OPINION:
President Trump’s 2024 victory has Democrats reeling, wondering what happened, especially among the male population.
In 2020, Mr. Trump narrowly won men, 49% to 48%. However, in 2024, Mr. Trump’s support among men rose to 55%, and those gains were among every demographic: white, Black, Hispanic, young and old.
So perplexed are Democrats about how they lost this key voting bloc by such wide margins that Democratic donors and strategists have put forth a $20 million effort code-named SAM — short for “Speaking with American Men: A Strategic Plan” — which promises investment to “study the syntax, language and content that gains attention and virility in these spaces,” The New York Times reported this week. The Times notes that the strategy recommends buying advertisements in video games.
Video games like the one 2024 vice presidential nominee Tim Walz attempted to play on the campaign trail? Let’s hope not.
In October, Mr. Walz livestreamed himself playing the latest Madden video game with progressive Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez of New York. Mr. Walz posted the video online, writing that Ms. Ocasio-Cortez “could run a mean pick 6,” referring to an interception returned for a touchdown.
Not only did AOC not have a Pick 6 the entire game, but Mr. Walz misused the common football term. You don’t “run” a Pick 6, as it’s not an offensive play. Many questioned his supposed time as a football coach — so much so that he took the post offline.
During the livestream, AOC admitted she “spent a solid two days in the tutorials here” learning how to play Madden.
“Oh, no, I’ve got to punt … I don’t know how to punt..the last time I punted I was on Madden 98 … I think I screwed it up,” Mr. Walz said during the livestream, also confessing he was unfamiliar with the task at hand.
The only point the campaign video made was that neither Mr. Walz nor AOC knew anything about Madden — it was only cosplay meant to connect with young voters.
Still, Mr. Walz was chosen as Kamala Harris’ running mate because he “could code talk to white guys watching football, fixing their truck” and “put them at ease,” he said on a listening tour at a Harvard Kennedy School forum last month.
It was a delusional assertion to make six months after he and Ms. Harris lost the popular vote to Mr. Trump.
Mr. Walz was dubbed “Tampon Tim” on the campaign trail by his detractors for his focus as governor on placing tampons in boys’ public bathrooms. He embarrassed himself on a bird-hunting photo-op, which revealed he didn’t know how to properly load a shotgun, let alone shoot a pheasant. He was also criticized for repeatedly lying about carrying weapons in combat during his time serving in the National Guard.
Yet Mr. Walz wasn’t the only reason Ms. Harris handily lost the male vote — it was the progressive policies of the Democratic Party that led to their landslide loss.
The most effective campaign ad of the 2024 cycle was “Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you,” commissioned by Mr. Trump’s campaign, highlighting the Democratic Party’s obsession with transgender rights, even when those rights infringe on biological women’s rights.
Progressives — along with the liberal media — derided all things “male” running up to election day.
“How Red Meat became the Red Pill for the Alt-Right,” The Nation lamented years ago.
“Getting fit is great — but it could turn you into a rightwing jerk,” The Guardian penned June 3.
“How Hot Girls Became the Right’s New Obsession,” explained Newsweek on September 29.
The left, through their endless demonization of men, which started with the #MeToo movement years ago, made Mr. Trump and his populist movement counterculture, and therefore cool for young men to embrace.
Mr. Trump sensed this shift and leaned into it. He attended UFC fights with Dana White, appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast, played golf with a group of YouTube pranksters known as the Nelk Boys, invited Hulk Hogan to speak at the Republican National Convention, slung fries at McDonald’s and drove a trash truck to a rally in Ohio.
Then, on that fateful day at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when Mr. Trump was nearly assassinated, he all but sealed the deal. After a bullet grazed his ear, a few inches from being shot dead in the head, Mr. Trump’s first instinct was to get back up on his feet, punch his fist in the air, and yell to the crowd, “Fight, fight, fight.”
Many can only hope to have that warrior spirit when confronted with adversity. Mr. Trump epitomized it. He was not acting; he was not pretending to be brave — he was brave. He was authentic and aspirational.
Since being in office, Mr. Trump has weighed in on everything from Pete Rose being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame to banning the “tush push” in the NFL. Men — especially young men — are loving it.
So, what must Democrats do to regain this once-reliable voting bloc?
The answers don’t lie in strategic plans, learning how to talk to men, recruiting their own left-wing podcasters or dropping progressive buzzwords such as “intersectionality” and “Latinx,” as has been reported.
Speaking with American men involves rejecting the notion of “toxic male masculinity” and acknowledging the traits that make men irreplaceable in today’s society: their strength, courage, assertiveness, leadership and ability to provide, to name a few.
Democrats will never get there if they continue to vilify the attributes of half the population that make America great.
• Kelly Sadler is Commentary Editor and a columnist for The Washington Times.
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