A Man Without A Party

When will Democrats start paying attention to male gender issues? If they want to win in 2024, I believe they should start now.

Today marks exactly one year until the 60th presidential election in the United States — November 5, 2024. Between now and that time, candidates and their parties will spend billions of dollars on campaigns, and volunteers and staff will devote countless hours to phone banking, texting, fundraising, and canvassing neighborhoods. Multiple outlets in the growing media ecosphere will analyze the latest polling, dissect campaigns, and try to predict who will win various races, especially the grand prize, the White House.

And though this seems to be said every four years, I believe it is especially true this cycle: the outcome of this election is urgent for the well-being of the United States.

But there is one demographic that I believe is under-addressed and under-reported in this frenzy of political activity — male voters — particularly by the Democratic Party and the major media.

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

This may at first seem somewhat counterintuitive — since all the presidents have been men, doesn’t that mean that male voters, and male gender issues, must be thoroughly represented? Unfortunately, no.

As someone who has been a registered voter of the Democratic Party for 35 years, I have become increasingly disillusioned and disappointed by Democratic leadership in this regard. While I don’t feel that the Republican party shares many of my deeply held values, I have also grown frustrated by the left and its refusal to address or even meaningfully acknowledge boys’ and men's issues, some of which I mention below and the most urgent of which I will address in more detail in future articles. I want a government that cares about protecting and regenerating the environment, providing economic justice and a robust economy, maintaining separation of church and state, and supporting the well-being of everyone regardless of personal identity. These issues line up well with most Democratic Party principles.

However, I feel that the Democratic Party has what I call a Democratic Disconnect when it comes to male voters and male gender issues -- it seems they cannot even envision the fact that boys and men actually have legitimate needs that are particular to being male, and therefore neglect to address those issues.

I define male gender issues as those issues that exclusively or significantly affect men. Unfortunately, the list of poor male outcomes is long:

• Men make up 70% of the homeless population, 70% of opioid overdose deaths, 79% of suicides, 78% of murder victims, and 93% of federal prisoners.

• Meanwhile, we see increased high school dropouts by boys and declining relative male enrollment in college, where men even supported by pro-male affirmative action still only comprise 40% of the student population.

• Many men feel that the family court system discriminates against them in terms of child custody, alimony, and child support payments, as well as being able to spend time with their children; 85% percent of child support payers are male.

• Environmentally, males of all ages are being bombarded with estrogenic chemicals, affecting their health and development.

• In 2023, about 34,700 men are projected to die from prostate cancer.

• An estimated 7.2 million men have simply dropped out of the workforce.

• About 96% of people shot and killed by police are male

• At the age of 18, young men are the only sex who are forced to sign a piece of paper registering for Selective Service, making them eligible for a potential military draft, with serious consequences for refusing to do so.

• Ultimately, men die 5.9 years earlier than women on average, yet the federal government runs an Office on Women’s Health, and still doesn’t have an Office on Men’s Health despite that longevity gap.

• Many states and localities have a commission on the status of women and girls, like this one in California, to help address their needs, but nothing for their male constituents. The White House also has a Gender Policy Council that exclusively focuses on female gender issues and no council for male gender issues.

That’s not a complete list of male gender issues, but it should be enough to show that the topic merits consideration by leaders of any political party, particularly one that trails among male voters.

The Democratic Party rightly goes out of its way to support different demographics, such as women and girls, people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community, so why not boys and men too? And when I say boys and men, I am referring to ALL men and boys -- all races, religions (or lack thereof), income levels, ability levels, parental statuses, ages, sexual preference and identity, incarceration statuses, and any other category you wish to add.

The Democrats have at times vocally supported certain groups of men -- for instance gay men, or men of color. But why not acknowledge those issues faced by all boys and men and support the whole group?

Let me be clear that this is not about suppressing female gender issues, but rather having a more balanced discussion of issues related to gender or sex; in many instances, the male point of view has been completely absent from the Democratic Party’s discussion. I have attempted to engage my Democratic representatives or their offices on male gender issues, but it is an uphill battle that largely falls on deaf ears, or politely sympathetic ones at best. Many Democratic websites have a page or section of pages on women’s issues, but rarely one for men. The male point of view seems to be virtually absent.

Therefore, I feel like a man without a party. The right doesn’t represent some of my most deeply held values, and the left doesn’t seem to care about me, as a man.

And if I feel this way, I’m sure many others do, as well. So how can we fix the Democratic Disconnect? I am writing this Substack and will be releasing a book soon, in hopes of starting a conversation broadly within the Democratic Party, from leadership through rank and file voters like me.

First, we need to take a broad look at what should be the type of society we want to live in, and for me the term that comes to mind is fairness. Fairness sometimes means equality, sometimes equity, or sometimes some combination of both. With fairness as a guiding principle, what can our government do to better support the well-being of boys and men, fairly, while also doing the same for women and girls and those who are non-binary or transgender? Fairness means genuinely listening to men and understanding male gender issues, and devoting equal time and energy to solving them as the Democratic Party does for female gender issues. It means letting boys and men have a legitimate, recognized voice.

