Summary

In this episode of the Zekely Podcast, host Zeke engages with Luke Mandel, a Gen Z political activist, discussing the unique perspectives and challenges faced by the younger generation in today's political landscape. They explore Luke's journey into politics, the reshaping of the Democratic Party by Gen Z, the importance of education, and the need for local engagement in elections. The conversation highlights the significance of addressing core issues such as healthcare, housing, and economic opportunities for young people, while also emphasizing the importance of community activism and the role of education in fostering political awareness. Luke shares his insights on how to better connect with young voters and the necessity of removing barriers to voting, ultimately inspiring hope for the future of political engagement among the younger generation.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction To Luke Mandel

01:29 The Journey into Politics

02:45 Gen Z Trivia

04:55 The Real Deal

06:42 Recent Grad

09:13 Policy Speed Round

12:13 Connecting

16:45 Cancel Or Campaign

19:06 Young Democrats

24:04 Social Media Advisor

24:56 Pass It

25:47 Bridging The Divide

27:58 The Importance of Local Elections

30:32 Hope and Activism in the Face of Challenges

31:40 Future Plans

Pennsylvania Young Democrats: https://payd.squarespace.com/

Full Video Episode Available On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheZekelyPodcast

Short Clips Can Be Found On TikTok: @drzeketayler/@thezekelypodcast and Instagram: @thezekelypodcast

www.thezekelypodcast.com

Hello, I'm Zeke, and welcome to the Zekely Podcast. Let's talk Pennsylvania. The guest I have today is a Gen Z political activist in media Pennsylvania. He has interned for a congresswoman, explored a run for the state legislature, and volunteers for the Pennsylvania Young Democrats. Thank you so much for being here, Luke Mandel.

For years, I’ve knocked thousands of doors all over Pennsylvania and poured my heart and soul into supporting candidates and causes that make a difference—from local school board races to national elections. The personal is political, and I take every election in Pennsylvania personally.

Where the mainstream media has failed you, I will give you truth and independence. You’ll hear from Democratic leaders, candidates, and change-makers who are working to improve the health of the Commonwealth, and it won’t be boring as hell.

No matter where you are, I’ll meet you with hope and a plan to make your community better one day at a time. Welcome to the Zekely Podcast. Let’s talk Pennsylvania.

Thanks for having me Zeke, pleasure to be here.

I'm super excited to have you on here Luke. are the first Gen Z activist that I'm having on my podcast and honestly I want to tap into you so much because I think that Gen Z has so much to bring to the table. So thank you so much for agreeing to be on here.

No problem. Happy to be here.

Alright, well let's get right into it. So at what age did you know you wanted to pursue politics as a career?

a career, I'd say probably around 16. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's a crazy world that I've grown up in and just stuff constantly happening. But you know, 16, was, know, Trump had come into office and I was just seeing what was happening.

But, you know, I really started getting involved in more of a meaningful sense, probably around junior year of high school. I actually organized the first town hall for my congresswoman, Mary Gay Scanlon, which I actually just found out was the first town hall she had.

Because she was newly elected at that time. So yeah, I just went from there. And one thing builds on another that led to being in her congressional youth council. And more more opportunities came from that.

I just think it's so interesting because when I was 16 years old, I mean, I didn't really know what politics were at all. I was not at all engaged politically. And a year later, 9-11 happened. And even that did not kick me into high gear in terms of paying attention to politics or anything. So I find it extremely

Mm.

and honorable that you wanted to get into politics at such a young

I'm so grateful that you are in that space. We need more people like you.

Well, let's play some Gen Z trivia, okay? You should be able to get this, problem. What percent of the population in America is composed of Gen Z, which are 11 to 26 years of age? 11 to 26, Gen Z.

Okay, hopefully.

11? God, people younger than me are chunsi? That's weird.

I'm gonna say... 15%.

Gen Z is the largest generation in American history, currently making up 27 % of the population in the US.

