OPINION: Young men switched their support from President Joe Biden to Donald Trump. There are a few possibilities why
Some liberal parents are worried because their adult sons voted for Donald Trump.
The New York Times recently ran an article titled “When Your Son Goes MAGA,” referring to Trump’s slogan to “Make America Great Again.”
Some parents had conflict with their adult sons over their support for Trump, although some of them still, thankfully, worked out their differences. While 52 percent of young voters supported Vice President Kamala Harris, 56 percent of young men backed President Trump, according to Tufts University research. In contrast, 56 percent of young men supported President Joe Biden in 2020.
One parent, a “marriage and family therapist,” wondered what happened to her son, whom she said, according to a paraphrase, “seems to have been drawn into an online sphere that affirmed his fears and vulnerabilities as he was aging into his masculinity.”
“As he became more immersed, she said, he began to see the Republican Party as a defender of more conventional notions of manhood,” the NY Times reported.
Trump made appealing to young men a centerpiece of his strategy.
With the aid of his 18-year-old son Barron, the president went on podcast shows that attract male listeners, including Joe Rogan’s show, Adin Ross’ show, and Theo Von’s show. If you don’t know who all those people are, neither does the Harris campaign and that’s one reason they lost.
The Trump campaign promised to protect communities from violent crime and picked masculine men like JD Vance, a former Marine who overcame poverty, as the president’s running mate. Meanwhile, MSNBC host Jen Psaki tried to convince people that Doug Emhoff had “reshaped the perception of masculinity.” Nah.
Same goes for Sam Brinton and Tim Walz.
To the governor of Minnesota, thanks for your service to our country in the National Guard, but wearing a camo hat doesn’t make up for signing a law that allows the state to take kids away if their parents don’t support them identifying as transgender.
There are some possibilities for why young men might be shifting toward Trump despite having liberal parents.
For parents, LGBT “rights” maybe meant their gay friends could enter into a civil “marriage.” But for young men, LGBT means they are asked to state their pronouns and their classmates now cross dress or call themselves “nonbinary.”
For parents, racial politics meant scholarships or special hiring programs for black Americans. But for young men, racial politics means being accused of “white privilege” or being called racist for opposing illegal immigration (or one of the 103 things higher ed declared racist last year)
Young male voters also lived through the harms of COVID shutdowns, forcing many into online learning that may be even less suitable for them than the standard classroom. For male students in trade programs, they were the hardest hit.
A working paper from economists at Northwestern University and University of Virginia noted that the hands-on nature of trade degrees contributed to the drop in male college enrollment, as The College Fix previously reported. It is easy enough for a female English major to have an online class discussion about a passage in “The Catcher in the Rye.” It is much harder to learn how to weld or replace the alternator in a car via Zoom.
Young men should embrace their masculinity and “conventional notions of manhood.” These are positive developments.
MORE: Trans activists smash windows at Turning Point USA event
IMAGE: Joe Rogan Experience/YouTube
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