Looking at the news — it’s easy to be discouraged by the state of our country. From warrantless ICE raids and the execution-style killings of two Minneapolis residents to the brain drain being at top research institutions, America’s outlook is bleak. Despite this picture, citizens and government workers across the nation continue to put up a valiant fight against the Trump administration’s demands.
In the White House, the Joint Chiefs of Staff push back on the president’s geopolitical blunders, seeking to propose any viable alternative to “drawing up” Greenland invasion plans. In the Federal Reserve, Chair Jerome Powell continues to resist executive branch pressure, aiming to uphold the economic mandate of the Fed. On the streets of New York, Minneapolis and Los Angeles, communities are banding together to oppose the unconstitutional activities of ICE and CBP agents.
While many do everything in their power to curb the rising tide of fascism, some younger voters seem less inclined to take a concrete stance. A 2025 Yale University poll found that a majority of voters aged 18-21 planned to support Republican congressional candidates in the 2026 midterms, while voters aged 22-29 favored Democratic candidates by 6-points. This new intragenerational divide showcases Gen Z’s teetering approach to the minefield that is modern American politics — blind party line trust is out, rapid political swings are in.
Perhaps the biggest driver of my generation’s political divide is the two-party-system disillusionment shared by so many Americans. Two-hundred thirty years since George Washington’s famed Farewell Address, it feels more important than ever to reassess the merits of the two parties that have ruled over our country for the past century. Whether voters are ready to explore alternatives to this dualist system remains to be seen.
If young Americans can learn anything from the likes of Jerome Powell, it’s that looking to uphold something greater than oneself — whether that be the Fed’s economic mandate or a set of personal values — is the only surefire way to maintain personal integrity in times of hardship. It is no coincidence that the Trump administration has been unable to invade Greenland or to modify the Constitution. Trump’s plans are often far-fetched but rarely outside the realm of possibility. It is thanks to a steadfast few individuals that most of the president’s threats remain hollow — thanks to the willful resistance of the few that our country has not yet fallen into a fully authoritarian regime.
It was only two years ago that Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny died while serving a 28-year sentence in a Siberian prison. A year after a failed assassination attempt by Russia’s intelligence agency FSB, the political activist was detained at the airport, sentenced and moved from prison to prison until his untimely death at the age of 47. Navalny’s government-sanctioned death — like that of paramilitary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin — showcases the Kremlin’s gruesome proficiency in shutting down any and all forms of political opposition. At its best, the Constitution protects us from such a draconian reality — a fact that should not be taken for granted by any U.S. citizen. As our president continues to push the law to its brink — using every trick in the book to try to employ the Insurrection Act — it’s important to remember why electing another populist conservative is against our country’s best interest.
A quarter of the way through the Trump administration’s second term, it appears as though many of us are waking up to the realities of wage stagnation and tech monopolies. While much of the future of our country — in the eyes of many young people such as myself — may lie in the common-sense redistributive policies of Zohran Mamdani and Daniel Lurie, it’s important for all of us to keep an eye on Donald Trump’s final years. Promising to help the working class, Republican policies have failed to do so much as stop an economic bleed. Our task for the next three years will be to sift through the proverbial rubble created by the 47th president.
Stepan Kopeykin is a transfer student from the Borough of Manhattan Community College. His favorite movies and books include Interstellar, The Big Lebowski, Choke and The Secret History. You can find him drinking three to four cups of tea a day and playing catch with the wall outside of Hillman. He runs a personal Substack page and can be reached at [email protected].