Really? I thought we had a population crunch. What's going on?

Here's the next one. What is the most frequently used social media platform for Gen Z?

Ooh, I'd probably say TikTok.

It's actually Instagram. Yeah, Instagram followed by Snapchat and TikTok.

Who is a snapchat?

I don't use it.

Yeah, TikTok's great, but like Snapchat... Look, I'm someone who needs to look back at text conversations. I can't have them being erased, okay? That does not work for me.

Yeah,

I don't know. I love TikTok. That's my platform of choice. But yeah, I guess Instagram is Gen Z's go-to.

Yeah,

I would have said TikTok, Instagram. God, I know Blue Sky's catching on, but it's nowhere near that.

now.

And my last one is what percent of Gen Z believe the government should do more to solve their problems? It's pretty close 70 % 70 %

100%. I mean, whichever party

you're a part of, like, I just think everyone's, like, bit unhappy with the status quo, right? ⁓ I mean...

Yeah, but I think it's interesting

they believe the government should do more to solve their problems. Definitely you would think, at least on the Republican side, that government does everything badly. If you're in the Republican camp, the government can't solve my problems. I don't think they really mean that at all. But yeah.

Well,

they do think ICE can solve their problems. I mean, you know, it depends on what you're looking at. They think that government should be getting involved in abortion decisions and health care decisions. So it depends on your perspective. You know, the big government, small government tropes don't really, they never really lined up, especially now because you got a bill that's going to come through here and increase the debt more than ever.

Right, yes.

Yeah, right. Yeah, I big.

No, they don't.

$3

trillion. $3 trillion. I know. I know it's a ridiculous amount of money. I know Dr. Evil would as well. I saw a little pinky there. That's good.

Retro.

It is a large amount of money. I'd like that amount of

Yeah. Yeah, thank you.

Well, as a Gen Z activist, how do you think your generation is reshaping the Democratic Party?

Yeah, well, I think, you you got people like Maxwell Frost out there. And, you know, they're doing this work to try to bring young people into the Democratic Party. You got people like David Hogg as well. And, I just think it's really about connecting on those core issues of affordability.

And I think it's not just affordability. It's, you know, there's this American dream of you go to college and you graduate and you're going to get a good job. And I think for so many, that's out of reach right

a lot of people I know, myself included had a real tough time, when they graduated college, where do we go from here? you know, every entry level job requires three to five years of experience. And so I think just speaking to these issues that, you know, it's not like, fantasy land stuff. It's just like.

you need to live in this country. And there are some basic things you need for that. You need a job, you need a good education, you need housing and you need healthcare. And I think if you really focus in on those four core issues, what I like to call the real deal, then that's what will bring young people back into the party.

Well, what do mean by the real deal?

That's what I call it. think, you know, we had the square deal. We had the new deal. We, tried with the green new deal. think, you know, right now the focus more so than on climate is on affordability in this moment, at

So I think, you know, it's time for what people might see as the real deal.

I like it. I really do.

And you coined that, the real deal?

I've had it in my back pocket for a number of years.

I like it. think it actually has so many meanings behind it.

Yeah, and people are also

nostalgic for, you know, the FDR sense of the Democratic Party where, you know, we go and do bold things and we're not ashamed of it.

I like that it's real as in truth, right? When you think something is real, it's the truth. So you can get the real deal and the truth behind it. That's really nice. I like that.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Well, you recently graduated from Haverford College with a degree in political science. What part of your degree have you found most valuable?

I would have to say the writing. You just write a whole lot in political science. And aside from that, just gives you a... I studied primarily international relations. So it really helps me understand as these major global events are happening. We almost just went to war with Iran. And I was watching that having studied.

⁓

Key word I hope is almost. I hope it stays almost.

