Free Republic

Gen Z right-wing influencers like Nick Fuentes have suggested they may not support Vice President JD Vance if he becomes the Republican presidential nominee in 2028 and have praised California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat. Why It Matters The 2028 election is years away, but talk about who could run for higher office has already begun. Vance is viewed as the frontrunner on the Republican side. The Democratic primary is likely to be more competitive if current polling stands, and Newsom is viewed as a leading candidate. He has cast himself as a staunch rival of the Trump administration. The...

Generation Z is taking over. In the rich world there are at least 250m people born between 1997 and 2012. About half are now in a job. In the average American workplace, the number of Gen Z-ers (sometimes also known as “Zoomers”) working full-time is about to surpass the number of full-time baby-boomers, those born from 1945 to 1964, whose careers are winding down (see chart 1). America now has more than 6,000 Zoomer chief executives and 1,000 Zoomer politicians. As the generation becomes more influential, companies, governments and investors need to understand it. Recent “research” from Frito-Lay, a crisp-maker,...

PHOENIX—All eyes were on Gen Z this weekend as more than 10,000 students gathered at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest, where speakers and panels discussed the issues motivating Gen Z heading into a pivotal election year. After making impressive inroads with young voters in the 2024 presidential election, the conservative movement is vigorously debating how to address young voters’ concerns heading into the 2026 midterms and the 2028 presidential election. From the main stage to The Daily Signal’s interviews with students in attendance, one issue rose above the rest: affordability. Affordability Is Everything “Probably the most important economic issue of our...

One of the most important cyclical events in my life as a data analyst of American religion is the semi-regular release of the General Social Survey.... I was more than pleased that the Association of Religion Data Archives had already managed to upload the 2024 General Social Survey to their website... I wanted to do a really tight “zoom in” on the changes in the religious composition of the GSS before the pandemic and then in the 2024 data. So, here’s how things have shifted since 2016.... You can see some really significant swings in these figures from 2018. For...

Key Points and Summary – For a generation, America’s biggest weapons programs have delivered more delay than deterrence. -The M10 Booker, Zumwalt-class destroyer, Littoral Combat Ship, and Constellation-class frigate all started with clear operational needs and bold promises, then sank under shifting requirements, immature technology, and an overstretched industrial base... -As China cranks out ships and missiles at scale, Washington’s acquisition system is struggling to field replacements for aging platforms. -Unless the Pentagon is forced to simplify, stabilize, and speed procurement, the U.S. edge will erode. Why Can’t America Build A Military?.. he M10 Booker light tank, the Zumwalt-class destroyer,...

The number of Gen Z college freshmen who are entering universities without high school math skills is skyrocketing — as SAT scores are plummeting, a stunning new report has found. Even more shocking — many of the students can’t even do middle-school level math, meaning their skills are fifth grade or below. Experts say this phenomenon, combined with steadily rising high school graduate rates, show that the country is suffering a massive grade inflation problem. The University of California San Diego, for instance, has reported a staggering 30-fold increase in the number of students unable to do basic arithmetic over...

High-profile conversions from figures like Shia LeBeouf, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Russell Brand followed by findings--church attendance picking up has led to stunned reaction from the commentariat press. In Britain, for example, Pentecostalism and Catholicism have been found to have reversed decades of decline and grown remarkably from 2018 to 2025 – drawing intrigue from the likes of the Guardian and Reuters. In France, since 2020, the bishops’ conference (typically assiduous in collecting and releasing data) have confirmed consistently remarkable and accelerating year-on-year increases in the number of adult converts they are drawing in and baptising – many from irreligion...

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley's son Nalin Haley on Monday accused Republicans of failing to acknowledge disillusioned Gen Z voters' struggles with unemployment and affordability. The first step our leaders need to do is admit that we have a problem. And right now I haven't heard any Republican leaders talk about the issues that young people are facing," Haley told "Fox & Friends."

Gen Z is hopping on planes for more than adventure—they’re doing it to have babies. A growing number of young American parents are choosing to give birth outside the U.S., often in countries with better healthcare, more generous parental leave, and cheaper delivery costs. According to a new survey from Greenback Expat Tax Services, more than one in four Gen Z expats have already given birth abroad—and nearly two-thirds say they’re planning to. Among all U.S. expats surveyed, 54% had already had a child while living abroad. Millennials lead the charge with nearly 3 in 5 reporting overseas births, but...

Gen Z and Millennials will make up 60% of the votes in upcoming elections. The successful leaders will have done the work and articulated the principles that motivate this up-and-coming group. The old platitudes will not work. Neither will the old political parties. These younger citizens reject the petulant Baby-Boomers’ vitriol and want answers to hard questions. These are the same questions every generation asks. It’s just gotten very real for this generation, and they want workable answers, not platitudes. The excesses of past generations have finally come home to roost. The national debt crushes the younger generation’s ability to...

