You’ve probably seen the ad. The one with the guy in his room on his phone. He obviously is watching something pornographic when an old man steps in and interrupts him. This old man is his Republican congressman, who informs the young man that because the GOP won the last election, pornography is now illegal.
The ad was paid for by Progress Action, a left-leaning group that is cutting commercials supporting Democrats for the November elections. It encapsulates the problem Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign, in particular, and the Democratic Party, in general, have with appealing to men.
That problem is significant. Many polls show former President Donald Trump leading among men by double digits.
Democrats, for a while, celebrated the “gender gap” for the votes they gained from women. Yet now they realize the impact the male votes they have lost could have. Recognizing the trouble these numbers signal, Democrats have tried to make direct pitches to men.
One might say better late than never. However, the better answer here might have been better never than insultingly dumb. The results have been downright laughable. An earlier ad this cycle included men declaring they were “man enough” to vote for Harris. It, of course, featured one man sitting awkwardly on the back of the pick-up truck, a posture I have yet to see from any man owning a Ford F-150.
But the argument made in the ad was much worse. It showed a combination of utter ignorance about and disdain toward blue-collar working men by Democratic and progressive leaders. That ad painted men as basically animalistic. They were defined by simple, low desires and cartoonish sexism. Opposition to Harris’s candidacy was cast as a result of men today being this way.
Then we have the Obamas and others lecturing men about how they should vote. These condescending soliloquies say openly what the “man enough” ad only thinly concealed: Men vote Republican because they do not see, listen to, or care about women. They vote as they do because they want to treat women as objects to be used and abused.
That background brings us to the recent ad previously described. It brings more of the same regarding the Democratic and progressive view of men. Men are appealed to as if the deciding issue in this election for them would be whether they can continue to consume pornography.
On this point, let us set aside the unlikelihood that an actual ban on pornography is on its way should the GOP triumph next week. The makers of this ad think that men are so singularly driven by coarse sexual desire, making them little better than beasts. Did they stop to think how men might react to being so perceived?
It is true that pornography consumption has exploded, especially among younger men. It is a moral scourge that harms relationships, bodies, and souls, both male and female. It encourages the ones who consume it to think and act in ways that debase themselves and objectify others.
But, ultimately, most men have some understanding of pornography as wrong. They may suppress and distort its full ramifications, but men retain an underlying knowledge of the truth.
In the ad, the young man yells at the Republican congressman, “You can’t tell me what to do! Get out of my bedroom, you creep!”
These lines sorely misunderstand the very persons the ad tries to persuade. The liberty men need and that most truly want is not libertine. Most men want much better in life than the degrading pleasures of on-screen sexual displays. Most men want the dignity of a good job, the friendship of neighbors, and the love found in a wife and children. They want to be honorable and strive for things that are noble, even when they can’t quite pinpoint exactly how.
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The breakdown of families, economic hardship, and cultural confusion have contributed to the difficulty for many in making these desires a reality. A real appeal to men would acknowledge those facts and seek to make things better. It would encourage men and all humans to think and act according to the better angels of their nature. It would seek to show the dignity and honor, the private and public good, that men have, do, and can provide.
Democratic decision-makers seem not to get that. And it will cost them next week.
Adam Carrington is an associate professor at Ashland University.