Harvard Pollster: Trump's Brilliant Campaign Strategy Could Devastate Democrats 'for Years to Come'
The guys liberals have marginalized are emerging as a powerful political force supporting former President Donald Trump.
An Op-Ed by Nate Cohn in The New York Times noted that in three national polls, Trump leads Vice President Kamala Harris 58 percent to 37 percent among men under 30.
That dominance has led John Della Volpe, director of polling at the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics, to say Trump’s effort to attract young men “could peel enough away from the Democratic Party to transform the country’s electoral math for years to come,” according to Della Volpe’s Op-Ed for The New York Times.
Although Democrats have traditionally relied upon young voters, Della Volpe said that since 2020, “the share of young men identifying as registered Democrats has dropped by seven percentage points, while those identifying as Republicans have increased by seven points — a net shift of 14 points in just four years.”
Della Volpe said the men with whom Trump connects have a negative outlook on the future and themselves, writing “they fear for our country’s future, and nearly half doubt their cohort’s ability to meet our nation’s coming challenges.”
Trump, he said, “has tapped these anxieties by weaving a hypermasculine message of strength and defiance into his broader narrative that undermines confidence in democratic institutions. And it’s working.”
“His playbook? A master class in bro whispering,” Della Volpe wrote, saying that Trump’s tactics include “championing crypto, securing the endorsement of Dave Portnoy — the unapologetically offensive founder of Barstool Sports — and giving the U.F.C. president, Dana White, who embodies the alpha-male archetype that appeals to many young men, a prime spot at the Republican National Convention.”
Over the past four years, he said, young men have shifted significantly in their opinions.
Young men “are now less likely to support government-backed climate change solutions (down 15 points, according to our poll) and affirmative action for qualified candidates (down eight points).”
“They are more likely to question immigration policy (up 12 points), free trade (up 10 points) and whether government stimulus leads to economic growth (up seven points). They are also more likely to believe that religious values should play a more important role in government (up six points),” he wrote.
Daniel A. Cox, director of the Survey Center on American Life at the American Enterprise Institute, said those changes come from being a neglected part of American society, according to The New York Times.
“Economically they’re getting shafted, politically they’re getting shafted, culturally no one’s looking out for them,” he said. “They’re drawn to his message, his persona, the unapologetic machismo he tries to exude.”
One feminist said men have been shunted aside by liberals.
“I’m going to talk as a feminist: We do it, when we try to suggest women are brilliant and men are the problem,” Niobe Way, a professor of developmental psychology at NYU said.
“Trump is definitely saying, ‘I see you, I value you, I see your masculinity,’” she said.
Ranger Irwin, 20, of Nevada told the Times that America no longer “lets boys be boys.”
“Men my age, from a very young age we were told, ‘You’re not supposed to do this, you’re not supposed to do that, you’re just supposed to sit here and be quiet,’” he said, which makes being a man “a little bit harder than it used to be.”
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