by Kelli Buzzard

When it came to issues and messaging that missed the mark, the young people I spoke with—college students, young professionals, bartenders, baristas, and Uber drivers—either laughed or cringed at Harris’s campaign themes of “brat vibes” and “joy.” Most found the whole spectacle insulting. Their concerns were far more substantive: housing shortages, skyrocketing costs, and the overwhelming pressure of a competitive market driven in part by an influx of illegal immigrants and “California refugees”—transplants fleeing high taxes, unaffordable housing, mismanagement, wildfires, and more. Beneath their frustration over rising rents, limited job opportunities, and uncertainty about homeownership was a deeper fear, since reflected in the online debate over economic opportunity: that the American Dream, enjoyed by previous generations, might have become nearly impossible to achieve.