During a recent town hall event, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley scolded Republicans for making a “mistake” ignoring Gen Z because “they think no one is listening.” Haley added, “I, on the other hand, think you all (young voters) are going to be the generation that saves us. You know exactly what you’re doing.”
All is well and good. It’s nice to hear politicians express — entirely justified — optimism for America’s youth, who are often slandered as socialists by the same generations who legislated runaway federal spending and developed a more sinister way to tax us even further by removing the dollar’s peg to gold.
I can’t help but notice there are not many members of Congress under the age of 35. If the younger generation is “socialist,” at least we’d still be far less dangerous to you than the older variety (which, in Congress, is currently fighting over whether to cut spending by 1 percent.) I’d worry more about them.
At that event, Haley told the same Gen Z and Millennial attendees that Donald Trump made a mistake by not banning the social media app TikTok. Haley pledged to do so if president.
This reveals how patronizing Haley was in her remarks. Apparently, these same young Americans who “know exactly what they’re doing” are just too stupid to render judgment on which social media platforms they use. If Haley thinks Republicans need to listen to America’s youth, why not start by listening to the 100 million TikTok users — the vast majority of whom are younger?
Polls show younger Americans are strongly against a ban on TikTok. I guess arbitrarily banning a social media app because it originated in China is a bit too socialist for us. And when weighing data privacy issues, let’s face it, the younger generation is far less concerned. Look at how many users on the U.S.-based app Snapchat are willing to display their location at all times. The generational divide over acceptable practices for data collection is enormous — politicians will do themselves no favors attempting to legislate their antiquated expectations onto a more digitally open generation.
From a political standpoint, it seems nonsensical that Haley has devoted so much time to this. Trump’s record as president is a target-rich environment for critique. I doubt we would have had COVID lockdowns if he wasn’t president — he was just so easy to roll. And it wrecked our economy. Why not make that case to the voters instead?
Haley, if you want more support from the younger Americans, take your own advice. Listen to the youth on TikTok — they know exactly what they’re doing.
