Why Democrats Have a Shot to Get Men Back

The GOP hates men, elite failure, growing antisemitism and more in this week's digest.

The Democrats realize they have a man problem, namely that they are losing men’s votes. Their efforts to diagnose and address this problem to date have been cringey to say the least.

But it would be a big mistake to think that it’s impossible for Democrats to lure men back. While that party has internal dynamics that make it difficult to appeal to men, traditional Republicans also hate men, and often openly and harshly criticize them.

Here’s a recent example from Fox News, in which Tomi Lauren and Laura Ingram talk about how bad young men are today.

It’s not just GOP women either. The GOP seems to be united around the idea that the #1 budget cut that needs to be made is to kick “able-bodied men” off of Medicaid. House Speaker Mike Johnson talks about this as a “moral” matter.

Just days after the Supreme Court ruled that the Civil Rights Act means what it says, and applies equally to discriminating against white people, men, and straights, the GOP is out here pushing a punitive measure explicitly based on discrimination based on sex. It almost goes without saying they have no intention of asking women who may be gaming the system to do anything.

Since both parties basically hate men, if Democrats simply stopped overtly hating on men, a large chunk of them would be very open to voting Democrat. In fact, not that long ago, many of them like Joe Rogan actually were much greater supporters for the left. Most men are non-religious, want to indulge their appetites, and aren’t interested in moralistic scolding - particularly when it’s clearly directed only at them. So whoever stops kicking them first will have a lot of appeal.

Once Trump, who is an avatar of a kind of masculinity many of these young men can relate to, is gone, there’s no reason to think your average GOP, Inc. figure like Mike Johnson will resonate at all with men.

Of course, it will be hard to impossible for the Democrats to change their ways to capitalize on this. As one Democratic figure put it, “The Democratic Party is missing that we’re not going to be able to message our way out of these deep problems men are facing, starting with the fact that they know the Democratic Party doesn’t really like or respect them.”

The Best and the Brightest Under Pressure

Left wing anti-monopoly writer Matt Stoller published some reflections on America’s elites after attending his 25th class reunion at Harvard:

One of my favorite movies as a kid was Glory, the story of the first all-black regiment to fight in the Civil War, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment. The 54th had white officers, and its first commander was Harvard graduate Robert Gould Shaw, who was killed in battle along with a lot of his troops, many of whom were ex-slaves…This martial tradition at Harvard stretched back and forward hundreds of years; a third to a half of Harvard graduates in the 1640s went to England to fight for Oliver Cromwell in the English Civil War, and tens of thousands of Harvard graduates served in World War II.

But during the war in Vietnam, that tradition ended. I didn’t know people like Shaw. Serving your country, potentially sacrificing your life, that’s rare for Harvard graduates, except for unusually service-oriented types, or for those with political ambitions

…

A few years ago, J.D. Vance made a powerful argument about the four recent great betrayals of the American working class - the war in Iraq, the offshoring to China/fentanyl epidemic, the financial/foreclosure crisis, and the post-Covid policies that split the country into “essential workers” and elites who baked bread. All four split the country by class. The Harvard class of 2000 was affected by these events, but largely as perpetrators who benefitted from enacting the policies that defined them. Certainly, my personal experience is living with the victors, not the victims.

…

I also periodically asked, “do you know someone who died of fentanyl?” And the answer was always no, sometimes accompanied by surprise that most Americans do have personal experience with a family member or friend, or friend of a kid, who died.

…

Harvard graduates are those who won the social lottery. For hundreds of years, we believed we had to act, or pretend to act, as stewards of a nation where all men are created equal. Shaw did. The class of 2000, and really classes going back to the 1960s, have not, or at least not so far. That is our legacy. That is elite failure. It is not inevitable, and it will change one day. Hopefully that day is sooner rather than later.

Click over to read the whole thing.

Coalitions on the Right

The lobbying shop Baron Public Affairs put together this map of the various groups on the American right. These kinds of typologies are always good fodder for discussion, and this one proved no exception.

On Antisemitism

I was asked lately whether I thought there was any real trend in growing antisemitism. Undoubtedly, since Elon Musk bought Twitter and removed the censorship, there’s been an explosion of hardcore antisemitic content there. This is one of the negatives of his purchase of the platform. There are so many of these accounts, and they act in such an over the top way, I’ve speculated they might be some kind foreign influence operation. They will often swarm people, and I’ve been dogpiled by them multiple times.

Interesting, today, Matt Yglesias, posted in his newsletter about how younger cohorts are much less favorable towards Jews than older ones. Here’s a chart he posted of unfavorability towards Jews by age:

He writes, “This is primarily a cohort effect, not one that’s about partisanship or ideology. Over the next 10-20 years, the least antisemitic cohort of Americans is going to die, and the most antisemitic cohort will have increasing influence throughout the economy and political system.”

When it comes to the evangelical world specifically, there’s been a steep decline in support for Israel, falling from 75% to 34%. This is probably also a generational effect. However, I see very little overt antisemitism among evangelicals online, and the ones who post it are marginal figures with no institutional support. It’s certainly nothing on par with the dissident right.

I always urge people to stay far away from antisemitism. It’s simply bad, of course. But also for people who get into it, antisemitism ends up consuming their lives. It’s like falling into a black hole. They become monomaniacal about it. They can’t stop talking about it and it becomes the lens through which they interpret the entire world.

I’m not afraid of reading all sorts of dissident people across the political spectrum, but there are three topics that when I see them, I stay far, far away: any overt Nazism, white nationalism, and antisemitism. I’d recommend you do the same.

Unfortunately, too many mainstream people call people all these names at the drop of a hat, which tends to desensitize people to them. But if you encounter the real deal on Twitter, you won’t mistake it.

Best of the Web

Anthony Bradley: Hug Your Sons (Everyday)

Oliver Anthony, who wrote the viral song “Rich Men North of Richmond” was divorced by his wife, and has a new song out about how she got half his money.

The Atlantic: Sports betting seems to be spurring a rise in gambling addiction—one that the U.S. isn’t equipped to address

Louise Perry: Why OnlyFans has young British girls in its grip

But Blue wondered if life might not have more to offer her. So she left her husband, moved to Australia and pursued a new business idea: having sex with hundreds of (in her words) ‘barely legal’ teenage boys and uploading the footage to subscription-based, content-sharing platform OnlyFans. ‘I just wanted a better life,’ she insists. And, in her opinion, OnlyFans gave that to her.

Jacobin: The Fatal Flaws of the Futureless Left - Against left-wing anti-natalism

NYT: This Idea Explains a Lot About What Has Happened in Trump 2.0 - If you are going to self-dox, your debut op-ed in the New York Times is a great place to do it. This was written by the person better known as “N.S. Lyons,” who has a popular Substack.

New Content and Media Mentions

I got mentioned this week by the Acton Institute. And I was a guest on the Givers, Doers, and Thinkers podcast with Jeremy Beer.

New this week:

• Will Artificial Intelligence Dismantle the Managerial Class? - AI poses the first real challenge to managerial society, but the cure may be worse than the disease

• My podcast was with Ian Fletcher on why industrial policy matters for America.

Subscribe to my podcast on Apple Podcasts, Youtube, or Spotify.