Yeah, I mean, really just depends on the mood of Trump when he wakes up in the morning or doesn't go to sleep at night, right? It's all over the place. And I mean, if you remember last term, he almost took us to war with North Korea, Venezuela, Iran last time as well. You know, just watching these things unfold, it gives me a perspective that I lacked without that political science degree.

a certain caution for just jumping to conclusions of, it's all America bad or all America good. No, there's some nuance there and we need to do what's best for us, but also what's in the best interest of the

Right, I think it's important to lean on education and how important it is because there's definitely a narrative on the Republican side where they bash education. You they bash going to college and somehow higher education transforms you

just someone who is not going to contribute to society at all. Somehow before college, you're this perfect little thing, and then you go to college, and then you're just ruined with this woke ideology. education has always been a way to elevate yourself in this country. It's a way out of poverty. It's a way to get the real deal. It's through education.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

Mm-hmm.

And so I think it's great that you went to college, you got this degree, it clearly is getting you places. And that should be afforded to every person who lives in this country.

Yeah, absolutely. And if I might add on the woke thing, I think if anything, you know, I had these ideas that one might say were a little bit more on the woke side before college. And, know, you learn nuance in college that there are more than just one side to any given issue.

it just gives you a new perspective.

Yeah, I think what a lot of Republicans call woke, it's really exposure, right? You get exposure to different experiences and you change your thought processes and you become more inclusive. And that's a good thing. That's how America should be. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Anybody who says, trust me, trust me, I know, I know all the best people. I know everything. I know everything. They don't know anything. It's all a smoke screen. Exactly.

Right. And you learn that you don't know everything, right? That's important. Like, if you think you know everything, you're going to go down a dark path.

Believe me.

I'm the smartest person, okay? There's some

very low IQ individuals out there.

Well, let's play some policy speed round. I'm going to give you just a quick list of issues, and you're going to give me one sentence opinion. Just in a rapid fire sense, OK? So climate.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Don't drill baby drill. That's

You know, reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That would be nice.

What about housing?

Build a lot more. think we need to deal with zoning regulations. have zoning in this country that just makes it impossible to build. We need more high density housing and we need more walkable cities and I think that would just really help with our housing crisis right now.

What about artificial intelligence?

Ooh, okay, so I am a big science fiction fan, so you know, I've watched all the Doomsday things with Matrix and what have you. Yeah, so I'm a little disturbed. I mean, I'm seeing videos that like they're making the JD Vance memes now with these AI videos, and I'm just like, this is a little bit freaky. We need to slow down on this.

Terminator.

because of all the sci-fi I've watched, I'm like, slow down a little bit.

It's, it's creeping me out.

Gotcha, well as long as it doesn't translate to know, Terminator is walking around taking us out, think hopefully there's a, hopefully there'll be some good things in there that AI gives us in the interim. Oh my God, model Elons. Get out of here. What about healthcare?

Yeah, there'll be model Elans walking around, right?

So I believe in Medicare for all. I think that's really important. It's just so wrong to me that in this country people can be going bankrupt for medical procedures that they need. I think we need a universal network as it were because it's just ridiculous that you can be out of network and all of sudden you get hit with a huge bill. And we just can't afford to be leaving people behind in this country.

I agree and as a doctor I feel very strongly that we you know health care is a human right. Everyone deserves to have access to health care and there should not be barriers to health care. You shouldn't go into debt over any type of disease process you're dealing with or medications. one should be rationing their medications in America.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

If you have diabetes, not taking your insulin or heart failure, not taking your medications, we should not be that way. And so I completely agree with you. expand Medicare, expand Medicaid, and make sure that all Americans are living healthy lives.

And by the way, even if you don't believe that healthcare is a human right, there's inefficiency in the system when you have profit actors like insurance companies coming in saying, like they make money by denying people coverage. It's like, they really are the leeches in the system. You cut that out and it's just, you pay less in premiums, you pay a little bit more in taxes, but you keep more of your money and it's just better for everyone. And when people are uninsured, it hurts all of us.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Right. And if we want every American to have the ability to contribute to society, you're not going to do that with a portion of society sick all the time. Like that's just not going to happen. So why not try and optimize everyone's ability to contribute something to the workforce, no matter what it is, and we're going to rock it into a new era. So yeah, it just doesn't make any sense to keep people down when it comes to healthcare.

