Not to kick a donkey while it’s down, but a new poll from Quinnipiac University published last Wednesday shows the modern Democratic Party more unpopular than ever.
With the second Trump administration only beginning to exert itself, the poll found that Democrats are now looked upon favorably by a paltry 31% of registered voters, with 57% viewing the party unfavorably. The latter figure is the highest unfavorability rating for Democrats in the poll’s history.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s Republican Party now enjoys a 43% favorability rating, with 45% holding an unfavorable view. While far from spectacular, the result affords the GOP its largest-ever advantage over Democrats in favorability since Quinnipiac began asking these questions.
For a party hoping to mount even the appearance of “resistance” against the now-swaggering MAGA movement, these findings are grim.
Explanations are aplenty for the Democratic Party’s precipitous decline in popularity. Many on the Left have blamed “messaging,” conveniently enough, as if their deeply unpopular ideas would suddenly turn popular if they were “messaged” correctly. Others have criticized the party’s lack of commitment to its core ideas — or to any ideas at all. Still more have accused the party of being overly committed to too many preposterous ideas of the cultural variety.
But these speculations gloss over the Democratic Party’s most fundamental problem: Its brand has become toxic to men. According to the Quinnipiac poll, a staggering 67% of men hold an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party, while only 22% approve.
A party that repels 2 in 3 men is not viable. For Democrats to regain their national influence, they must reflect on why men of every color, class, and creed have abandoned them.
A good place to begin would be by addressing the implicit assumption in Democratic circles that men are inherently part of an “oppressor” class that is privileged above their biological counterparts. This curious interpretation of sex relations reduces men and women to mere interest groups locked in a struggle for power, not as fundamentally complementary and cooperative. This not only defies the lived experience of untold generations who witnessed mothers and fathers lovingly sharing the burdens of life, but this reductivist view drives men away from the Democratic Party in droves. If nothing else, demonizing, shaming, and lecturing half of the electorate is an abysmal political strategy.
Democrats might also consider the type of men they spotlight as exemplars of the sex. The monthslong effort to cast former second gentleman Doug Emhoff as embodying the “new masculinity” because of his supportive role in his marriage to former Vice President Kamala Harris is a prime example of how to choose the wrong pitchman.
Of course, most men today support their wives’ careers, especially when considering the untenably high cost of living. Women holding positions of power have been effectively normalized — and rightly so. But what hasn’t caught on in the cultural man-o-sphere, despite every effort by cultural progressives at social engineering, is an interpretation of manhood that is weak, subservient, and perpetually apologetic.
This posturing was especially toxic for black and Latino men, who, despite traditionally supporting the Democratic Party, flocked to the GOP in record numbers this past election.
Add to the mix Emhoff’s past behavior toward women, which includes impregnating the nanny during his first marriage and allegedly slapping an old girlfriend so hard in public that her face spun around, and it’s easy to see how his outreach to men failed.
Every man prides himself on his ability to spot a phony. And Emhoff wasn’t especially difficult to suss out.
Equally as groan-worthy for men was the notion that Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) was going to shore up the “Midwestern everyman” vote. While initially looking the part on paper, Walz’s camo-hat shtick quickly presented itself as cosplay. As he struggled to load his gun and shoot straight about his military service and his coaching career, he earned the derision of men everywhere.
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Looking forward, the Democratic Party would do well to focus on the issues most men prioritize, such as the availability of manufacturing jobs, secure borders, and reducing crime.
And if they don’t, they shouldn’t expect to retake power anytime soon. Maybe they should just learn how to code.