It is often said that the young are too cynical about politics to become involved, seeing corruption everywhere and disbelieving any politician or political stand (and not just the young). To the extent that this is true, such cynical withdrawal is a kind of intellectual laziness: One doesn’t have to worry about the corruption or injustice of political life and is spared the cost of taking sides. Underneath expressions of withdrawn cynicism can be a range of feelings from disgust to contempt to outrage.

But is it true that this kind of cynicism is dominant—or even frequent—among the young?

This was suggested by recent polls. A Harvard Kennedy School poll in late 2023 warned that less than half of young Americans planned to vote in 2024 because of “a lack of trust in leaders” on a variety of critical issues such as climate change, the economy, gun violence, and the war in the Middle East. [1] And this July, a UC Berkeley poll found that many were still considering staying home because they didn’t want to vote for either Donald Trump or Joe Biden. [2] When Kamala Harris became the Democratic candidate, this began to change, but not without remaining concerns. [3]

The fact that many have considered not voting in this election is particularly alarming because, in the previous two election cycles, youth voter turnout was historically high (39 percent in 2016 and 50 percent in 2020). [4] Young people have also been prominent in progressive social movements, including Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, calls........

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