Rolling.
All right so Sydney thank you so
much for being here.
So let's just start off really easy.
Tell me about yourselves.
Yeah, I'm
an incoming junior at UW-Milwaukee.
My major is political science and
I'm a minor in economics.
And you are the Vice Chair of
College Dems? Yes.
Yes, I am.
And what do you do for college kids?
Basically, really we're just
trying to get people involved
and that really is like
the format of like meetings,
weekly emails, and also
just like general outreach during
like tabling.
And what got you into politics?
Well, it really kind of started with
my familial background, I would say.
My parents are both very,
very interested in politics,
especially democratic politics in
Milwaukee.
My dad was a part of the labor
union. My mom, she's a
professor.
So they both really see the
importance of
getting involved in taking
that personal right of civic duty.
And you told me a little bit earlier
that you actually had, like,
gone out and been active in politics
from a young age. What was that
about?
Yeah, so basically
my dad, big Obama
fan, probably the biggest Obama
fan I've ever met.
He was a big fan in
2008 and then once me
and my sister got a little bit older
in 2012, we were really
able to go out in canvas and
door knock and I was like six.
So I don't really remember, I
remember being extremely cold,
but also I remember the the
importance of it and how you know,
we were doing that and then he ended
up being elected.
And in my mind as a kid, I was like,
I did that, you know.
I was the one who allowed him
to be there.
But also it was just kind of
the feeling of, you know, I can
make a change here.
Yeah. Yeah.
And so you're a young
person, right?
I've been told.
So as a young person
that's engaged in politics, tell me
what what are you experiencing
as a challenge right
now?
Well I think the, really
the biggest challenge is
I feel like a
lot of young people don't
think that the older people
in office are seeing eye to eye with
us and whether that's you know
rising tuition costs,
rising cost of living.
You know a lot us we have
you know hourly pay jobs,
not a lot a us have salary
positions. So, that
can kind of bring
a few...
Monetary issues when it comes
to, you know, paying for gas that's
over $4 or paying
for groceries like basic necessities
that aren't as
cheap as it used to be.
And a lot of young people have to
take on this responsibility of
getting more than one job plus
balancing, you know just being
young and also balancing school
and life and family life.
It's just all kind of becoming.
A little bit weighted,
I would say.
Yeah, and tell me a little bit
more about, like,
old people not understanding.
Do you feel like that's something
that's, like part of the parties
right now, or part of the current
wave of politics, that there's, you
know, like this sort of divide
between old people and younger
people?
I mean, like, you kind of see this
a lot throughout history.
I think a lot when I think about it
is the 1970s
when women were fighting for
reproductive justice.
I think, a lot of the times, they
didn't think that older people saw
what they saw as, you
know, abortion being this right.
And I think that a lot the
time, older
people maybe just want to
keep things the way that they are,
and young people are a lot more
progressive.
So, I think that we just...
Sometimes don't see eye to eye and
then it tends to flat line a lot of
our like big issues.
So I just think that a lot the
time there's
just not a lot through line,
but like there sometimes is.
Yeah, totally.
And so, um,
tell me about the coll...
Obviously you're a Democrat, right?
Yes! So what about the Democratic
Party do you think addresses
these concerns for young people?
Well, I think that the Democratic
Party has a
better way of being
progressive, you know.
I think a lot of the times the
Republican Party wants to
go back and
wants to kind
of end and cut all these
things that really have been
really productive for a lot groups,
you know, whether that's
stamp benefits, EBT, you
now, they were cutting funding for
that which has helped so many
people, especially in my city of
Milwaukee.
And, yeah, I'm sorry,
I don't wanna end that.
That's fine. Do you want us to try
that over? Yeah, for sure.
What was the question again?
Sorry. The question was, what about
the Democratic Party do you think
are addressing young people's needs?
Yeah, well, like I said,
I guess, I think the Republican
Party can be a lot less
progressive, especially when it
comes to issues like stamps and
EBT, you know, and I
think, like I said before, younger
people are just a lot more of
a progressive group.
They want to see things change,
and the Democratic Party,
while maybe sometimes
their policies
may be a little bit progressive
for some.
I just think that they have a really
good job of understanding that
the world needs to change, and it
needs to progress forward.
And sometimes it's
okay to
have a little bit of progression and
to have that disconnect
with another side so
you can get what you want at the
end.
Yeah, yeah.
And so we were talking on the phone
last week about sort of the gender
divide in politics.
