Hi, I am from a country also undergoing protests right now, but a person very close to me is visiting the US. They joined the No Kings protest yesterday in NYC. And they told me there was no young people at all. The contrast with my country is kind of weird, young people mobilise all the time.
I’m ofc not pretending that yesterday’s NYC protest is an accurate characterisation of mobilisation in the entire country. But from photos I see it does seem a trend that the no kings mainly has middle aged and older people in it. I’m curious. Why?
I think it’s because No Kings has little to offer young people.
Young people want economic mobility, quality public education, and a sane foreign policy including ending the genocide. No Kings protests tend to shy away from these subjects.
In fact, the No Kings protest is somewhat unique in that it does not have any specific demands at all. It has a focus on defending democracy and criticism of Trump, which are valid, but the main thrust is that older liberals want to go back to the pre-Trump era.
The pre-Trump era was great for these older liberals- it was their golden era- but younger generations do not look back so fondly. Millennials remember this era as a time of economic hardship; Gen Z are too young to remember the positivity of the late 90s/early 2000s.
The youthful political energy is with the DSA at the current moment. “No Kings” and DSA agree on many things, but there is also deep disagreement on many serious issues.