond repair. It’s no wonder so many young people want to burn it all down. We were told our whole lives that the government is supposed to work for us, but we’ve only ever watched it work for him—and his billionaire friends. The same billionaire friends who now likely have all of our data.

How many times have you heard someone say, “The kids will save us” or “The kids are alright”?

The kids will not save you. The kids are not alright.

The kids have always known that America needs saving, but we’ve never been powerful enough to do it.

It’s up to the older generations to tell us the truth—and to show us that they’re with us in this fight.

Because when we fight—when all of us fight—we win. Or, at the very least, we inspire hope.