Mm-hmm.

As a millennial, what can I do to better connect with your generation?

I think, I mean, doing what you're doing, just reaching out to young people on social media is really important. Like, that's where you're going to interact with people the most. And, you know, I think people just need to see that Democrats are focused on economic agenda. And so anything you can do to advance that, just show that Democrats are really concerned about these issues.

Cause you know, I, I kind of hate watch Tucker Carlson sometimes and Marjorie Taylor Greene. I saw them on a podcast and they're talking about these issues of affordability and housing and education and all these different things and how it just doesn't work for young people these days. I'm like, God, why don't I hear more Democrats talking like that? Like, you know, you got all these Democrats saying, everything Trump does is bad, but what are we hearing about what actually needs to be done to help people?

Ugh.

And I just think we're not hearing enough out of that. whatever we can do to advance what we actually do believe in, think, I think that would be really beneficial for the party.

Yeah.

Do you think it will be helpful to break down over and over and over again the Democratic platform? Because I've read the Democratic platform. It's like 90 pages. I guarantee that 90 % of the population doesn't even know where to find it. Hasn't read it. I mean, that is the core of the Democratic Party. It literally lays out everything that the Democratic Party wants to do if they have the right composition at the state level and the national level. So do you think that would help at all?

I think it would be a step in the right

I mean, it takes me back to a time when I was

on the Harris campaign and I went tabling Delaware County Community College and there was this young Muslim woman who came up to our table and we were trying to get her to register to vote because it was the last day to register. And we're like, well, who do think you're going to vote for? And she's like, I'm not registered, but I'm leaning towards Trump. And we're like, okay, that's interesting. Would not have expected that, but okay, how come?

And for her, was really about Gaza. And she felt that the Biden administration hadn't done a good job on it and that kind of as punishment, she was going to vote for Trump. so we're like, look, Kamala Harris has said she wants a ceasefire. That's what she wants. Trump has said he wants to finish the job. That's literally what he said. He wants to wipe out Gaza. He wants to build hotels there, whatever he wants to do with that. don't know. And she's like, I did not know

People on this campus just did not know what the Democrats stood for. They thought that Democrats were pro-genocide and that Republicans were somehow not, that they were going to do a better job on it. so just by telling her that one piece of information, we were able to get her to say, I'll register to vote and I'll vote for Harris because if I can save 10,000 lives hypothetically with my vote, then yeah, that's worth it, right? So I think...

Some of these things can really influence people's decisions because a lot of people are not following as closely as you and I and they just don't necessarily know what the party stands for. They just think both sides are bad and nothing ever happens under either. But as we're seeing now, like even with a slim majority, you can inflict a lot of harm on a lot of people.

Yeah,

yeah, that's I think that might be something I'm going to go into then because I I mean, look, I made I kind of nerded out over the Democratic platform. I made Excel spreadsheets and I broke down the comparisons between the two parties and they are polar opposites in many, many ways. And even if you look at our local politics, if look at Pennsylvania and our

Mm-hmm.

democratic majority that we have in the state house, they are constantly pumping out good legislatures, know, good laws that reflect the democratic party, increasing the minimum wage, getting rid of medical debt, and, you know, trying to enshrine and protect reproductive

decrease our emissions, decrease our carbon footprint, make housing more affordable. That's the democratic platform, right?

Mm-hmm.

And that's at the local levels. I truly believe that if we got the right majorities in Congress, those same things would be coming out. But you, again, have to have both houses. In Pennsylvania, the Republicans control the Senate. So even if something gets passed in the state house, it doesn't mean it's going to make it to Governor Shapiro's desk, right? Right.

