Men Strike Back

Donald Trump, like in 2016, won the votes of the so-called “silent majority” who felt left behind in this new globalist, liberalizing America. In 2024, this included young men. The feminist movement has led to unmatched progress for women in the modern era, and in many areas, particularly academia and education, women have not only closed the gender gap but overtaken men. In 1970, roughly 44% of bachelor’s degrees went to women, as compared to 56% for men, a 12-point gap. Today, that gap is even bigger, but in the other direction- now women make up 58% of bachelor’s degrees, compared to only 42% for men. While the gender pay gap remains in favor of men, in several cities in the US, young women make more than young men. Male suicide rates are four times higher than women, over 60% of young men are single, more than double the rate of young women, and male life expectancy is almost six years lower than female life expectancy. Put succinctly, there is a crisis among men, particularly young men, and to a young man in America today, this isn’t the prosperity that he was promised or that even his father enjoyed. Liberals, sitting in their ivory towers, will proclaim that “to the privileged, equality feels like oppression.” When a man, particularly a poor, single, or uneducated man hears this, he is bewildered by the idea that he is somehow privileged when in many ways hiss life is not even as great as his father’s was.

The Rogan Effect

Young men feel left behind in modern America, and they blame so-called “liberal elites” for this. When Donald Trump declares that he wants to “make America great again” and he contrasts this with the “feminists” on his Instagram feed screeching about how women are oppressed and men are evil, and even how they’d choose to be alone with a bear than a man. He feels angry and bitter, and Trump’s corrosive “burn it all down” rhetoric appeals to him, allowing him to channel his anger at the system. The Democratic Party running ads telling married women that they should lie to their husbands about how they vote, skipping male-centric podcasts like the Joe Rogan Experience while Trump and Vance dedicate six hours and get tens of millions of views, only to go on “Call Her Daddy” (whatever the fuck that is) and barely reach a million views rew a clear contrast between the two. Kamala’s messaging of being “brat” clearly did not do the Democrats any favors with men either. Meanwhile, Trump hit the manosphere circuit, talking to Gen Z male influencers like Logan Paul and Adin Ross, bringing Hulk Hogan to the RNC, and giving his campaign a masculine edge that Harris simply couldn’t dream to match. 

Additionally, as stupid as it may sound to most liberals, Trump, to many young people and especially men, is quite simply, much cooler than the Democrats. Despite being a liberal myself, I watched parts of the Trump-Rogan and Vance-Rogan podcasts, and the Trump you see is very different. On the podcast, he isn’t screaming about immigrants eating cats and dogs, but is instead talking about the history of the Lincoln Bedroom, how the media loved him before The View, and about his tariff plan and previous precedents. While he still says many things that are inaccurate, exaggerated, or just wrong, this is a very different Trump than the Trump liberals are used to. This is also seen with Vance. 

Resist Libs are Not the Resistance

The youngest Gen Z voters were just 10 when Trump was first elected, and he has dominated politics practically their whole life. Ironically, this conservative man has become a figure of resistance and rebellion, and there’s nothing young men like more than that. Trump sticking his hand up and shouting to “fight” after being shot, his mugshot, and even his vulgar remarks about women do not hurt him, but build up this image of a politically incorrect populist crusader for men being attacked by a “woke feminist liberal elite.” How accurate this image is is immaterial; put simply, to many young men, many of whom don’t care much about politics, Trump is simply the cooler candidate, while Harris represented everything they despised. And to have Obama, once their hero, and other Democrats and even filthy rich celebrities essentially scold men for voting for Trump was the straw that broke the camel’s back. 

While Donald Trump’s messaging towards women was not much better, the Democrats’ messaging towards men was nothing short of disaster; it’s clear that the Harris 2024 campaign was made of young, by young women, for young women, while the Trump 2024 campaign appealed heavily to men while still extending platitudes to enough conservative women to win. Abortion referendums and Trump’s own vaguely moderate stance on the issue also made Democrats’ fear-mongering about abortion less persuasive, and Democrats labeling Trump and Vance as “weird” completely backfired after Americans saw the polished and suave Vance on the debate stage and sounding like a real person on the podcast circuit,. Meanwhile, Kamala Harris’ speeches were shirt, and sounded canned, almost like they were made-in-a-lab by analysts to target focus groups. Essentially, voters, particularly men, gave Trump a pass on his myriad flaws because they saw him and Vance as more authentic, while Harris came off as fake.