Dour Democrats, giddy GOP: Trump captures Gen Z with can-do spirit

For what seems like forever, Republicans have been seen as the party of stuffy country-club white guys, hopelessly out of touch with the concerns of working-class Americans, young people and black and Latino voters. It’s the Grand Old Party, after all. But things changed on Nov.5 with Donald Trump’s election, and are only accelerating now that he’s returned to the Oval Office.Black voters came out for Trump, giving him their biggest vote share for any Republican in more than 50 years.

Latinos came out for the 45th, and now 47th, president with their highest numbers for a GOP presidential candidate ever.Rank-and-file union members went for Trump bigly: 60% of the Teamsters Union, for example, per their own internal polling. But it was the youth vote, those under 30, that delivered arguably the most surprising result.According to CNN exit polls, Trump won a majority of voters aged 18 to 29 in key swing states like Michigan and Wisconsin, something none of the “experts” predicted. For context, in 2020 Joe Biden captured the 18-to-29 vote nationally by 24 points, topping Trump 60% to 36%. More context: Per YouGov, The Donald’s favorable rating was just 30% among those under 30 after the 2016 election.Today, it’s 53% — a 23-point jump. And when a new CBS News poll asked voters if they are “generally optimistic or pessimistic about the next four years with Donald Trump as president,” a whopping 67% of those 18 to 29 said they feel positive — a 2-to-1 margin, making young people the most upbeat cohort surveyed. The president may be 78, but he still has the energy of a Millennial, if the blizzard of events since his Monday inauguration is any indication.And his Cabinet, too, is refreshingly youthful — especially compared to the current leaders of the Democratic Party.Nancy Pelosi, Dick Durbin, Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren and the rest have looked and sounded like angry curmudgeons yelling at clouds and telling kids to get off their l...