Like SEPTA funding

For me that's a nightmare. For a lot of other people too, it's just crazy. ⁓

Right, it's crazy.

I mean, and the House of Representatives in Pennsylvania has passed a budget three times to fund public transportation, not just in Philadelphia, all over the state. And it's held up because of Republicans. You know, so I completely agree. So I think that's what I'm going to do. I think I'm going to start breaking down the party and hopefully I'll educate some people and change some hearts and minds.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Well, let's play another game called cancel or campaign. I'm going to give you a couple of couple items and you tell me we're going to cancel it or we're going

Okay.

campaign on that. right. Ranked choice voting.

Okay.

Ooh, campaign. It was really beautiful to see that in New York when you had Bradley under endorsing Mom Donnie.

Yeah, that's a good one.

I agree. I think that the most difficult thing about ranked choice vote is explaining how it works to people. know, but once you get past that barrier, and for those who don't know, it's where basically you can rank candidates more than one in order of preference,

Mm-hmm.

So I think it's a great thing to campaign on, but it needs to spread across the

yeah.

It opens up the

field and it is a much fairer way to vote.

someone truly has to get a majority, right? It's not just, you know, people are unhappy with it, but they have to vote for the lesser of two evils or whatever. They can choose, they can have input on all the candidates.

Yeah.

Exactly. I agree. What about the electoral college? Yeah. Cancel that. I agree with you. It's a racist remnant of our nation's history and it needs to go away.

Ooh, abolish, hard abolish. Cancel.

it is ludicrous that you can have people winning the popular vote and losing the election anyways.

What about student loan

Yeah, campaign on it. ⁓ think

Yeah, 100%.

part of the issue with it is it's a little bit more of a band-aid, right? We have a long-term problem in this country of tuition has just gotten ridiculously expensive to where people even in the upper middle class are having a tough time of boarding college for their kids. So it's very much a band-aid, but we do need relief for people, especially people my age who are graduating college and have to start paying back loans.

Yeah.

If they can't get a job, period, nevermind a job that pays well, how are they supposed to do that? So I think just to get us back on our feet and then we need to start really addressing the cost of tuition.

I agree and it's terrible because Trump is rolling back a lot of the student loan forgiveness that the Biden administration had in place. know, it really does help people gain that generational wealth that so many people haven't had access, like the real deal, right? The real deal includes not being strapped with debt, whether it's medical or educational. So it's really sad that that's being rolled back, but hopefully we'll get a new administration soon and we can work on chipping away at that again.

Mm-hmm.

Well, hopefully not a Vance administration. I wouldn't like that.

No, no, we

definitely know we need a Democrat. We need more Democrats in Congress. We need a Democratic administration and we need more Democrats at the state level too.

Well, tell me about your involvement as the regional director for the Southeastern PA Young Democrats, because I think it's such an important role.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. So I'm pretty new to this. But you know, what I'm trying to do now is just find young people all over the Southeast who are looking to get involved, whatever shape that looks like. So, you know, I don't really want to be in the business of telling people what they should be doing. I want to enable people to do what they want to do and help them find connections.

You know, we're setting up chapters here in Delco. We're looking to set up chapters in Montco and Chestco I know there's an active chapter in Bucks County. I want to make sure first and foremost that there are people meeting in every single county in the Southeast. And from there, I think we can start to experiment and just try new things as we go into the midterms. Because, you know, a lot of these solutions, we have to implement them ourselves if they're going to be done at all.

I agree. mean, you have a wide area to cover. have Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lancaster, Lehigh, and Montco I mean, that's a huge undertaking to engage all of those young voters. Do you have any like strategy to get out to all those places?

yeah, it's Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Well, right now I'm just trying to meet people and I think, you know, I'm just one person. I need people on the ground to know their communities and are willing to get organized in them. Cause it really just comes down to local races. Cause my belief is that there's only so much we can do on national level races. It's so much as baked in, but I still think there is value in door knocking and phone banking and some of these local races where people don't necessarily know everything that's going on.

