Last week, we covered that pretty embarrassing story involving the Democrats deciding to invest $20 million to figure out why the party lost so much support among men in America, especially young men. [00:00:16] So the Speaking with American Men or Sam project is actually starting to release some of its findings. They have some initial findings, believe it or not. So they got right to work. And their findings happen to be, in my opinion, some of the most [00:00:32] obvious things in the world, which really highlights the significant the significance of how out of touch Democrats are with ordinary people, normal people. And this is the party. This used to be the party of the working class. This used to be the party of FDR. [00:00:49] Now they like can't figure out men, which is amazing. So let's get to the details. So Sam promises investment to study the syntax. That's it at that point. At that point, you already know they're going to fail. [00:01:06] But I'll continue with what this is all about language and confront that, and content that gains attention and virality in these spaces. It recommends buying advertisements and video games, among other things. Above all, we must shift from a moralizing tone it urges, which is like [00:01:26] maybe the only thing I've read about this, project that I agree with. I think the moralizing tone turns a lot of people off. And so if you're the party of scholars, you're going to drive people away from your party. I think that's just common sense. [00:01:41] I don't think you need to spend $20 million to figure that out. Now let's break down just how bad the Democrats problem really is, because in last year's presidential election, the gender gap leapt to 13 percentage points nationally, up from nine percentage points in 2020. [00:01:57] Men's support for Kamala Harris dropped by six points, winning just 42% of men, the lowest on record in recent elections. Now, Sam's national survey found that just 27% of young men viewed the Democratic [00:02:13] Party positively, while 43% of them viewed the Republican Party favorably. That gap became even more pronounced among 18 and 29 year olds. Look, people get really mad when I say this, but you either want [00:02:29] to know what went wrong or you don't. And if you don't want to know, like if you want to live in like magical thinking land and everything is great and Democrats aren't making any mistake. Okay, stop listening right now. Okay. But for those of you who want the truth, Democrats can't stop telling men [00:02:45] how much they hate them. That's a problem. Okay? Not every man is, carrying out toxic masculinity. They're not acting as though not all of them certainly are acting as though, you know, they're entitled to sex with any woman they want. [00:03:02] Like these stereotypes that lump all men together and make them out to be bad guys is not healthy. It's not right. And it's not good politics, obviously. So, I'm not surprised that men are like, yeah, Democratic Party. [00:03:19] I don't know if I like them because the Democratic Party keeps signaling that they don't like men. That's the issue. So and by the way, let me just put it in the context of women. Obviously, I'm a woman and I love femininity, I love it, [00:03:35] I'm like, I wish I was able to be more feminine in my life, but I work in a very masculine field of work, obviously. And I just feel like I have a lot of male energy around me at all times, which is fine. I don't have a problem with that, but there aren't a lot of opportunities for me [00:03:51] to feel as feminine as I want to feel. If the Democratic Party suddenly started talking about how toxic I am because of how much I identify identify with femininity. In fact, I have a specific example. I remember there was like this. [00:04:09] Super rad lib student that I went to grad school with. His name was Bruce and he was a good guy. Okay, he meant well, but I remember one time I had to go to class after work at tight and I was wearing heels, and he started chiding me for wearing heels. [00:04:28] He's like, you've been brainwashed by the patriarchy. You don't like that. You don't like wearing heels. And I'm like, damn right, I like wearing heels. Who the hell are you to tell me I don't like wearing heels? It was just incredibly insulting. So I just any time I think about the messaging coming from the Democratic Party [00:04:45] and whether or not it's going to be effective, if they're focused on a specific demographic or group of people, I try to turn around and think about how it would make me feel to be the target of that same messaging. Okay, so just think about that now. It is worth noting that 5% more conservatives than liberals [00:05:02] responded to that survey. So the survey result again had more conservatives included. So the results might be a little skewed. But now let's talk about how men feel about the Democratic Party. So Sam's first round of research consisted of 30 focus groups [00:05:19] and a national media consumption survey. They found that many young men believed that neither party has our back. True, true. Okay. As one black man from Georgia said in a focus group, participants described the Democratic Party as overly scripted and cautious, while Republicans are seen [00:05:38] as confident and unafraid to offend. Now, in an era of people always talking about their sensitivities and always talking about how offended they are, it gives rise to a counter culture where you seek out people who don't [00:05:55] give a damn about offending others. So I think that's definitely part of this. Now, Elise Hogue, who's the co-founder of Sam, stated, Democrats are seen as weak, whereas Republicans are seen as strong. Young men also spoke of being invisible to the Democratic coalition. [00:06:12] And so you've got this weak problem and then you've got this. I don't think they care about me problem. And I think the combination is kind of a killer. Elise, this is why they pay you the big bucks, girl. You get it? You get it. [00:06:29] Now, in the focus groups, the young men stated that they felt stressed. I mean, I can totally relate to that as a woman, but certainly in a culture where traditionally speaking, men have been thought of as like the breadwinners or whatever, I can understand in this economic situation that we're all dealing with, there's a lot of stress. [00:06:49] They feel ashamed and confused about how to be