Masculinity Minstrel Show

Does Tim Walz provide a template solution to the mainstream left's problems with men?

Inside you there are two wolves, etc etc

The biggest trend in global politics is the increasing polarisation of men and women into different camps; if we didn’t know already that America is ground zero for these kinds of political trends, Newsweek reinforced this in the last few weeks when it highlighted that 2024 will be the "Largest Gender Divide in Election History”. The story notes that:

The latest New York Times and Siena College poll, conducted between August 5 and August 9 among 1,973 likely voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, showed there was a 35-point gender gap between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. The poll showed Trump with a 14-point lead among men, 52 percent to 39 percent. Among women, Harris had a 21-point lead, with 56 percent support to Trump's 35 percent.

In general Republicans have chosen not to respond to the question of a sex divide in voting, relying on the strength of Trump’s personality to push through. Democrats have responded in part by nominating Tim Walz for Vice President with the report stating:

"I think Harris' choice of Walz is brilliant because he will play really well with young men because he was a football coach and high school teacher [he was also in the military]," Baker said. "I think Dems are finally thinking about gender in terms of how to reach men, which is a critical and long-overdue approach."

Katz added that Walz, who served in the military for 24 years and was a successful high school football coach, "has many of the credentials of a traditional man," and this will help the Democrats reach out to white men, he said.

"This is the GOP's worst nightmare, because it punctures their idea that "real men" vote Republican," Katz said.

Walz himself is an extremely boring figure but the question of whether he presents a template solution to the left’s loosening grip on men’s votes (and particularly young men’s votes) is an interesting one. Press coverage is insistent that he is; one way of testing that is to look at political positions he adopted in office, on issues where there is the greatest sex divide in outlook.