Young Americans face a dire economy—and steep odds against political change.
“Frustrating” was one word a young progressive activist named Annie Wu Henry used to describe today’s Democratic establishment.
In her mind, Wu told me in an interview, Democrats were falling short in terms of addressing the country’s affordability crisis, eliminating student debt, protecting the rights of immigrants and LGBTQ Americans, and ensuring access to abortion. Worse, she said, they seemed to have no viable strategy for accomplishing what they promised, let alone what the country needed. “We tell them our ideas, and they tell us their plans,” Wu said, talking about the strategic differences she saw between the left and the right. “While we can be very upset that the Court overturned Roe, nobody should be surprised. The right has been talking about this for decades, as well as telling us how they are going to do it.”