Young voters in Pennsylvania can't afford housing. They also don't expect politicians to fix it. This is called political maturity. It used to take decades to develop this kind of cynicism. Now it arrives before your prefrontal cortex finishes forming.
The competitive House districts in Pennsylvania hinge on voters who understand they're f*cked either way. Housing costs money. Jobs don't pay enough money. Politicians promise to care about this. Young voters have stopped believing them. They'll still vote. They just won't expect anything to happen afterward. This is the most honest transaction in American politics.
Analysts claim housing affordability will determine control of Congress. They're wrong. Housing affordability will stay exactly the same regardless of who wins. Young voters know this. Old voters know this. The only people who don't know this are the candidates pretending they have a plan.
Here's what happens next. Someone wins Pennsylvania. That person goes to Washington. Housing prices continue rising. Rent continues rising. Wages continue not rising. The winner releases a statement about fighting for working families. Young voters read it while splitting a two-bedroom apartment four ways.
The technical setup is flawless. Support sits at "we're aware this is a problem." Resistance holds firm at "we can't do anything about it." Volume remains heavy in the apathy sector. The breakout won't come.
Every political consultant in Pennsylvania is workshopping housing messages right now. They're testing focus groups. They're writing talking points. They're crafting ads about affordability. Young voters will see these ads. They'll nod. They'll vote. Then they'll go back to their studio apartments that cost eighteen hundred dollars a month and require proof of employment from three previous centuries.
The beautiful part is nobody's lying anymore. Candidates aren't promising to fix housing. Voters aren't expecting them to try. Everyone's finally being honest about how this works. It only took a complete collapse of faith in democratic institutions to get here.
Photo by David Trinks on Unsplash
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