When it comes to talking to Gen Z men the right is beginning to sound a bit like the left: You can’t get ahead. The whole world is stacked against you. You’re the real victim here. Podcaster Ben Shapiro recently said as much at a recent event, when he called out conservatives for inculcating young men with a “nihilistic” worldview rather than giving them the “tough talk” they need. “I think that the right is actually weirdly feminizing young men by giving them a victimology to buy into,” Shapiro said at the Jewish Leadership Conference. “This notion that you, as...

One of the most notable and puzzling factors is the lack of young people. If you have participated in a No Kings protest or seen one in person, you have surely noticed the upward skew in the age of participants. Only 8 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 say they took part in the protests in October, compared with 13 percent of those age 65 and older, according to YouGov. Students are most conspicuous in their absence. The Rice University student newspaper counted only “about 30” students out of a crowd of more than 13,000 at...

The Radicalization of Gen ZA rootless generation looks for home in dark places.A friend who works with high school students recently said to me, “I overheard a group of boys talking about ‘international Jewry.’” He was in disbelief to hear these seemingly mild-mannered kids express views that, not 20 years ago, would have been considered taboo.What is going on with Gen Z?I’ve written elsewhere that Gen Z is experiencing a kind of church resurgence. That remains true. But at the same time, Gen Z is one of the most polarized generations in American history.In 2024, Gen Z—led in part by...

[ CYPHER CODE #317 ] Gen Z is missing nearly a third of its generation, and no one in power calls it what it is. [ CYPHER CODE #318 ] Abortion didn’t remain “rare.” It became routine, industrialized, and celebrated. [ CYPHER CODE #319 ] The empty classrooms aren’t a mystery. They’re the receipts.

An overwhelming 84 percent of Gen Z women voted for socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani in Tuesday’s election, while white men were the only demographic to vote against him. According to NBC News exit polling, among women ages 18-29, 84 percent supported Mamdani. 67 percent of men in the same age group also voted for him. Overall, voters under 50 heavily backed Mamdani, while those over 50 broke for his opponent, former Governor Andrew Cuomo. Mamdani won across most demographics, leading among both men and women overall, as well as voters identifying as “very liberal,” 84 percent...

AUSTIN, Texas - The Austin Police Department Dive Team spent the morning pulling scooters out of Lady Bird Lake. This is their first time doing a cleanup, and they expect to find several dozen scooters underwater. What they're saying: "Recently, our team got some new equipment, some new dive suits and we wanted to just give back a little bit to the community by cleaning up some of the scooters," Sgt. Issa Kafena with the Austin Police Bomb Squad & Dive Team, said.

We don’t blame them: Pull into any parking lot and it’s a sea of grayscale SUVs with the same sweeping LED eyebrows and bloated body lines.By any measure, modern cars are starting to look a little too much alike. A Honda CR-V looks like a Hyundai Tucson. A BMW X5 looks like an Alfa Romeo SUV. Maybe that’s why the next wave of car enthusiasts, Gen Z, is quietly falling for the classics instead. According to Hagerty’s 2024 “Future of Driving” survey, 60% of Gen Z respondents said they’re interested in owning a classic car. That’s nearly double the rate...

Gen Z is cringing at the prospect of working with other Gen Z-ers, continuing a trend among some workers in which they dislike working with the younger generation, according to a new report. An Edubirdie survey of 2,000 Gen Z-ers found that 31 percent feel they’re the most annoying to work with. That was compared to just 20 percent who said baby boomers were the worst. Why It Matters Gen Z has developed a reputation for being difficult to work with. A recent Intelligent.com survey found that one in six businesses said they were hesitant to hire recent college graduates...

While young men across the United States are trending to be more conservative than ever before, young women continue to trend towards being more liberal, with nearly 40 percent of Gen Z women identifying as such. A new podcast, called Sincerely American, is aiming to change that. Co-hosts Jayme Franklin and Camryn Kinsey launched their show after realizing that most major podcasts aimed at young women often promote progressivism, both socially and politically. They seek to chart new territory, focusing on a faith and fashion-based alternative podcast, while promising to discuss topics that actually matter to young women: fashion, beauty,...

As they grapple with a profound disconnection from their parents and older adults in general, nearly 40% of young adult women in Generation Z — those born between 1999 and 2015 — now identify as religiously unaffiliated, according to new data released by Barna Research. The data from 2,000 adults and teenagers between the ages of 13 and 24 shows that 38% of Gen Z women (ages 18 to 24) currently identify as atheist, agnostic or say they have no faith at all. This is higher than the 32% of men in the same age group who said they are...