Opinion: I’m anti-war and voting for Harris and Walz, with faith in Gen Z & Millennials

Ilana Glazer calls on Gen Z and Millennials to vote for Harris and Walz to protect democracy and empower a future shaped by progressive values.

I’m committed to voting for Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz. As a democracy built upon a white supremacist, genocidal framework, the existence of the United States is rife with lethal contradiction. I’ve been sickened, witnessing our nation’s hypocrisy and its deadly effects unfold in real time in Gaza. It makes voting for Harris complicated.

But: shit is fucking complicated.

And, the United States is still a representative democracy… for now. As Donald Trump has threatened: this could be our last election – period.

We’re living in the midst of fascist uprisings across planet Earth. The boldest examples are Israel’s Netanyahu, Russia’s Putin, and the USA’s very own Donald Trump. Neo-Nazis are rising in the German government; Viktor Orbán is holding onto power in Hungary, and fascist president Nayib Bukele of El Salvador was re-elected in a landslide. Democracies are losing ground globally to authoritarian regimes, leading to consolidated power among fewer and fewer men.

This moment may be the final chance to preserve a system that invites us to participate.

Beyond this moment, there is a new world waiting for us, but we have to build it, brick by brick. There’s no real option to “burn it all down.” There’s no slash-and-burn method, after which we create fertile soil and plant new seeds for a new beginning. Our democracy will be burned down, and waiting in the wings is a fascist regime that will swoop in to control your body, with a roadmap called Project 2025. Your periods will be tracked; you won’t have access to IVF; you won’t be able to buy condoms.

While this is bleak as fuck, there is an alternative, albeit an imperfect one. Yet, we only have what comes before us, connected to this present moment, and one of two presidential administrations ahead of us: Kamala Harris or Donald Trump?

I’m voting for Kamala Harris for President and Tim Walz for Vice President because theirs is the administration that I want to engage with over the next four years, on behalf of causes that are important to me and my generation. Theirs is the administration from whom I want to demand an arms embargo on Israel, to push to regulate AI, stop Cop Cities from popping up around the country, expand Biden’s Climate Corps, and continue Biden’s student loan forgiveness program, which has already relieved $175 billion of student debt.

If elected, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will be the faces of an enormous team, tens of thousands of people, and these are the people I want to hold accountable to campaign promises of taxing billionaires, providing down-payment support for first-time homeowners, reducing medical debts, legalizing weed, and more.

If Trump is elected President of the United States – an urgent possibility that will come down to a literal single-digit handful of votes in key counties in swing states – it’s not Trump, Mitch McConnell, or Lindsey Graham I’m worried about. They’re going to die soon.

I’m worried about the 40-somethings like JD Vance, Josh Hawley, Ron DeSantis, Elise Stefanik, Lauren Boebert, and Jared Kushner, whose rule we could be under for the rest of our lives because Trump has threatened to “terminate parts of the constitution” and has – for years now – lied about free and fair elections at the highest level of office. And if Trump were elected, he’d likely have two Supreme Court justice seats to fill with 40-somethings who’d rule our bodies for the rest of our lives.

Today, Gen Z and Millennials make up 41 million potential voters. We mark the largest voting bloc, ever, in America’s 248-year history. Our generation has THE power to decide the next presidential administration.

This is our world, the world we will be living in for the next 40-70 years.

I have faith in Gen Z and Millenials. We are the most self-actualized adult generation modern civilization has ever seen. We center mental health; we value our friendships and have redefined what friendship can mean; we’re critical, but forgiving children of our Boomer parents; we are able to be sad, to grieve, to mourn, in mainstream discourse. Many white Gen Z and Millennials are able to confront and reflect on our whiteness and understand it as a construct. Our generation is capable of holding multitudes.

It’s with an administration of President Kamala Harris and Vice President Tim Walz that I can best hope to build power for progressive Gen Z and Millenials. Some already in government, like Chair of the Federal Trade Commission Lina Khan, America’s youngest Congressman Maxwell Frost, and New York City Council Member Chi Ossé, are leading the way with their values and giving us hope.

My values make me committed to minimizing destruction and suffering and maximizing conditions for improvement. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are the best chance we got. I have faith that we, as a generation, can elect this administration and then push them to build the world we will have to live in long after they are gone.

Faith is a practice. It’s a decision that requires dedication, repetition, and will.

Please join me. Preserve what democracy we have left by voting for the only proponent of democracy at the top of the ticket in this election. Vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, Governor Tim Walz, and for pro-democracy candidates all the way down the ballot. Text your friends and encourage them to do the same. We can do this. It’s tough right now, but join me, and have a little faith.

Related: 2024 Guide to Voting in Michigan