If you want to see where U.S. politics is going, walk across a college quad. The tidy split that defined the Bush/Clinton years (neoliberal technocrats vs. neoconservative hawks) has fractured. In its place, two coalitions are emerging in parallel: a reorganized left (labor-forward, intersectional, antiwar) and a reorganized right (populist, post-liberal, openly religious). Even at a Baptist university like Baylor, the new alignments are unmistakable.
The old consensus is out of favor
Polls show the ground moving. Americans’ positive view of capitalism has slid to 54%, a series low in Gallup’s tracking, with Democrats especially skeptical (only 42% favorable). At the same time, Democrats are more open to “socialism” (about 66% favorable), reflecting a broader re-think of economic orthodoxy among younger voters. (AP explainer on the poll.)
Trust in institutions is also scraping bottom among the young. In the Spring 2025 Harvard Youth Poll, only 19% of 18- to 29-year-olds said they trust the federal government to do the right thing all or most of the time; the U.S. military (40%) and Supreme Court (29%) aren’t much better, and only 39% of enrolled four-year students feel comfortable sharing their political views on campus without fear of repercussions.
On foreign policy, the generational split is starkest around Israel/Gaza and Ukraine. Younger adults sympathize less with Israel than older Americans and are more likely to say U.S. leaders are too favorable to Israel, trends that have intensified since 2024. And while the public overall still backs aid to Ukraine, Millennials and Gen Z show the lowest enthusiasm for sending economic assistance compared to older cohorts.
The younger generation is shifting their beliefs on issues their parents took for granted. The political coalitions they belong to have shifted to meet them.
The new left: labor, liberation, and antiwar energy
On campus, the reorganized left is not a monolith: it’s a coalition. First, there’s a labor-forward revival: young people are now the most pro-union Americans, with around three-quarters of 18–34-year-olds approving of unions in 2024 Gallup data, per a summary from the Center for American Progress. Overall union approval remains near historic highs.
Second, there’s an intersectional protest wing that links racial justice, LGBTQ rights, climate action, and anti-imperialism. That energy has increasingly flowed into Palestine solidarity work since Oct. 7. At Baylor, two seniors organized a cease-fire demonstration at Waco City Hall days after the attacks, hoping to “educate on the Free Palestine movement.” Baylor’s administration, for its part, joined other university leaders in a statement “standing with Israel” and calling the fight against Hamas “a fight against evil.”
Context matters at Baylor. As a professor of political science at Baylor, David Bridge notes that “there’s relatively fewer left… Democrat students at Baylor,” and those who are left-leaning are often closer to old Southern Democrats: “still a little socially conservative, economically liberal.” “You don’t really get as much of that progressive Ocasio-Cortez wing of the party,” he said. Bridge also sees frustration on Baylor’s left: “[They’re] frustrated by their complete inability to win elections… Why should I try? Why should I vote?”: a mood he described as “a resignation that the party leadership is poor.”
The new right: populist, post-liberal, and unafraid of state power
The right has diversified. The MAGA-populist strand prioritizes immigration and crime and leans into anti-elite sentiment common to modern populism; it also frames campus free speech as a counter-power and eagerly hosts provocative speakers (e.g., YAF’s Ben Shapiro lecture tours). A smaller but noisy post-liberal/NatCon wing embraces religious traditionalism, argues for conservative-leaning industrial policy, and favors foreign-policy restraint over liberal-imperial nation-building.
At Baylor, these factions are visible. Bridge notes that today’s right-leaning students are more likely to question free-market dogma and accept a larger state role than in the pre-2016 GOP, even as abortion and gender remain red-line issues. In practice, he says, MAGA has shifted the agenda to immigration, and many religious conservatives have made peace with that emphasis while keeping their own priorities. He observes that Christian conservatives still have a “good faith view” on things like immigration and tax policy, issues which don’t present saliently to them.
The department chair of Political Science at Baylor, Patrick Flavin, adds that outsiders often imagine Baylor as a monolith, but the student body now runs “from super liberal to super conservative,” and club activity reflects that pluralism. He notes that “there’s probably more enthusiasm for different conservative student groups… there are… several different conservative groups.” In the classroom, he sees intra-right clashes that didn’t surface a decade ago: “a more traditional Republican free-market view sort of clash[es] up against… a Republican push for more government intervention in a way that… ten years ago, I would not have expected from more right-leaning students.”