I want to get your thoughts on that
again.
Do you think it's one party is
pushing one gender away?
Do you thing one party's pulling
more gender? What do you think is
going on there?
Well, I think one party
is
overstating the issues
of one gender because
of progression.
You know, I thing a lot of the times
men had this
very secure position in
society, whether that's in the home
being the bread winner, whether
that's economics being the
smarter person.
And I think the Democratic Party
has really pushed women out
of this kind of hole.
You know, to be the breadwinners, to
the ones that, you know
understand that you
know life isn't just a man's
job, it's also a woman's job and
I think that
uh... You know when you think about
issues of
I don't know like women outpacing
men in some education
and even in the workforce now
I think a lot of times Republicans
want to make men
out to be the minority
group, when it's very
much not that.
Have you, obviously
you do a lot of work in politics,
but outside of that, have you
experienced any of that kind of
tension in your daily life at all?
Um...
That was a fine answer.
I think that I'm
very fortunate to be a part and
be around many people that don't
just see me as a woman
or doesn't just the historical
notion that women have had.
I think a lot of the people that
I've put myself around really
do understand the importance of
a woman and really does understand
the important of equality and
equity.
Yeah, yeah.
And this was actually like an
article that I was looking at
earlier today that it had a really
interesting framing on this.
It said like, yeah, men are
doing, you know, worse politically
maybe, but like, or
no, sorry, I got that back.
Men are doing maybe not
as good as they used to, like
they're not getting.
As many as a high degree as
women are, and they're not maybe
getting as many jobs as women are,
but women are doing worse
politically, right? You had like the
Me Too movement,
Dobbs, right, like Hillary
and Kamala, they both ran
and they didn't get the presidency.
Do you think that sort of
helps even divide, or do you think
sort of like a symptom?
What are your thoughts on that?
Well, I think it's
probably deep in the divide
across party lines,
but I think within the party it
really did just make us more closer
and it really made us understand
that we have a lot more to fight
for other than just
fighting against Republicans.
We have to strengthen the
base so that we can be able to
take on people like Donald Trump.
I think that, totally.
So moving away from gender,
another stat that I saw was that
young people are more independent
and outside of the parties.
They're still obviously voting
within the party because like, we
only have two.
But you know,
what do you make sense of that?
Do you think people are upset with
the parties? Do you just think people
want new ideas?
Why do you think our generation is
so independent?
Well I think, you know,
I think a lot of the times like you
said you know I think there's a lot
of anger within Democrats because
a lot of people just see
Democrats losing everywhere.
You know we lost or
I guess Kamala lost you
know in 2020 or 2024
and then Hillary lost in
2016 like you said and
I think a lot of the time it just
doesn't seem like Democrats are
doing enough for young
people.
Even though it's kind of
hard to get kind
of that support across
the aisle so then you can get things
done.
But I think a lot of the times like
young people are just very
independent and
allows themselves to think for their
own and I really admire that.
Yeah, and so as a young person
in politics, what do you see other
young people doing right now that
you think is great?
Well, I think a lot of the time
they're taking, you know,
their own initiative to
do the research, to go out,
to go talk to candidates.
You know, I thing a lot the time
what makes young people now very
unique is that we
have social media and we have the
internet to be able to do that
research and to be really able to
get an answer for ourselves.
Neither, yeah.
And going back to college,
Democrats, were you
one of the, I'm
sorry, I
misremembered.
Are you one the founding members of
UW-Milwaukee?
I'm not, that was our past
president, Sydney, no they're
Sydney, she was
the founder.
Okay, but you've been involved since
more or less the start.
Yeah. Can you tell me a little bit
about what you guys have been doing
to build that up?
Mm-hmm.
Well, really, we're just trying
to just get people interested in
politics. I think that's really been
the issue, is getting people,
you know, interested in, well, why
would I vote if I feel like nothing
changes?
Well, we want to show you what could
change if someone who we
don't want office is here, or
we can show you the changes of what
we do when we really come together
and get someone in.
And I think with college Democrats,
we were really able to hone in on
whether that's, you know, tabling
events, whether that is just...
Events with different
people around
Milwaukee, like aldermen's,
and we really want to have
whoever the gubernatorial candidate
is, we want them to come and speak.
So we just really want people to
just really be excited to
go in so then they'll be more
inclined to go to the polls, so then
there'll be inclined to tell their
friend, hey, you know, go vote,
or even like, just...
