The Pew NPORS study, one of the most important political polls, came out last week with a fascinating result: there are more registered young Republicans than Democrats.
This checks with the observation that young men are leaving the Democratic party in droves:
In my eyes, there are four reasons for this rapid deliberalization among young men.
1) Biden is a uniquely weak candidate. It’s not a coincidence that the graph looks the way it does, dropping sharply as we waded deeper into Biden’s tenure.
2) There is now a strong tendency to affiliate liberals with tree-hugging beta cucks in this mold:
While conservatives are jacked alpha males who laugh in the face of would-be assassins:
And the more masculine men perceive themselves to be, the more conservative they are. Men naturally want to be masculine, so as long as these perceptions remain, they will naturally gravitate toward the conservatives.
3) Republicans are actually moderating their platform. They are ditching the culture war stuff that young people don’t like, and focusing on the economic stuff that they do like. This is important because, besides climate change, there is no evidence that young men are becoming significantly more conservative in the traditional sense of the word. And even on climate change, 47% of young men believe that the government should do more to curb it, even at the expense of economic growth. In comparison, just 12% of Republicans see climate change as a top priority.
In other words, this isn’t your dad’s Republican party. By rebranding Conservatism into a movement centered around progress through innovation (like I advocated for two years ago), Republicans are meeting young men where they are policy-wise.
4) The Dems seem to have given up on young men. Just look at their “who we serve” page:
Strategically, it makes sense for them to do so. Their base is women, and there was 84.4M registered women voters in 2022 compared to 77M registered male voters. Simple math commands that it’s better to focus on women.
So, the Republicans are the men’s party, and the Democrats are the women’s party. The problem with this is where it logically concludes.
The goal of an election is to win, which means getting more votes than your opponent. As it currently stands, there is no way for either party to do significantly better with their weaker sex without hurting their standing with their stronger sex. The Republicans are seen as a bunch of icky toxic retards among young women, while the Democrats are seen as pussy personified among young men, and those perceptions are unlikely to change anytime soon.
This is an especially big problem for Republicans, who are starting out in a big demographic hole. If they want to compete with the Democrat’s army of women, they need to either attract more women or assemble a fuck ton of men. The women thing is out of the question, so they are going to assemble a fuck ton of men. The way to do that is to double down on Trump’s machismo. JD Vance, the now heir apparent, definitely fits the bill:
As the Republicans double down on masculinity, the Democrats will double down on femininity, as they need to continue to attract women voters to keep the Barstool army at bay. This will lead to a vicious cycle where the American political system literally becomes a battle between boys and girls.
How does a system like that work? Are the majority of men and women just not going to talk to each other anymore? I genuinely have no idea.
Maybe I’m wrong, and once Biden and Trump are gone, things will go back to how they always were. But I have a hard time believing that. Democrats have no incentive to cater to men because they will never go as far as Republicans do, and trying to convince men to give up masculinity has clearly failed. Likewise, Republicans have no incentive to cater to women because they will never go as far as Democrats do, and hell will freeze over before a return to trad movement succeeds.
There’s been a vibe shift. And I don’t see how you peacefully shift it back.
Play is the foundation of connection and belonging. Whether your relationships could use an infusion of new energy or you’re seeking a greater sense of belonging, play invites you to be fully present and makes it possible to know others in new and deepening ways. Play can even build bridges across cultures and between enemies.