a man, maybe because they keep getting like slapped around when they just want to be themselves, right? So they vented about conflicting cultural messages of masculinity that put them in [00:07:07] a no win situation around the meaning of a man, according to the Sam project memo. Okay, so other issues included feeling isolated after the Covid lockdowns, which makes sense, by the way, the Covid lockdowns, [00:07:23] I mean, we're still obviously experiencing the downsides of that and the the repercussions, the consequences of that. You know, so many community groups and ways in which people would connect with one another in person basically got shut down and they never came back. [00:07:41] And so everyone needs a sense of community, right? I remember when my mom wasn't in the hospital and I was able to go to dance class, going to those dance classes and seeing the same people all the time and feeling closer to them with each passing class that I took, made me feel a sense of community. [00:07:58] It made me happier. And when those things are kind of taken away from you because of forced lockdowns or whatever other reason, yeah, it's going to cause feelings of loneliness. It's going to cause other issues. Obviously, for a lot of young men who might have just graduated college [00:08:14] and they're entering the job market for the first time. It's a terrible situation to find yourself in when you graduate, and there is no job market because there's nationwide shutdowns of businesses. So, and they're also upset about how they're unable to afford traditional [00:08:31] economic milestones, like buying a house or paying for their kids college. And that is one of the most understandable things in the world, because the whole point of growing older, doing the work, going to school, working hard, whatever is you have, [00:08:48] you're working towards something. You have something to look forward to. And I think at this point, not just men, by the way, I think most Americans are feeling as though it doesn't even matter how hard I work. Right? It just feels like those milestones that used to come. [00:09:06] I wouldn't say easy, because obviously you have to work hard to get these things, even historically, but there was a path to getting those things. Now it seems like there is no path, and that leads to a lot of frustration, a lot of anger. So when you have the Democrats in power and they're like nickel and diming [00:09:22] and they're making a little like they're tweaking around the edges policy wise, but it doesn't really change the material conditions American workers are experiencing. Yeah, there's going to be backlash toward the Democratic Party, especially when someone like Donald Trump comes in, presents himself as someone [00:09:39] who's going to save them, improve the economy, and create a situation in which you know they're going to be golden, they're going to do really well. They're going to be able to buy that house. They're going to be able to invest money in the stock market. Now, obviously, Trump has been losing some support, especially among [00:09:55] independent voters and Latino voters who opted to support him because of his economic messaging, because guess what? He hasn't delivered. It's just the truth. So now let's move on to some of the other findings here. John Della Volpe, another co-founder of Sam, and he's also a pollster [00:10:14] who specializes in Gen Z, stated the degree to which those economic concerns are also impacting how they think about themselves and quote unquote, success of being a man and living up to their own expectations or the expectations of their family or society. [00:10:31] There's another layer of economic anxiety. This is my favorite part. That I don't think I fully saw until now. You're a pollster. What kind of polls were you doing? You didn't realize that there is widespread economic frustration [00:10:51] among pretty much everyone, but certainly among young men. I just I don't know if you're doing your job right, if you just realize that. But anyway, the men in the focus group also spoke about how politicians, especially Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, made them feel. [00:11:08] So vibes matter. Okay, I think the last election cycle was really a vibe based election, and an Asian American professional described Democrats as embracing the fluid masculinity of being like, empathetic and sensitive, while Republicans are more like [00:11:24] the traditional masculinity of a provider strong and the machismo type. I don't know if I would have used the word machismo. I don't anyway. But continuing another Latino man from Las Vegas said that during the 2024 campaign, [00:11:40] Harris focused on, oh, I got Beyonce on stage with me. Oh, I got Lady Gaga on stage. And it just kind of felt like, what does that have to do with me? I'm trying to move up in life. I that is shocking. Actually, it is shocking to me that men weren't seduced [00:11:59] by the lyrical talent of Beyonce. How did that not work? It's weird. It's crazy. Look, overall, I'm happy that the Democratic Party at least wants to figure out what they're getting wrong. But in the process of doing so, they're kind of showing us [00:12:16] how out of touch they've been and how much work they have to do. You know, same guy says Trump's over here. Like if you're able to get a surplus in our budget, then we're going to have no tax on tips, no tax on overtime. It's going to take a while to get to that point, but at least he's saying the things [00:12:36] that, oh, this is what I'm going to do. The Latino man added remember when you guys got mad at me when I kept mentioning how Trump repeating that he's going to do no tax on tips was like effective political messaging. [00:12:51] And it's going to work. It worked. Okay. It worked. I don't say these things because I'm trying to kiss Trump's ass. I say these things because my job is to do analysis and I see things pretty clearly. I mean, the last election cycle, I saw things real clearly, which is why election [00:13:07] night I wasn't panicking, I didn't freak out because I saw that iceberg coming. The question is, why didn't the Democrats see that iceberg coming, and will they see it in the future? Who knows? We're going to have to wait and see. Every time you ring the bell below. An angel gets its wings. Totally not true, but it does keep you updated on our live shows.