Dem
51
GOP
49
The culture wars now have a new front: manhood. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) published a book last year entitled Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs. It is all about being tough. It's enough to make a Texan proud, even though Hawley is from Missouri and on Jan. 6, 2021, proved that although he approves of toughness, he is personally a coward, as he ran away when he saw trouble brewing. On the other hand, Richard Reeve's book Of Boys and Men takes a completely different approach to what manhood is all about.
Hawley blames the decline of masculinity on the left. Reeves blames it on the lack of a support system for young men who need help and can't get it. Thus the debate rages.
One thing about this debate is that it has generated some polling questions that quite accurately determine who people are likely to vote for. People were asked if they agree with the follow statements, with the result by partisanship.
| Statement | Democrats | Republicans |
| The Democratic Party is hostile to masculine values | Yes: 6%, No: 62% | Yes: 68%, No: 8% |
| Family structure with a wage-earning father and homemaking mother is best | Yes: 16%, No: 59% | Yes: 52%, No: 24% |
| The MeToo movement made it harder for men to speak freely at work | Yes: 21%, No:43% | Yes: 65%, No: 10% |
| I support increased military spending | Yes: 40%, No: 47% | Yes: 81%, No: 11% |
| Has American society become too soft and feminine | Yes: 19%, No: - | Yes: 68%, No: - |
So a "yes" on all five is a very good predictor of who is a Republican and who is likely to vote for Donald Trump. A "no" on all five predicts the opposite. However, the crosstabs didn't break things down by ethnicity. Some Democrats agree with the statements. It is possible that these were Latino men, who are often quite macho, but vote for Democrats for economic reasons. Future surveys should take this into account. In any event, we expect that the subject of what "real men" want will come up quite a bit in 2024, especially since jobs that require great physical strength (like being a lumberjack or longshoreman) are declining and desk jobs that require computer skills (like being a programmer or database administrator) are increasing. (V)