When we think about politics and what demographics fall where on that scale, some things are pretty much a given – or at least there used to be. But if one recent survey is true, those near assurances are changing. And one group proves that more than any other.
For years, it’s been assumed that the next and younger generations leaned farther to the political left than their predecessors. Survey after survey has shown that those who tend to be the most liberal also seem to occupy the youngest demographic groups, 18-30. After all, this is where most of those woke college kids fall, right?
But things are vastly different if we take a closer look at those just on the cusp of that group.
Enter high school boys…
According to the University of Michigan’s most recent and annual Monitoring the Future survey, most high schoolers are largely apolitical, as in, politics don’t really cross their mind too much, or they just don’t care yet.
However, when asked to choose a side, older high schoolers, particularly those about ready to join the workforce or head off to college, mostly chose the right over the left – at least when it comes to the male sex.
It’s kind of a surprise, to be sure. Or at least it might be.
According to the survey, 23 to 26 percent of male high schoolers from 2020 until 2022 self-identified as conservative. Only 13 percent choose to identify as liberal.
That means that about one-quarter of American high school boys are twice as likely to become conservative than liberal.
Oddly enough, the exact opposite is seen from the same age of high school females, who 30 percent say they are liberals, and only 12 percent choose the conservative side.
As I said, it could be rather surprising.
Then again, as someone who sees more than a few older high school males on a weekly basis, it’s not all that shocking. For starters, my 16-year-old and most of his friends are about as conservative as they come.
They like big trucks, only in gas or diesel. They have everything imaginable with an American flag on it. And the whole trans-gender/identity thing some of their classmates are going through freaks them out.
All they want to do is work, make money, and live out their dreams.
Sounds pretty American, right?
In fact, most of them don’t even want to try to go to college. And it’s not because their parents can’t afford to send them or they don’t have the grades to get in. Instead, they see the beauty of blue-collar and small-town life and wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Now, of course, much of the reason the high schoolers around me believe this way is because of their parents, their rich heritage of conservativism that has been passed down for generations, and those roots are hard to forget as they enter adulthood.
However, even for those not raised in similar locations or lifestyles, the survey sees these same-aged young men making the same choice of conservativism.
Perhaps they, too, are tired of having weak leaders like our current ones constantly telling them when, how, and why they should go “green” and “woke.” I mean, the White House just banned incandescent light bulbs, for God’s sake.
Naturally, some of this is all that teenage rebelliousness they are famous for. If the government wants them to zig, they are going to zag – no matter what side they are on.
But another part is that the American government of today has made life harder for them. They will have to work twice as hard to have what their parents have. Look at the economy, the job market, the housing market, the dating atmosphere – all of it is more difficult to navigate now. And all thanks to the political left just being weak.
But you know what hard work brings about? Strong men and women – those who won’t lay down at the first sight of trouble and those who will lead us into prosperous times.
Perhaps our country’s future isn’t so destined to fail after all.