Kamala Harris’ campaign can’t stop patronising American men

Progressives have spent years demonising male voters. Now they’re trying to guilt them into backing the Democrats

Donald Trump is for the boys. Having recently appeared on the Theo Von, Lex Fridman, and Andrew Schulz podcasts, the former president has made strategic moves to solidify the male vote. With a tight race in the swing states and with only weeks to go, Kamala Harris has deployed her running mate, self-professed midwestern dad Tim Walz, to woo these men back. So far, the marketing has consisted of guilting men or pandering to them with silly stereotypes.
Walz kicked off his dudes-rock tour on Friday morning with former NFL player Michael Strahan, now of ABC’s Good Morning America. The pair talked about how Walz’s stint as an assistant high school football coach, a “career” as Politico has called it, prepared him for politics.
In September, he bragged, “I took football back from [Republicans], too, by the way.” The month prior, Walz had declared that he was the “anti-Tommy Tuberville, to show that football coaches are not the dumbest people.”
Democrats’ catering to football fans, hunters, and other male hobbyists may seem benign, but it’s actually the same gender reductionism that conservatives often get knocked for. A camo hat and barn jacket does not a man make. Neither does going pheasant hunting in Minnesota and joking about being a “knucklehead”.
But while Walz has attempted a more wholesome approach, other pro-Harris messaging has not followed suit. Though not affiliated with the campaign, Democratic content creators have been placing crude get-out-the-vote notes at basketball games, urinals, and bars. “Your vote is private,” one card reads. “You don’t need to tell your boys you’re voting for Harris/Walz.” By implying that voting for the Democratic ticket is an embarrassing secret to hide from one’s buddies, this highlights that many young men are, in fact, backing Trump.
Another card reads, “Trump gives girls the ick. Vote Harris Get Laid,” degrading men as apes whose only priority is immediate sexual gratification. “Republicans Want to Ban OnlyFans. Search Project 2025,” and “Your Girlfriend Isn’t Safe in Donald Trump’s America. Abortion Bans Kill,” were printed on other cards.
Characterising young men as licentious meatheads incapable of voting in an intelligent way is not likely to appeal to men of any self-worth. The cards are not even attempting flattery, either; they’re just assuming men are the lowest common denominator. But that’s nothing new from the progressive Left.
For decades, many on the Left have shown outright hostility towards men, condemning them as the root of all evil in society. Masculinity is toxic. Traditional male-driven courtship in dating is patriarchal. Harris participated in the pre-confirmation pile-on of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was subject to a humiliating inquisition over unsubstantiated allegations of sexual assault.
Rather than uplift men, whom progressive culture has demonised and emasculated, the Democrats’ strategy appears to be to secure their vote as a form of repentance. All will be forgiven, if you vote for Harris.
If you vote for Trump by contrast, expect no pity.
Indeed, the basest of motives are being attributed to men who reject Harris as candidate. “What frustrates me, there are going to be some males in our society that will refuse to vote for a potential female president because they don’t think females are smart enough to be president,” a now-former professor at the University of Kansas was caught saying during a viral lecture. “We can line all those guys up and shoot them … Scratch that from the recording. I don’t want the dean hearing that I said that.”
A pro-Harris 90-second ad circulating on social media, so ridiculous that some speculated it was paid Trump satire, continued the caricaturing of men as potty-mouthed hunters and fishers.
“I’m man enough to enjoy a barrel proof bourbon,” a male actor begins, followed by others who say: “I’m man enough to cook my steak rare.” “I’m man enough to deadlift 500, then braid the s— out of my daughter’s hair.” “I’ll tell you another thing I’m sure as s— not afraid of. Women.” The ad pushes the Left’s vision of a reformed masculinity consisting of penitent emotional sensitivity and performative women-worship.
“I’m man enough to be emotional in front of my wife,” the ad goes on. “I’m sick of so-called men domineering, belittling, and controlling women just so they can feel more powerful.” “I love women who support their families.” “Women who decide not to have families.” “Women who take charge.” “And I’m man enough to help them win.”
To borrow Walz’s attack against JD Vance, this is all just…weird.
My late dad was a veteran in the Vietnam war. His manhood had nothing to do with his affinity for scotch, fly fishing, or the annual Army-Navy game. His strong moral compass and provision for and protection of his family made him the man he was. More than any messaging Harris and Walz and their associates have offered so far, my dad’s frequent recitation of West Point’s cadet prayer to his children summed up how many men will be voting this November.  
“Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half truth when the whole can be won.”