And they're actually willing to listen because it's local, it's important to them right there in their communities. So I think there's still stuff to be done there and we just need to find people who are willing to get involved. But what I will say is, it's hard to find people my age. We've got a great college Democrats program, we've got a great high school Democrats program. But for people out of college and not old Democrats, that's

Age bracket of, you know, 20, 23, 24 to 35 is just a really tough time for people. You know, they're busy, they're getting their lives started. They're getting married, having kids, maybe going to grad school. And they're just not really focused. And, you know, I know from my time on the Harris campaign,

We had only 135 people under the age of 35 volunteer. mean, it was truly staggering how low it was compared to our overall volunteer turnout. And I don't fault young people for that. Like they're busy and they feel like the party is not representing them. So we have to find ways to, you know, get them involved. And I think this is something that Republicans have gotten really good at, right? They have that pipeline with the Ben Shapiro's and the Charlie

Yeah.

who somehow people listen to, I don't know. And you know, it's almost, they make it cool and they give people an entry point. And I think...

Why is it so

cool to be an asshole? mean, honestly, I feel like that is what the Republican platform has really capitalized on, that it gives people the window and the ability to be an asshole and not feel bad about it. I mean, what's the... Yeah, I mean...

Right. No, and I think that's huge to people. I mean, if you

feel that way and you're allowed to be that way, mean, people want a sense of community at the end of the day. And I think however they can find that, they'll go for it. The ideology almost comes

for me as a doctor I want to treat people the way I want to be treated first of all and I don't think that there are a lot of people that I interact with every day who would want to be talked to the way that Charlie Kirk talks to people or that Ben Shapiro talks to people and Ben Shapiro's wife is a doctor you know I mean like I just don't understand why it's so cool to treat people in a way that is derogatory.

for whatever reason, when these Ben Shapiro's or Charlie Kirk's make a misogynistic or racist comment, it's like thumbs up by thousands and thousands of people. They're not the kind of people you'd want treating you in real life.

You know, I just don't understand how that connection is being made, but I will treat you with empathy and respect. I would think that's how you would want to be treated by your politicians as well.

Well, I think part of the problem, whether it's right or wrong, there's a sense that Democrats want a police language. And, you know, I have conversations with people who use terminology I don't like, I wouldn't use myself.

Mm-hmm.

And it's wrong. They shouldn't. I wish people wouldn't say those sorts of things. But, you know, we do have to be more cognizant of just stay laser focused on the policy issues. And, you know, if people want to say

Yeah.

.

Thumb stuff, let them. Like, that's not our problem.

I guess.

I find it interesting that some people would feel policed by the language when the Republican Party wants to police bodily autonomy and immigrants, even American citizens detaining them and questioning their citizenship. There are so many things that Republican policies police. Right.

Well, it's a victim mentality, right? Like they

feel like they've been victimized and this is what they have to do to unvictimize themselves. They have to blame the minority, take it out on them, and it's not right. It's not right at all. And I think they're going to see that it's not good for the country either. You know, it's a major problem.

right.

Right.

You are currently working for Representative Regina Young as a social media advisor and help people in Delco get access to government services. So what's been your favorite part of this position so far?

Mm-hmm.

Ooh, okay, going to Harrisburg, that is fun.

Yeah?

So Rep Young is great. She lets me come up to Harrisburg whenever I want. And you know, just meeting people there is great. And you know, I'm doing her social media. So I'm, you know, taking videos and editing them. And I just make sure everything's up to date. And you know, we just started a new TikTok page. So that's doing well. Yeah.

I saw it, I follow it, it's

great.

your videos pop up most on it.

but yeah, so it's just a super great experience where I'm learning a lot. And you know, I've had experience with social media, but this is definitely the first time I'm managing a principal social media. And, you know, you got to, you got to be on the ball.

Yeah, I think it's great you're doing it. I hope it opens the doors for other opportunities in the future.