For the best ideas to rise to the top, we need all ideas in the mix. In terms of gender issues, we have a lot of voices from the female and non-binary viewpoints, but next to none from the male viewpoint as is evidenced by the lack of male gender issues on the official Democratic Party platforms of 2016 and 2020. Without those ideas present, we won’t come up with the best governing ideas.

Think of the male figures in your life that mean a lot to you -- a son, brother, father, friend, colleague, husband, or partner. As I discuss the male gender issues in this Substack and follow them during campaign season, see what resonates for you in terms of well-being for them. You might be surprised to connect some dots on what’s going on with the men and boys in your life and the politics of the day.

In terms of politics, then, how can the Democratic Party better serve this portion of its constituency, and thereby have a better chance at winning the 2024 US Presidential Election?

If the Democrats don’t energize male voters, they leave that door open for Republicans.

Listening to and engaging with male voters is wise both as a governing strategy and as an election strategy. And as we will see, the two are intertwined.

A First Look at Voting History By Gender

Let’s take a high-level look at how men and women have voted in the past, and what sort of outcomes that has meant for the presidency.

Voting is private, but exit polls give us a very good, if not perfect, indication of how genders have voted in recent elections. The graph below shows us national exit poll data on how male and female voters made their choices. We are looking at the percentage difference, for each gender, between votes for the Democratic and Republican presidential candidate in each election since 1972. I made the Democratic difference positive, or upwards, on the chart, and the Republican difference negative, or lower on the chart. So the lower the point on the graph, the greater the Republican advantage, and the higher the point, the greater the Democratic advantage. Men are indicated with a diamond point and dashed line, and women with a circle point and dotted line.

Data Sources: Various National Polls (see list); Data Visualization: Mark Sutton

• In general, we see a widening gender gap, which I believe is indicative of the widening cultural gap in our country; and we’re seeing women voting more Democrat, and men voting more Republican. Are Democrats becoming the women’s party, and the Republicans becoming the Men’s party?

• In 1972, women and men voted similarly, overwhelmingly for Nixon (R).

• In 1976, in the wake of Watergate, both voted narrowly for Carter (D).

• Starting with the election of 1980, the divergence happened. The gap has generally widened, with women being much more likely to vote for the Democratic candidate, and men being more likely to vote Republican.

Since our presidential elections are decided via a state-based electoral system, it would behoove the Democratic Party to genuinely and honestly support men, particularly in swing states where a few thousand votes can be the difference, as happened in 2016 in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. While any demographic can point to itself after a very close election and say they could have been the difference, I believe that male voters are the largest and lowest hanging fruit for today’s Democratic Party, largely because they have made virtually no attempt to court them yet.

Imagine These Two Scenarios Over the Next Four Presidential Elections - Which Sounds Better to You?

1. Democrats successfully repair the Democratic Disconnect by engaging male voters on male gender issues. Democrats do much better with men, and the dashed line on the graph goes up. While keeping their strong support from female voters, the added support from male voters helps Democrats win all four presidential elections handily. Democrats wake up the morning after each election, having slept well, victory in hand, not worried about recounts or other challenges to the results.

or

2. Democrats continue “as is” with the Democratic Disconnect, refusing to acknowledge male gender issues, and maintaining the status quo. Each election night brings angst — the polls are too close to call. Although Democrats are doing well with women, they continue to trail significantly with men. And due to the Electoral College system, even though it looks like the Democrats will win the popular vote, they may still lose in terms of Electoral votes. Each election is at best a close call, and at worst a loss, as Republicans do well enough with men to keep it close. Challenges, recounts, and lawsuits ensue. Democrat voters spend weeks of sleepless nights repeatedly hitting F5 on their computer keyboards, waiting for the latest recount and lawsuit results. Ultimately, they see multiple years of far-right control of Washington.

Which scenario sounds better to you if you are a Democrat? I’m just absolutely flabbergasted that despite trailing the Republicans among male voters compared to the female voters since 1980, over forty years, the Democratic strategy has been to stick with option 2. In my opinion, that is a mistake both in terms of political strategy and governing strategy.

In 2016 and 2020, the Democratic Party's official platforms proclaimed support for numerous gender issues for women and girls, and transgender and non-binary issues, but none for men and boys. I performed a word count on the Democratic Party’s 2020 Platform for gender pronouns, and here are the results:

Is it any wonder that the party that mentions women/girls 73 times in its official platform, while only mentioning men/boys 10 times, performs worse with male voters? (By the way, I was so stunned by those numbers I triple-checked them.) Most of the mentions of men are within the phrase “men and women,” and don’t address any real issues for men. It’s clear to me that there was little to no consideration of male gender issues that went into the creation of this platform, which I find incredibly disheartening.

Will the Democrats add male gender issues to their 2024 Party Platform? I certainly hope so. I believe the Democratic Party should adopt what I am calling an “All-demographic Strategy” similar to the “Fifty State Strategy,” created by Gov. Howard Dean, that led to Democratic success from 2006 to 2012; by this, I mean they should begin to actively court all voters, including the male vote, by supporting male gender issues.

Failure to do so may cost them in 2024, and beyond.

Next week: A deeper dive into the history of voting by gender, and more evidence as to why I believe it is key to the 2024 election.