By Carl DeMarco, Contributing Writer
On April 7, 2022, the Eisenhower Institute hosted Harvard Pollster John Della Volpe, who recently wrote Fight: How Gen Z is Channeling Their Fear and Passion to Save America. Della Volpe is the Director of Polling at Harvard’s Kennedy School Institute of politics and has dedicated most of his life to studying generations and their patterns of behavior and beliefs. For over 20 years, Mr. Della Volpe worked in the field of polling, working for businesses designing Super Bowl Commercials and for the Clinton White House. In his lecture, Della Volpe challenged stereotypical notions regarding GenZ.
Beginning his lecture Della Volpe remarked that no generation has experienced the amount of trauma GenZ or “zoomers” in such a short amount of time. While he did not provide specific dates, Della Volpe stated that GenZ incorporates current undergraduate students and even current middle schoolers and that there are over 75 million GenZ Americans. This generation has been forced to witness a myriad of problems and tragedies that have affected their outlook on the world and the nation as a whole. Della Volpe explained that GenZ has experienced war, gun violence, opioid epidemics, Covid-19, the Great Recession, and countless other events or moments in history. During his lecture Della Volpe noted five specific examples of “trauma” that have shaped GenZ’s outlook:
- The “Occupy Wallstreet Movement” of the early 2000s
- The Trump Presidency
- The Parkland Shooting
- The Rise in Climate Change Concerns
- The Murder of George Floyd
According to Della Volpe, the Occupy Wall Street movement was our generation’s first introduction to politics and changed the way we and other young Americans perceived capitalism. His research showed that young Americans were not completely anti-capitalistic, but wanted reforms such as a stronger “social infrastructure”.
The 2016 election also proved to be a critical movement in the formation of GenZ according to Della Volpe. In his view, the election was going to be formative no matter who won the election. However, through his work, Della Volpe witnessed the most dramatic change in polling data in his 20 years of experience. More importantly, his work concluded that the national mood changed for the worse, and GenZ Americans were greatly disenchanted with the political situation of the Trump presidency. This disillusionment led to record high voter turnout and a massive push by our generation to support the Democratic party, including young progressives such as Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). The Trump presidency sparked a fire of activism in GenZ causing them to vote Democrat in the 2018 and 2020 elections.
The third event Della Volpe pointed to was the rise of mass shootings, especially the Parkland Florida massacre that occurred in 2018. The rise in the grassroots movement for gun control by zoomers helped try and create change around this issue. Grassroots movements such as “March for Our Lives”, helped spark more interest in politics for members of GenZ resulting in a 32% increase in voter registration according to Della Volpe. This also led to an increase in partisanship amongst GenZ Americans.
Next, Della Volpe turned to the increase in climate activism spurred by another zoomer, Greta Thunberg. In the lecture, it was pointed out that Thunburg developed the idea for her climate protest after seeing the movements that arose after the Parkland shooting. She helped make Climate Change an issue that our generation has taken up with a fervent passion.
Finally, Della Volpe argued that the death of George Floyd was yet another pivotal moment in the formation of GenZ. As he pointed out, it was a zoomer who filmed the officer’s brutal murder of George Floyd, and if it was not for her, Goerge Floyd’s name would have been lost to history. It was a zoomer who helped engrain George Floyd’s name and face in the hearts and minds of all Americans. Not only did a zoomer capture this murder on camera and share it with the world, but it was also members of GenZ who helped spurred a social movement in the summer of 2020 that was more diverse than the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.
The effect of this event on GenZ could be seen not only just in the protests that followed, but also in that 55% of GenZ voters supported President Biden, and that 60% of college students voted to set a historic record on both accounts. Della Volpe argued that President Trump lost the 2020 election due to the lack of support from GenZ.
Throughout the lecture, Della Volpe showed that GenZ has affected the world more than some people might think. He challenged conventional stereotypes and showed that change and progress have been made from GenZ leadership.