Well, if you could write or pass one state law tomorrow, what would it be?

Mm-hmm.

Ooh, aside from funding SEPTA, let's think. ⁓ Yeah, that is a good one. I feel like there's got to be something better, though, something more meaningful. You know, I think I'd like to see how universal health care would play in Pennsylvania, because, you know, we are really a microcosm for the entire country. We're basically a 50-50 state. We've got rural, we've got urban, we've got everything.

I mean that's a good one, for sure.

Yeah, that's a good one.

We've got a divided legislature. I think if we could make it work here, we can make it work federally. It's not going to

No, I mean, you know, it's definitely not going to pass with a

Certainly not. But I know that Democrats have been looking for more opportunities to expand access to Medicaid and, you know, definitely decrease medical debt, which all helps with universal health care ideology.

Yeah.

let's play another game. It's called Bridging the Divide. Okay, a game where generations have a lot more in common than we think. All right, so which generation held a national march for racial justice?

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

I would say the baby boomers.

All of them did. Yeah, so the Boomers did the 1963 march on Washington. Millennials did the 2014 Ferguson marches in Black Lives Matter. And then Gen Z did the 2020 George Floyd protests.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, so all three generations actually did a march for racial justice. All right, which generation witnessed a presidential election decided by the smallest margin?

Well can only be one right? mean, surely. I would say Gen Z probably.

again all of them. So the boomers saw 1960 Kennedy v Nixon and then Millennials 2000 Bush v Gore and then Gen Z you had Biden v Trump right it was 44 yeah yeah yeah Bush v Gore right so each generation also had a small margin of victory and here's another one which generation protested curriculum censorship

Mm.

Yeah, guess you could say Bush V Gore is definitely the closest.

Mm-hmm.

Well, going with the trend here, I'm going to say all of them, but...

You are, you know, you

are correct. Yeah, the boomers had the free speech movement at UC Berkeley. The millennials protested Common Core and textbook accuracy. And then Gen Z did the book ban resistance and the TikTok library drives. So yeah, yeah. So there've been a lot of TikTok, protests just over the book bans and everything that are going on right now.

TikTok library drives. I don't think I've heard of that one.

So yeah, every generation actually has gone through these painful experiences where it's necessary to rise up and push back against what's happening politically. So I do think that our generations actually have a lot more in common than people think.

History rhymes. I mean, whether you look at any demographic, people are trying to divide people. And I think if you fall into that, you very quickly lose sight of what we're trying to do. And that's really just provide a decent standard of living for every single American. I don't care what party you are, what race you are, what religion you are. If you're American, we're going to take care of you. I think that's the bottom line. We can't leave anyone behind.

We cannot.

What's your response to people who say young people don't vote?

there's a sense that Democrats , try to say, well, young people never vote. So we're not going to try. What's the point. Right. And I think that's why you saw a chronic underinvestment in,

the, the college program during the Harris campaign. We had.

some phenomenal people doing great jobs, they were not given the resources they needed. So there's this kind of chicken-and-the-egg sense where Democrats think, they're not going to turn out for us, so why try, but also blame them when they don't come out for us. It's like, no, you can't have it both ways. Go try. Do everything you can. And don't just shame them for like, well, you got to vote for the lesser of two evils. Young people aren't interested in hearing that. And again, we can talk about whether that's right or wrong. But you know.

At the end of the day, you've got to win an election and I think you have to talk to young people like any other group who have interests and they want to see those interests come to fruition.

Yeah.

Yeah, and we have elections coming up in Pennsylvania this November 4th. So I hope that in your engagement with the Southeastern Young Democrats, you're getting people excited and focused on the judicial candidates we have coming up, school boards and sheriffs and commissioners and tax collectors. mean, the fight is local now, right? Everyone can hear about what's happening in D.C. when you turn on that mainstream media.