“A more traditional Republican free-market view sort of clash[es] up against… a Republican push for more government intervention in a way that… ten years ago, I would not have expected from more right-leaning students.”
Dr. Patrick Flavin
Where the lines blur
Free speech
Students across the spectrum feel chilled: just in different ways. Only about 39% of four-year students say they feel comfortable sharing political views on campus without fear, per the 2025 Harvard Youth Poll. Longer-running work by the Knight Foundation tracking post-2016 student perspectives on free speech finds similar apprehension about speaking freely online and in class. Interestingly, the same report noted the “politically diverse” perspectives on speech restrictions: “no single party emerges as a dominant supporter of restrictions on either issue.”
Foreign policy
An anti-war skepticism now stretches from democratic socialists to libertarian conservatives and some post-liberals. Younger Americans are consistently more critical of U.S. policy toward Israel/Gaza than their elders, and recent polling shows younger cohorts least supportive of arming Ukraine.
Baylor as microcosm and exception
Baylor University, with its conservative Baptist heritage, might seem an unlikely venue for avant-garde political change. But in many ways, Baylor encapsulates the currents of this realignment, albeit filtered through its unique context. Students and faculty say outsiders often misread Baylor’s climate. “They think Baylor is monolithic, like all our students are Bible-thumping Republicans,” says Dr. Patrick Flavin, “but that’s certainly not the case”. In classrooms, he sees the full spectrum “from super liberal to super conservative,” and notes that ideological diversity has grown as Baylor expanded and attracted students from around the country. Yet, Flavin also notes polarization: “For both left and right, at least the most vocal and visible … those on the left [are] moving further to the left, and those on the right … moving further to the right … there does seem to be sort of a greater distance between the two sides.”
Indeed, both Flavin and Bridge indicate that political discourse on campus has intensified post-2016, with more stark clashes but also more energy. Flavin senses “more enthusiasm” for conservative clubs after Trump’s rise, and Bridge remarks that Baylor’s left-leaning students have become somewhat demoralized by constant losses in red-state Texas (leading to apathy), whereas MAGA-type students tasted victory and remain highly mobilized.
Where Baylor differs from, say, Berkeley or even UT-Austin is in its institutional constraints. The administration and board are vigilant to keep the university’s Christian values intact, as noted in the University’s mission statement. That means certain activist causes face obstacles here that they wouldn’t elsewhere. The LGBTQ+ research grant episode is one example; another is the long struggle by Baylor’s LGBTQ student group to receive official recognition (Baylor only recently allowed an unofficial group, and it still must navigate strict rules). On the other hand, Baylor’s mission also creates openings for cross-ideological alliance on issues like peace, ethics, and even skepticism of power.
Baylor’s cross-cutting religious identity thus sometimes reshuffles the coalitions: a progressive Baptist student and a traditionalist Catholic student might find themselves agreeing on the importance of peacemaking abroad, even as they diverge fiercely on abortion or LGBTQ issues. And Baylor’s emphasis on respectful discourse, repeatedly noted by interviewed faculty, provides a forum for these debates to occur more civilly than at many secular campuses. “Baylor students really want to hear each other out… it’s admirable, the level of civil discourse,” Dr. Bridge said.
The same Gen Z impulses (disillusionment with elites, search for authentic community, left-wing yearning for solidarity, right-wing desire for order) are all present, but channeled through Baylor’s Christian collegiate culture.
In sum, Baylor shows how the national realignment filters through a local lens. The same Gen Z impulses (disillusionment with elites, search for authentic community, left-wing yearning for solidarity, right-wing desire for order) are all present, but channeled through Baylor’s Christian collegiate culture.
What comes next
Two scenarios feel plausible. One is a pro-worker, anti-war left facing a pro-family, America-First right, leaving centrist establishments stranded. Another is a cross-ideological civil-liberties coalition: students who disagree on nearly everything but agree that open inquiry and pluralism are worth fighting for. Either way, this generation is reshaping the terms of debate.
The question for universities is whether they’ll make room for the realignment to unfold without turning every disagreement into a speech code fight or a donor-driven veto. And the question for students is whether they’ll translate campus coalitions into durable politics off campus.
If the quad is the preview, the next decade won’t look like the last one.
