Do Democrats Understand the Manosphere Enough to Win It Over?

President Donald Trump ran on a slogan of Make America Great Again and central to his project is to make men great again. But it’s only certain kind of men and a certain kind of masculinity. Think Hulk Hogan, who spoke at Trump’s nominating convention as did Dana White, the CEO of UFC. This “masculinist” approach now steers not only Trump’s bombastic, in-your-face political brand, but his personnel and policy choices.

At its core, it’s an ideology rooted in nostalgia and restoration and the belief that “real” men, the kind who work with their hands and lead with aggression and brawn, have been left behind and now need a hand up — and room to say and do whatever they want, without any consequences. It means Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his talk of restoring power to the “war fighter.” It means promising to restore the US as a place where men make things again, even if it means threatening to wreck the global economy in the process (and even if most Americans don’t want to work in factories).