Gen Z has meme-ified this election

Like many students at the University of Michigan, I’ll be a first-time voter this November. But as the presidential election looms closer by the minute, I must shamefully confess that I can’t name a single specific policy proposed by either of the current presidential candidates or their running mates. What I can tell you, though, is that Vice President Kamala Harris is brat, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is a Midwest princess, Former President Donald Trump loves cats and Sen. JD Vance loves couches. Upon realizing this was the extent of my relevant political knowledge, I began to do more research about each of the candidate’s campaigns and policies. But even in the midst of reliable resources, I still found myself caught up in the whirlwind of humorous Gen Z takes that have whipped the internet into a frenzy.

Political cartoons and satirization of candidates are nothing new, but they put on a fresh face this election and have very little to do with legitimate politics. The 2024 presidential election welcomes a slew of first-time Gen Z voters, and the internet is responding exactly as you might expect: with entirely unserious memes about the candidates. Kamala Harris is now inexplicably tied to the “brat” culture, the lime-green-cool-girl-hyper-pop aesthetic surrounding the latest Charli xcx album that has taken the internet by storm. The current president of the United States has developed an alter ego called “Dark Brandon” (who shoots lasers from his eyes, I guess?) and the Harris-Walz camouflage hat bears a striking resemblance to the merch of Queer pop star Chappell Roan. Other corners of the internet are brimming with artificial intelligence-generated pictures of Donald Trump protecting animals, and people just can’t seem to get enough of the JD Vance couch lore after someone fabricated a passage from his memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.” Right-wing voters are even associating the viral Hailey Welch (better known as “Hawk Tuah Girl”) with the Trump campaign and overall conservative values.

And — with the exception of poor Vance and his rumored furniture affair — the politicians are leaning into it. Kamala Harris’ official rapid response page, Kamala HQ, made its profile “brat” themed for much of this past summer, and its bio reads “Providing context” — a nod to the viral and often edited clip of Kamala Harris talking about coconut trees (for reasons none of us can quite put our fingers on). Donald Trump has Taylor Swift Eras Tour themed T-shirts available in his official merch store, and has posted his own AI animal pictures on Instagram. Both candidates have discovered their avenue to connect with young voters and they are willing to do whatever it takes to see it through. I’ve certainly seen more political content than usual in my feed since these memes began to circulate, so they seem to be doing their job in terms of reaching Gen Z — but reaching them with what, exactly?

It’s worth noting that none of the viral internet content has apparent roots in legitimate political concerns of this election. So why is Gen Z perpetuating these memes in the first place? As I doomscrolled in preparation for this article, I had to step back and ask myself why exactly I was looking at a poor-quality AI-generated picture of Donald Trump on a jet surrounded by a collection of multicolored cats. I’m not exactly sure. But is it kind of funny? Yeah, it is. I enjoy the products of these trends just as much as the next chronically-online college kid, but I have to admit that — for me, at least — it’s a coping mechanism for feeling like I have no control. I want to fight for what I believe in, of course, but I can’t say any of my current candidate options make me particularly enthusiastic to vote, and that makes hitting the polls next month feel like a very daunting task. So, instead of facing up to these complicated feelings, I choose to giggle at my phone instead. And I don’t think I’m alone in this. 

To me, this phenomenon seems to be something akin to Gen Z throwing their collective hands up in the air and giving up on taking American politicians seriously. After watching two geriatric men argue about golf, I think perhaps we’ve all lost a bit of faith in the system. However, there is a distinction between a lack of faith in politicians and a lack of political engagement. Even before we could vote as young adults and teens, we were active contributors to the Black Lives Matter movement, the fight for abortion rights and the push for gun control and regulation. Gen Z is highly engaged in political activism, we just seem to have a hard time taking politicians seriously right now; and, really, have they given us much reason to? It’s not that we don’t care or that we aren’t taking action for what we believe in, it’s just that sometimes we feel a bit defeated. I remember feeling a visceral frustration at the age of 16 that I couldn’t vote, and now that I finally can, it doesn’t feel very exciting because I’ve realized it’s a lot more complicated than deciding your values. You’ve got to choose someone to represent them, and sometimes we don’t exactly have the best lineup to choose from. If you ask me, this is one of those times. So, me and the rest of my peers have begun to do what our generation does best — make jokes on the internet in an attempt to avoid our anxiety about the future. 

There’s more to this phenomenon than just poking fun at the candidates and the senselessness of our current political climate though. The idolization we give the pop-culture icons attached to these trending memes is beginning to extend to our politicians. The idea of a political candidate as a pop-culture icon is slightly terrifying, considering the way people tend to treat their favorite celebrities — defending their every action and consuming their content with a less-than-critical eye. When Trump was elected in 2016, as a country we stepped back from our commitment to career politicians, which was a part of his appeal to his supporters. This effect is not so different from what he and his opposition are attempting to accomplish today, as they campaign for the 2024 election. By engaging in pop culture and social media trends, politicians are humanizing themselves, and attempting to gain more support by way of making themselves seem relatable. This is why Harris supporters are so excited to see her engage with their favorite artists, and Trump supporters love to see him snuggling their favorite pet.

It’s all fun and games to joke about American political figures on the internet; but, when those same political figures begin to recirculate our entirely unserious and politically-unrelated memes — hilarious and enthralling as they may be — we have to ask ourselves whether they’re being genuine, or simply aiming to distract us from the more serious matters at hand. They’re communicating with new voters, but on a basis of humor rather than information about their political agendas. Knowing our politicians on a level beyond their favorite pet or pop singer is probably something we should look into. That said, please never stop imagining them in elaborate enemies to lovers scenarios (if you have no fans, I must be dead). I only intend to remind you that you don’t owe our politicians anything just for making you laugh — they should be doing far more than that.

Statement Columnist Paige Wilson can be reached at wipaige@umich.edu.

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