Well, today I’m back at work (remotely) for the first time in 2025. It is not a bad day to be back. My home office was deep cleaned over the break, so I already feel a bit more at ease working in a clean space. I have a new 2026 physical planner, I have already looked at Meetups I’m attending, and I feel on track with some tedious parts of my job as a commercial real estate appraiser.

Now, onto a brief follow-up regarding the politics I mentioned a couple of days ago. I’ve attended the “Unite For Democracy” and “No Kings” events. I attended a smaller one on a busy road in an affluent area, which was largely composed of white liberal Baby Boomers. Recently, I spoke with one of the event organizers—a member of this white liberal Baby Boomer cohort—who took an interest in conversing with me and invited me out for coffee. I took him up on his offer last weekend, and we chatted for a couple of hours. He treated me to a latte and pastry, and it was very informative. There was a good-natured humanity about visiting with him; he had meritorious, valuable life experience to share, much like talking to Yoda or a wise Buddhist monk. It also informed me of his own blind spots regarding some huge generational divides, even among self-identifying liberals, that are far greater in magnitude than I anticipated.

I have always admired pro-democracy messages, especially over the last decade as Trumpism and far-right populism have systematically eroded democracy, tragically in the United States and worldwide. I was horrified to see the January 6th insurrection, and even more so to see fascist white terrorists get pardoned, let alone supported by huge swaths of society, all worsened by their leader occupying America’s top office. Although I identify as progressive left (but not far left), I respect that there are many factual, merit-worthy arguments that oppose my policy views, and that’s okay.

I have had people ask me—and I’ve been scratching my head myself, not being actively on social media—“where the fuck are all of the young people? Why are they not out peacefully protesting and taking to the streets?” Obviously, I’m making generational stereotypes based on trends, with the caveat that there are always individual exceptions to the rules, but clear trends are still clear trends.

The thing is, I had a conversation with my wife about Gen Z’s lack of voting, nihilism, and so forth (she’s much more chronically online than I am). Gen Z has had it really tough—tougher than younger Millennials like myself. However, I still harshly judge those who can vote but choose not to. I see it as a fucking insult to every citizen under authoritarian rule globally, and to every oppressed group who fought for equal voting rights in the United States—and who are still fighting, as those rights are actively being suppressed. If that’s your perspective on the importance of voting as well, you’re in good company. But I think we all need to set aside our judgments and be better listeners to those whose civic decisions we disrespect through our implicit bias, even if we are “right” about it.

My overarching point here is that pro-democracy messages about the rule of law, institutions, voting, and civility ring much hollower for the young than the old, specifically if there is insufficient acknowledgment of people’s pain, and specifically economic pain.

I get this, because I knew in the 2024 election that Kamala Harris would make zero difference in improving my life. She was a horrible candidate; that had nothing to do with her race or gender, as Claudia Sheinbaum became Mexico’s first female president around the same time. So why did Sheinbaum do so much better than Harris? Because Sheinbaum is real with Mexicans and speaks to economic issues in tangible terms, including where she is failing to deliver and why—not in bullshit rhetoric about having an “opportunity economy” approved by billionaire Democratic donors. Harris failed catastrophically in articulating how she would be better than Biden. And ironically, the very few good things Biden actually did legislatively were seldom, if ever, discussed by either Biden or Harris. Worse yet, in terms of actual executive admin agency actions, especially around immigration, Biden was completely stupid and useless where it actually mattered. Nearly all the media attention was hyper-fixated on our totally “open” border (I guess “the wall” was taken down overnight when Biden was inaugurated? I’m being sarcastic, as there has been fortification for decades). I could go on, but you get the point.

Anyway, this older event organizer whom I met for coffee wants to broaden the coalition. And I’m sure the movement will be successful in finding mostly upper-middle-class, white, U.S.-born, college-educated people over 45 to protest. After all, the goal of preserving democracy should be universally agreed upon, even if policy is disagreed on.

To my dismay, the gentleman eloquently and verbosely downplayed the importance of economic pain, believing in one common humanity without demographics, stereotypes, or labels, to a fault. In fact, he thought that talking about pain would entrench learned helplessness and confirmation bias and incentivize a lack of self-determination. In other words, forget mathematical economic reality, because “where there is a will, there is a way.”

Sure, there’s merit to that. But Gen Z and younger is, in fact, our future. Are older generations really naive enough to think that we can save democracy with messages that are non-starters for our youth? What’s the point in voting if big corporations buy elections anyway, or if your choice is between the lesser of two actual evils? What’s the point in attending a peaceful protest when you have to work two jobs to make rent and attend college, and masked ICE agents arbitrarily kidnap people based on skin color with impunity?

I mentioned that my generation, even those of us doing well, will—with few exceptions—never be able to afford a house. Sure, a small, fortunate, and hardworking minority of us can pinch pennies for years, be money-obsessed, win the lottery, or start a successful business, but those are the rare exceptions again, not the norm.

Furthermore, Gen Z doesn’t care about civility in terms of swearing or expressions of anger. Does “returning to civility” mean no ill intent and cruelty towards groups of people like the president shows, which is one thing, or does it mean an old white lady doesn’t like a protest sign that says “fuck Trump” and considers that uncivilized?

Bottom line: older folks need to meet Gen Z and younger Millennials where they are at. Otherwise, they are just preaching to their own choir, which is fine, but it’s far from enough on its own. Messages about democracy alone just ring hollow for a generation that has never really experienced an actual functioning democracy.