Pirate's Cove

Well, gee, you think? When they’re essentially pushing all their males to pretend to be women and the rest are mostly soy boys, yeah

Democrats Have a Man Problem. These Experts Have Ideas for Fixing It.

It’s hard to deny that Democrats have a masculinity problem. Attitudes toward masculinity have been an important predictor of votes for Donald Trump. And while Black and Latino voters still overwhelmingly lean Democratic, men in those communities are turning to Republicans at higher rates than women. Republicans seem all too happy to capitalize on the gun-toting, fist-pumping tropes of stereotypical manhood. GOP presidential candidates are bragging about their athletic prowess. Missouri Senator Josh Hawley’s recent book, Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs, joins a body of let-men-be-real-men work that includes the preachings of Jordan Peterson, the postings of Andrew Tate and the writings of a popular online guru who goes by “Bronze Age Pervert” — all of whom cast liberals and progressives as the enemy of masculinity.

As they approach elections with razor-thin margins, what are Democrats to do? Recruit candidates who fit traditional stereotypes of manhood? Confront Republican arguments head-on with alternative takes on crime, guns, transgender rights and a vision of masculinity that intersects with all of these issues? Or just do nothing and hope voters are turned off by GOP rhetoric that they see as toxic or discriminatory?

So, should they continue to be against traditional biological roles, or fake it for the election season?

Joanna Weiss: Chuck, more Latino men voted for Trump in 2020 than in 2016. You’ve argued that Democrats need to more directly court the Latino vote. What’s the best way to do that?

Chuck Rocha: You start with the premise that the average age of a Latino in America is around 27. They’re just a younger demographic. They’re consuming things differently. This narrative that GOP appeal to Latinos is about machismo is mostly a false narrative. It’s more about this economic pressure on Latino men to provide.

Huh, so, no ideas.

Then you see Josh Shapiro, who won, presenting a very different paradigm and a very different view of masculinity. In his ads, he talked about faith, he talked about family, he talked about opportunity, he talked about how when he was a county legislator, he cut taxes and kept taxes low. He talked about how as attorney general, he worked to combat crime. He always talked about being a dad and going home to his kids, and how he’d married his high school sweetheart. Those are, I think, examples of masculinity that a lot more men can identify with than these guys out there like Doug Mastriano dressing up as a Civil War soldier, or feeling the need to storm the Capitol in a triangle hat.

So, the complete opposite of Democrats

There are really two abiding themes in masculinity: The macho man — Trump’s got that covered — and the good man. And what Democrats need to do, and Josh Shapiro did this, Lis, to a certain extent, is enact the good man, the decent man, the “It’s a Wonderful Life” man. The only people I see articulating that are other Republicans, which makes me a little sad as a Democrat.

Joanna Weiss: You’re talking about adopting a kind of working-class white male perspective. This right-wing critique of the Democratic Party as out of touch and feminized and elitist and arugula-eating and in the ivory tower — how much of it is really just a proxy for class warfare?

There’s a lot of talk in this piece, but, it all boils down to if Democrats can fake it to make it. Skipping all the way to the end

Jackson Katz: I hear Democratic Party and progressive strategists saying, “We’re sick of talking about white men. White men are the cause of all the problems. Why are you going to spend more time on this?” And I think a lot of young white men hear this, and they hear disdain. Go to the comment sections on Breitbart: They basically say, “The left and the Democratic party hates white men.”

My plea here is that there is a way to speak to those young white men and young men of color that is inclusive, that is challenging, that is positive. It’s not that we have to replicate the aggressive traditional masculinity to appeal to them. It’s just that we have to take them seriously. When someone like Jordan Peterson sells out 10,000 people in an arena, when people like these are getting 20 million views … they’re tapping into something real. How can we tap into it in a way that gives them actual solutions? If we can do that, we have the potential for creating multiracial, mixed-gender coalitions that can actually put in place the legislation and the policy that will help everybody. I don’t think that’s naive. I just think we have to do a better job.

So, say they hate white men but not so harshly.

Read: Politico: Democrats Have A Masculinity Problem »