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Hasan Piker, a Twitch streamer with a niche yet growing following, is about as left as you can get. The GOP has done everything it can to elevate some of his most objectionable takes— about communism, about Israel. But he’s also really electrified some younger voters. One way was by showing up at the Republican midterm convention on a giant screen in his underwear.

Piker’s brother in liberalism is podcaster and YouTuber Adam Mockler. Like Piker, he’s been spending a lot of time talking to younger voters, getting them to debate him. He then attempts to translate what “the youths” are saying to the (presumably older) cable news viewer on networks like CNN.

Recently, the New York Times had the headline “Calls for Generational Change Don’t Resonate in Voting Booth,” which doesn’t square with what Piker and Mockler are hearing.

“I really disagree with that,” Mockler said. “Because we are seeing, right now, a massive shift in the power center of the Democratic Party towards younger voters, especially in the primaries.”

Nearly 20 percent of Congress is leaving their seats. Longtime folks like Sens. Gary Peters, Dick Durbin, and more are packing it in. Does this mean a new generation is going to take their place?

“The generational shift isn’t just about whether you’re an incumbent or a challenger,” Mockler said. “It can be communication on social media. It can be the way that you promise to use the power, once you actually have it, to change the lives of Americans. Or it can just be authenticity.”

On a recent episode of What Next, host Mary Harris spoke to Piker and Mockler about whether the November midterm could be one of generational change, and whether that change is actually here already. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Mary Harris: I’m just going to take this back a little bit. I feel like ever since Joe Biden took to a debate stage and face-planted, Democrats in particular have been having this “generational change” conversation. And even though Kamala Harris eventually replaced Biden on the ballot, I feel this question—what if he passed the torch sooner?—is looming. And we’re about to have this midterm election, and it basically started off with the generational question. You had David Hogg, the activist survivor of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting, basically saying, “I want to primary people. We need a generational change.”

It was interesting to me because even his message was a little bit muddied. In the beginning, he was explaining why he was supporting an 80-year-old incumbent in Illinois who eventually stepped out of her race. It shows to me how this generational change thing, you can’t define it by data points so well. But I do feel like what happened with Hogg was this moment where I realized how rocky things were going to be for the Dems. Are things better now? 

Adam Mockler: Forcibly so, yes. The voter base has changed the incentives that politicians follow, and the incentive is no longer to take money from special interest groups and do scripted, consultant-written television hits every single........

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