Democrats have, apparently, a man problem. And it’s not just because, as Judge Jeanine Pirro informed recently, only 12 percent of liberal women “claim to be completely satisfied with their lives — and it is because all the manly men have flocked to President Trump.” It’s also, on a related note, this:
Democrats have long relied on young voters as part of a winning coalition. They delivered in 2020, too, as Joe Biden won the 18-29 vote by 24 points (59 percent to 35 percent). They broke Democratic in 2024 as well, albeit by a much narrower margin: six points. (Fifty-two percent supported Kamala Harris, 46 percent Donald Trump.)
To the point here, however, the shift among young men — and some other male demographics — was striking. Men 18-29 voted for Biden over Trump in 2020 56 to 41 percent. Yet this was almost precisely reversed in 2024: 56 percent of young men supported Trump; only 42 percent went Harris.
Moreover, other male, traditionally Democratic coalition groups saw a similar shift. Hispanic men voted Trump 50-49; the president also won 24 percent of black men, a figure unprecedented in modern times. The latter support appears to have only grown, too. Why, a recent poll found that Trump enjoys a 42-percent approval rating among black men.
Party of Capons and Clucking Hens?
Many are diagnosing Democrats’ man problem. Last Monday, for instance, famed podcaster Joe Rogan criticized liberal pundits who deliver messages in feminine “upspeak.” He explained his own success — and by implication Trump’s — by saying that young guys want a man who’s “not owned.” “They want to just be a man…,” Rogan said. They want to be “a masculine man” and nonetheless “nice.” Yet Democrats seem like not very nice beta males.
Sending a related message, last year in a New York Times interview, was upspeak-eschewing Democratic strategist James Carville. He blamed Biden’s low campaign-season poll numbers on “preachy females,” whose attitude he epitomized thus:
“‘Don’t drink beer. Don’t watch football. Don’t eat hamburgers. This is not good for you.’ The message is too feminine: ‘Everything you’re doing is destroying the planet. You’ve got to eat your peas.’”
“If you listen to Democratic elites — NPR is my go-to place for that — the whole talk is about how women, and women of color, are going to decide this election. I’m like: ‘Well, 48 percent of the people that vote are males. Do you mind if they have some consideration?’”
The leftist pseudo-elites apparently did mind, though, and male voters considered them — and rejected them.
A Man’s Man?
Then there’s liberal comedian-cum-commentator Bill Maher. Echoing earlier observations, he said last month that Democrats messed up so badly that “Trump is cool now.”
“‘I mean, rappers like him, the athletes are doing —’ Maher continued while gesturing Trump’s iconic rally dance,” Fox News quoted him as expressing on his show Real Time. “‘I was making fun of him … and now he owns it.’”
This brings us to Judge Pirro’s comments, made on the Fox show The Five last week. After mentioning liberal women’s miserableness and leftist men’s beta status, she played a clip of commentator Clay Travis that she believed helped explain Democrats’ man issues. Speaking in a panel discussion, Travis said:
Trump took a bullet in his ear and immediately stood up and said, “Fight, fight, fight.” Every man in America and most of the women out here were impressed by that, even if the women won’t admit it. … And, and, second part of this, basically summing it up, Democrats, for men, are p[******] — and Republicans aren’t.
Quite true. Say what you will about Trump, he’s a man’s man. Also, the irony about liberals is that they once stereotyped conservatives as tightly wrapped nerds who’d outlaw fun if they could. Yet this has proven to be projection. Harking back to what James Carville said, the Democrats have become Dork Central.
Bastardized Boyhood
Just consider what a couple of generations of boys have now experienced growing up.
“You can’t play dodgeball; it’s too violent and exclusive. A kid could get a bruised elbow or ego.” (Some educators have pushed yoga instead. Yeah, fun guys.)
“Forget about real guns — you mustn’t even play with toy guns! You could become a murderer!”
“Take some Ritalin to tamp down that toxic masculinity.” (Of course, the social engineers also try to sell a reinvented pseudo-masculinity, aka femininity-lite.)
In the same vein, as I wrote in “Banning Boyhood” in 2007:
Just recently a Colorado Springs, Co., elementary school banned tag during recess, joining other schools that have prohibited this childhood pastime. Upon hearing this, I thought about the movement to ban cops and robbers, musical chairs, [and] steal the bacon…. Then there’s the more inane still, such as the decision by the Massachusetts Youth Soccer Association to prohibit keeping score in kids’ tournament play.
It’s all part of the feminization of society and of education in particular. This has been discussed for decades, too, notably in Christina Hoff Sommers 2000 book, The War Against Boys. And is it any wonder that these beleaguered boys, now men, are rebelling against those who warred on them?
The Leader of the Pack
As for the women, the male/female voting gap among young people is wider than ever. Yet even though young women are notoriously liberal, especially today, what Clay Travis said gets at a truth. These women, like all women, are hard-wired to desire and respect strong men — whether they know it or not. (I discussed this in 2011’s “The Security Sex.”) This is why they gravitate towards taller, burlier, wealthier, more intelligent, and more powerful men. Possession of such qualities correlates with the ability to provide security — that is, safety, which, a recent study showed, Gen Z women value above all else.
This makes sense, too, from a species-perpetuation standpoint. For finding a strong man who provides safety maximizes the chances a woman and her offspring will survive and prosper.
And in accordance with Judge Pirro’s comment, a study years ago already found that stronger men tend to be conservative. So then, perhaps, something is for certain.
The GOP has become the party of and for manly men — and the women who love them.
For those interested, the aforementioned The Five segment is below.
