This spring, Gen Z may distrust politicians, but a Harvard poll shows they’re flocking to military recruiters in record numbers—seeking discipline, purpose, and real standards.
The following ran in the Tuesday 6 May 2025 edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.
While Moscow’s woke contingent squawks about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, a surge of young Idahoans is trading safe spaces for boot camp.
Young Americans feel adrift. Harvard’s Spring 2025 Youth Poll shows 42% of under-30s “barely getting by,” only 17% with a sense of community, just 16% doing well, and a mere 15% saying the country’s on track. The approval of congressional Democrats among 18- to 29-year-olds has tumbled from 48% in 2020 to an all-time low in 2025 of 23%.
Meanwhile, military enlistment has shown a complete turnaround under Trump’s “results over controversy” banner. Even as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth weathered Signalgate, leaks, and calls for his ouster, the military has quietly become a beacon of purpose. Hegseth’s commission as an Army National Guard infantry officer after graduating from Princeton in 2003, and his service in Guantánamo Bay, Iraq, and Afghanistan before leaving service as a major in January 2024, are a testament to his integrity and give real weight to his message. We’ve seen him sweat alongside his Marines—sprinting, hoisting sandbags, pushing through PT circuits—in a display of toughness and resilience that resonates with men craving an unvarnished warrior ethos.
Real men embrace a military that refuses to be emasculated. We saw that in the troops who defied Biden’s experimental COVID vaccine mandate—tough enough to say “no” and now offered reinstatement. That’s precisely the warrior spirit our Armed Forces require.
Young Americans are hungry for the belonging and purpose that civilian life no longer offers. After the 2021–22 recruiting downturn—Army missing by 25%, Navy by 20%, and the Air Force falling short for the first time in 25 years—2024’s modest rebound was due to a 15% goal cut rather than any real gain. Now, mid-FY25, every branch is blowing past its recruiting goals. The Navy is on track for its best year in two decades, the Air Force is up 20%, and the Army is already marching past last year’s 55,000 enlistments with eight months still to go.
So, what’s behind this surge? Bonuses help, but with failing government schools and an obesity epidemic among eligible youth, recruiters now offer ASVAB prep and PT clinics to clear academic and fitness hurdles. Bigger than incentives, however, is the Pentagon’s shift from diversity training to a focus on family, flag, and fight in a simple, shared purpose. Hegseth’s “anti-woke” stance has clearly found its audience.
Harvard’s poll shows only one in six young Americans feels a real sense of community—yet the military delivers instant camaraderie, clear mission, and enduring traditions. When civilian life means pandemic isolation, pronoun mandates, enforced DEI quotas and reverse-discrimination, unstable jobs, and crushing debt, the barracks offer belonging and purpose.
Vice President Vance’s Marine Corps recruiting spot makes it crystal clear:
“We care about excellence, and we care about patriotism. And if you are awesome and you are a patriotic Marine, then we are going to do everything that we can to make you the most lethal fighting force the world has ever seen—and that is what we’re doing every single day. No more quotas; no more ridiculous mumbo jumbo; no more diversity training. We believe the real strength and the real diversity in the United States Marine Corps is that you all come from every walk of life, come from every corner of America, and you have got the strength and the purpose to win the nation’s wars—and that is what the Marine Corps is going to do, just like it’s done for damn-near 250 years.”
Vance enlisted in 2003, served with the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing, deployed to Iraq, and left in 2007 as a corporal—so when he promises to build “the most lethal fighting force the world has ever seen” and blasts “ridiculous mumbo jumbo” like quotas and diversity training, it isn’t marketing fluff but the voice of someone who lived it.
Although GenZ—who barely trusts Congress (18%) or the courts (29%)—has checked out of a political class offering no hope or community, they’re flooding recruiters’ offices—proving that a clear mission, real standards, and shared purpose still inspire. GenZ may sneer at media, government, and big business, but when their country calls, they’re in line ready to fight and die for a nation whose political class they’ve dismissed.
Young Americans cry out for community and purpose, and the military delivers with clear mission and unapologetic standards. If civic and business leaders want Gen Z’s trust, they must embrace that same relentless focus on excellence and accountability—or fade into irrelevance.