Walking around with the sticker, you
know, like we have stickers that we
give out, we have pins, like,
we try to make it as
fun and as lighthearted as
possible so then we make politics
a habit.
Okay, and do
you have like a specific like a
success that you from this time that
you've been with college gems that
you think you're really proud of?
Yeah, I think one of the biggest
successes that we've had was we
put on a
candidate forum for
two of the
Assembly 19,
I believe.
Yeah, sorry, wait can I redo that
because I completely forgot.
No yeah, so we were really able
to, wait sorry,
thank god. Yeah,
um, so basically we had
a candidate forum.
For Assembly District 19 for
Ryan Clancy and Bridget Manianchi
and that's where we invited, you
know, community leaders, students,
my mom came, so many
people came, we had questions and we
were really able to flesh out these
candidates and see what they would
do for us.
So I think that was really, I'm
really proud of that because I think
they had a really good turnout and
we're really all able to come
together and.
Learn about these different
candidates, even if we didn't know
anything about them before, we
really did leave learning something
important.
Yeah, yeah.
And you mentioned it a little bit
earlier, but I want to know your
thoughts on social media.
How do you think that's affected our
generation, since we've, I've
had Instagram since like 10, you
know? Right?
How do think that has affected us?
Yeah, I think social
media has been friend
and foe, you know friend
is like you can really look up
anything and you can get that
knowledge, you don't have to go to
a library, you don't need to ask
someone who's already biased,
you can go find unbiased
websites.
Foe is that a lot of the
time people can go to the wrong
places and find that information,
Like, a lot of people go to TikTok
for their sources and it's like...
A lot of time TikTok is just people
talking to a camera with opinions,
it's not real backed up knowledge.
So I think people can
be misinformed and disinformed
and you know, there's a lot of
people out there who want you to
believe one thing and
it can be really indoctrinating
sometimes.
So it's just
being able to tell what's
real and what's not and like,
obviously social media literacy is
really important now, you know,
with AI and...
You know, internet deepfakes and
stuff like that.
So I just think that it's
been, it's hard
to juggle.
Yeah yeah absolutely um
two more questions for you yeah so
this is going to air like
september 25th so way after the
primary we don't totally
know who the democratic candidate is
yet but it's i think at this point
either going to be Crowley or Hong
right
Right?
They're both not 68-year-olds
like Tom Tiffany.
No.
So my question for you is,
do you think that has an
impact? I mean, the last Biden
was, he was hit on for being
old. Trump is starting to be hit on
from old. Lindsey Graham just died.
What do you, do think the age of
politicians has an effect on youth
vote?
Oh absolutely, I think that
a lot of the times when
we see someone
who's a lot older,
we just don't feel connected.
You know, you can talk to your
grandparent, but you don't really
feel super connected like they
understand how you feel.
And I think having younger
candidates really does open
up the pool for us to,
you know, have greater ideas, you
now? It's not just people who
have been informed by the past, it's
people who are also informed by the
present and the future,
and who will be leading the future
which is Gen Z.
Yeah.
So final question for you.
You can take your time with this.
Do you have a message for
politicians as a young person about
what you want them to know?
I have to make this good.
I have make this really good.
Take your time.
Um, ah, let me think.
I mean, I guess
mine will be, we're
here for you just as much as you're
here for us, you know,
as much we want to help you get
somewhere, you also need to help us.
And I think that a lot of
young people are helping, you know,
with the Francesca Hong campaign,
you know, the David Crowley
campaign, and even with, you
know, Sarah Rodriguez,
who just dropped out.
I think a lot of the times.
It's really backed by young people.
A lot of the biggest movements have
been backed by the youngest crowds.
So I just think that we shouldn't
lose sign on that.
You know, if it's just not even
just 19 year old, 20 year olds, 21
year olds but like 10 year olds 11
year olds like starting them off
young.
You know you shouldn't just allow
people
to just cloud your judgment
especially people who are older.
You know and I think a lot of times
We should be really pushing
towards the future and I think a lot
of the politicians who I see running
for the governor seat really
do want young people a part
of the future.
And that's what I like to see.
Any final thoughts, anything you
feel like we've missed on that you
really want to say?
Um, vote.
Vote August 11th.
That's what I want to say.
This is going to air September 25th.
VOTE NOVEMBER!
One last thing before I cut, we've
got to get what we call room tone,
so it's just 20 seconds of the
sounds around us like the air
conditioning a little bit of the
street helps us smooth out some
audio issues in post.
Yeah, that's fine.