Mm-hmm.

but the local elections are super important. We have so much power still locally. And now that the fight has been pushed down to the state level, we have to protect our Pennsylvania legislature and our local municipalities from MAGA because they are coming down. They're not going away. They want to take over every, you know, facet of the political spectrum. So I'll be really interested to see what you're doing in engaging the younger vote for this important election coming up November 4th.

Well, I think a really important thing that not just young Democrats can do, but all Democrats can do is if your college or university doesn't have a polling place, get one. mean, Haverford, where I graduated five years, just five years ago, I think they didn't have a polling place. We have a polling place now. Villanova, this past election cycle. Besides getting a pope, they got a polling place. ⁓ So, know, good things come in twos.

You

But yeah, so mean, that's a simple thing where, you know, for college students who don't necessarily have a car, who aren't necessarily going to go out to, you know, the local school to go vote, just having that in a walkable area, literally right where they live, is a really easy barrier you can just remove for people to go easily vote. And you can put up signage and make everything much easier.

Mm-hmm.

That makes a lot of

Yeah, the more barriers you remove to vote, the more people will vote.

Luke, what gives you hope?

know, think seeing how many people are standing up to Donald Trump gives me

you know, we, we see all these protests happening and I think the ones that really give me hope are the ones centered in communities around individuals. not even necessarily the, the big no Kings ones or the hands off.

When it's someone in your community who's being taken by ICE right there, and I see people standing up because they value that community member, that is incredibly meaningful to me. You know, you fight fascism one step at a time. And, you know, as they say in Andorra, right, the frontier of the rebellion is everywhere. You just got to stand up every single place all the time.

And the reality is they only have so many man hours, right? Even authoritarians have to sleep. Even authoritarians have budgets and they've already gone well over theirs. So we can slow them down. We don't have to just resort to, we can't block them in Congress. There are things we can do on the ground that are legal, that are peaceful, that slow down the mechanisms of authoritarianism. And we just have to be willing to stand up and do them.

Out wit, out last, out play. Survivor, you got it.

Mm-hmm.

What plans do you have to get yourself through these next few years?

I mean, eventually I'm going to law school, so that'll be interesting. ⁓ Assuming there is law, right? I'm not taking anything for granted here.

⁓ congratulations, man.

gosh.

Don't depress me, man. Come on, you just told me what gives you hope.

Well, I gotta be realistic,

come on.

But what will get me through the next series? Ice cream. I'll do it. That and I need more science fiction stuff to watch. There's not enough stuff coming out right now, so hopefully that'll fix itself.

Ice cream. Yeah.

Okay.

So Netflix, Amazon, and ice cream are gonna get you these next few years. Now, what about Hulu? Are you more of an apple or?

Netflix has fallen off the ball, I'm sorry, like they...

I have to say Apple's got the best stuff. Their sci-fi is top notch. I've almost never been disappointed in Apple. HBO, Hulu, Paramount, they're good. Netflix has lost supply. I don't know what happened to them. I think when they lost Star Trek, that was the killer. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Hopefully, that was it. Well, hopefully they get their acts together.

Well, Luke, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I love what you're doing in Pennsylvania, inspiring the next generation of political activism, Gen Z is important. And I certainly don't want you to think that I'm forgetting about you.

or the powerful voting bloc that you are, because as we talked about earlier, you're 27 % of the population. And so we can't sleep on that. And so I hope that we stay in touch.

Yeah? Mm-hmm.

I have no shame. And so I can take the criticism. And if I'm missing the mark, and if you think I'm turning off your generation for any reason, please reach out to me and say, hey, man, you're missing the mark.

Absolutely, but you're

doing fine, don't worry.

Alright good, no seriously, we need people in your generation to get involved politically and the future really does depend on it.

thank you so much for having me, it's been an absolute pleasure.

Absolutely.

Well, thanks for joining me here on the Zekely podcast. Stay hopeful and get involved and until next time, let's keep building a stronger Pennsylvania together.