“God fucking damn it!” Kyle Morganelli, my long-time friend and first-time voter, said to me over the phone at 3 a.m. on election night minutes after the final results were announced.

To many young voters, Morganelli’s expletives appropriately capture their frustration they have with the United States’ political system. That frustration led many voters, including young and Latino men, to vote for Trump–a fascist-leaning sexual abuser and convicted felon (on 34 felony counts) endorsed by a Ku Klux Klan paper. But that frustration is also felt by many young voters about Trump’s victory–and even the inefficiency of the political system as a whole.

To me, the election choices (and the future of our country) were teetering between a want-to-be dictator and a spineless, fence-sitting liberal. And, even though the electoral vote count had predicted Trump’s win hours before 3 a.m. on Nov. 5, it still hurt a lot more to hear that he actually won.

I especially felt an immense sadness and concern for my friends. Even though Trump’s win might not affect me too significantly since I am predominantly white, my friends who are LGBTQ+, Latino, and Black now have to worry about an unpredictable president who rallied people together with hatred for their marginalized identities, promised to attack their rights for the next four years, and egged on his cult-like followers to scream his praises for punching down on already abused groups in the United States.

Trump’s win has only increased young people’s disillusionment with the political system. Many youth felt jaded and fatalistic about voting before the election. Some even claimed that Gen Z was the most disillusioned generation in the hundred years. And despite early 2024 election polls showing youth favoring Vice President Kamala Harris and expressing excitement to vote, Harris’ record as a prosecutor and stance on Israel made some young people on the left feel like she did not represent their interests and, by this fall before election day, made them feel unexcited about voting. But, based on the lower youth voter turnout compared to 2020 and the split of the vote between Trump and Harris it seems that youth’s disillusionment may be widening more now that Trump has actually won.

And even though Morganelli, at a superficial glance, seems like an extreme punker with his long dirty blonde hair, anarchist memorabilia, patch-covered jackets and pants, and paint and spikes all over his clothing, he expresses frustration shared by many young voters, especially after the landslide victory by the poorly-artificially-tanned former president that incited his followers to storm the capitol.

“I think we would have been screwed either way,” Morganelli said, “Trump’s win means we’re losing our rights. He’s gonna ruin everything cause he’s a racist homophobic bastard. But if Harris had won, it would have caused chaos, too, because Trump and his little neo-Nazi soldiers would probably have started so much shit and invaded the White House again or something.”

Another young voter, my 25-year-old brother, Denicio Lopez, shared some of Morganelli’s sentiments. Lopez, who currently lives in the overbaked Republican-stronghold, Arizona, described how obsessed local red-leaning voters are with Trump. For instance, Lopez said he recently saw a truck entirely covered in “Make America Great Again” stickers waving multiple Trump flags. Lopez said that, regardless of political party, it feels like both parties’ candidates are like cartoons, looking to get as much attention from an audience as possible with whatever tricks they have up their sleeve. It does not seem to matter which candidate is more right on the facts (Trump certainly did not); it only matters if they can shell out enough money for enough ads to get enough eyeballs and enough eardrums for enough votes.

“Popularity wise Trump was ahead before Biden dropped out” Lopez said. “I’ve honestly hated all elections since maybe 2011 because they just feel like unverified propaganda machines. It doesn’t matter who’s right as long as they sound better saying it.”

Lopez added that any presidential candidate that can help those at the bottom would be a decent enough pick for him.

“I literally want anybody who does not have one foot in the grave and has actual enforceable policy to help the working class survive,” Lopez said. “A candidate like that would probably have my vote.”

Yet Lopez’s request is the bare minimum that the American public should be asking their leaders for. (And Trump’s age and health have already been called into question, especially since he would be 78 at the time of taking office, one year past the national average death age. Further, Trump’s policies have already been shown to not meet Lopez’s key requirement–helping the working class survive.)

Young voter and eighth-grade English teacher, Kimberly Llamas, echoed concerns about Trump’s policies and spewing of hate.

“I remember when Trump was elected in 2016,” Llamas said. “I was a freshman in college. And I called my mom sobbing, and I was telling her ‘Please get your papers. I am so scared.’ That feeling stuck with me throughout his entire presidency.”

Llamas also expressed her disappointment with the Democratic Party’s original pick of Former President Joe Biden, especially after his abysmal performance at the first presidential debate.

“In the first debate, Trump just seemed like the less senile choice,” Llamas said. “I remember seeing that and being like, ‘Dang, I think we’re screwed.’”

Bottom line that Llamas emphasized was that even after Biden’s terrible performance, her candidate pick came down to which person was going to maintain basic rights for immigrants, people of color, and LGBTQ+ people.

“They were both on their way to their graves anyway before that debate,” Llamas said. “But in Biden’s past four years I didn’t see as much hatred being spewed out by the government. I was going to vote Democrat because I didn’t want to lose my rights. ”

Trump’s win means an uncertain future, especially given the crazy plans of Project 2025 and “The America First Agenda.”

During this uncertainty, I implore you to go make sure people that you know are scared of these next four years are doing okay–because god knows it is going to get weird.