NY Post Columnist Says Gen X’s Rightward Holdout Could Be Explained by Homeownership, Taxes and Exhaustion

A New York Times/Siena poll released last week found that Americans in every generation moved to the left over the past two years — with one exception: Generation X, according to a commentary published by the New York Post.

In an opinion piece for the Post, columnist and podcast host Bridget Phetasy argues that Gen X’s resistance to the broader leftward shift isn’t a mystery, but the product of the generation’s circumstances: people born roughly in the 1960s and 1970s who grew up as latchkey kids amid high divorce rates and are now in their peak earning — and taxpaying — years.

Phetasy writes that Gen X is currently “working” and “in our peak earning years, which means our peak taxpaying years, too,” while Boomers draw Social Security and younger generations struggle to afford housing. She argues that being the group “forced to pay for” government programs breeds skepticism of promises of free benefits.

“Nothing makes you more skeptical of ‘free’ than being the one forced to pay for it,” Phetasy writes.

The column also points to a 2022 study cited by Phetasy finding that people born in the 1960s and 1970s were widely exposed to harmful levels of lead from car exhaust and leaded paint, which she raises alongside other generational experiences such as memories of the Cold War.

Phetasy’s broader argument centers on housing affordability. She contends that homeownership — and the responsibilities that come with it, from mortgages to lawn care — tends to push people toward more conservative or libertarian positions, while younger Americans who can’t afford homes have, in her telling, more time and inclination toward left-wing politics. “A mortgage is the most counter-revolutionary force in America,” she writes, arguing that expanding affordable housing for young people would be “the most anti-communist thing this country could do.”

Phetasy is the host of the “Dumpster Fire” and “Walk-Ins Welcome” podcasts. Her piece is a commentary and opinion column, not a news report, and its characterizations of Gen X’s political motivations reflect her own analysis rather than data from the underlying poll beyond the generational voting-shift finding itself.