Yes, Joe Biden and Donald Trump are both white and both likely older than your grandparents—but I can promise you that the similarities stop there.
Republished with permission from John Pavlovitz
Dear Young Voters,
“All Gen Zers are lazy, uneducated, and they don’t care about anyone but themselves.”
No, I don’t believe this is true at all, but I bet you’ve heard that before from older people and I bet it pisses you off.
It should.
No one deserves to be stereotyped and made into a caricature.
Every single person is completely unique and it’s dehumanizing to lump people into boxes just because of the superficial.
Generalizations based on surface appearances are always unfair and usually harmful, which is why I’m writing you.
I know this is happening a lot with people your age with regard to the coming presidential election and to the Democratic and Republican candidates—and I get it.
Yes, both Joe Biden and Donald Trump are old white guys in suits, and I’m sure that makes you feel as though they are both equally incompatible with you and what you care about.
I imagine you assume that it really doesn’t matter which of them wins in November.
I also know from talking to many people your age, that it’s causing you to lose interest in the process and to opt out of voting in November, and I’m asking you to reconsider and here’s why:
Yes, Joe Biden and Donald Trump are both white and both likely older than your grandparents—but I can promise you that the similarities stop there.
They are as different as two human beings can get, as different as you are from anyone else your age.
For example, Donald Trump (along with help from his Republican Party):
- is a court-established rapist,
- was convicted of crimes against this nation and indicted in four states,
- has weaponized our highest court to make him immune from any legal accountability,
- proudly took away the national right to an abortion,
- will take away same-sex marriage,
- is coming after birth control,
- would eliminate gender-affirming care for trans people,
- is putting the Bible and Ten Commandments in school classrooms,
- is opposing any gun control measures to stop school shootings,
- denies climate change and vaccines,
- is banning books and crusading against drag queens,
- would take voting rights from people of color,
- will shut down the free press,
- wants to deport immigrants,
- would have women back in the kitchen and bedroom only,
- and will implement Project 2025 which will completely dismantle or control our departments of education, environmental protections, and justice.
Joe Biden and the Democrats have been fighting Trump and/or his party on all of these issues for decades and will continue to, regardless of the election results.
For eight years, Biden was the Vice President to our first black president, Barack Obama. Biden chose a woman of color in Kamala Harris as his running mate in 2020. The Biden Administration and the Democratic Congress are the most diverse that we have ever, had along gender, race, and sexual orientation. This isn’t an accident and it isn’t tokenism, it’s Biden’s values made tangible.
The Republican Party is openly hostile to that kind of diversity and is doing everything that can to legislatively remove it here, attacking DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) programs in public colleges and organizations.
As the father of passionate unbelievable Gen Z kids, I know you’re not stupid or selfish or lazy, and I know you care deeply about people and this world. But you may be unaware of the very real differences between these two old white men and the massive changes that will happen to you and to this nation if Trump wins.
Please dig deeper than their appearance and age and look for yourself, and consider voting in the coming election.
Find out what both men stand for, what their presidencies have been about, what specifically they have done and are planning to do if elected. I think you’ll realize the choice is clear.
Google what they themselves have said about women, about LGBTQ people, about immigrants; about people of color, about science and medicine and climate change and guns, about those who don’t belong to their parties. Then decide which deserves your vote and which you would be frightened to have in power.
This is so much bigger than the ages of the two men, one of whom WILL be president in a few months.
Right now you have something incredibly powerful and extremely valuable: you have your voice and your vote. It is not a guarantee that you will always have these, and to not use them right now would be a huge mistake. It would be wasting the decades of civil and human rights that generations of activists, service people, and ordinary Americans fought for.
Republicans would rather have you not vote at all and they are making it much more difficult to vote, and I encourage you to ask yourself why that is.
I know you want to see younger, more diverse candidates and more viable party options, and I’ll help you fight for those things because I want to see them, too. But first we need to secure the ability to have a say at all in changing the system, and we will simply not have that option if Donald Trump (who has promised to be a “dictator” on day one, wins.
You have an incredible future ahead of you, and as another (slight less) old white guy like me wants you to fully experience it: to have every human and civil right you deserve in the coming months and years.
I want you to be able to control what happens to your body, to marry the person you love, to have healthcare and education that won’t bankrupt you, to be free to worship as you wish or to reject religion, to have every opportunity to be free and joyful and successful. I want you to live in an America that is fully available to you and to everyone.
That won’t happen if Republicans win.
It just won’t.
Your voice matters now.
You can be the difference in the day.
Please stand with the rest of us who value Democracy, diversity, and decency.
We are all in this together.
Thanks for listening.
John Pavlovitz is a writer, pastor, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina. A 25-year veteran in the trenches of local church ministry, John is committed to equality, diversity, and justice—both inside and outside faith communities. When not actively working for a more compassionate planet, John enjoys spending time with his family, exercising, cooking, and having time in nature. He is the author of A Bigger Table, Hope and Other Superpowers, Low, and Stuff That Needs to Be Said.
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