The phrase "grasping at straws," from Sir Thomas More's proverb, "A drowning man will clutch at straw," captures a desperate, futile attempt to avoid an inevitable end. It evokes a person falling off a cliff, frantically grabbing for anything to halt their doom. In cinema, this creates tension as the hero snatches a sturdy shrub at the last second. In politics, it signals a refusal to face reality. The Democrats' new $20 million Speaking With American Men (SAM) initiative to attract male voters is a textbook example. This effort is less substantial than straw, likely pushing men further away. It delays confronting the obvious: the party's positions alienate men, offer little to women beyond abortion, and oppose the interests of native-born Americans-- also know as voters.
A late May New York Times article by Shane Goldmacher highlights the Democrat's struggle to recover from Trump's re-election. He notes, "Democratic donors and strategists have been gathering at luxury hotels to discuss how to win back working-class voters." This image-elites plotting over martinis while voters serve them-- undermines the transactional nature of politics: meeting voters where they are. SAM plans to "study the syntax, language and content that gains attention and virality in these spaces," even buying ads in video games. Instead of listening to men's clear demands-- evident in polling-- Democrats aim to repackage their unpopular offerings. Their problem isn't messaging; it's their policies. No clever ad will convince voters to ignore their own interests. Insisting that voters' desires are wrong has never won elections and never will.
Democrats focus on messaging because they're trapped by their failed policies, weighed down by two forces: reflexive opposition to Trump and their own voters' emotional priorities. Mention the risks of unvetted border crossings and they cry "xenophobia." Note that male boxers shouldn't fight women despite a passport's claim, and they shout "transphobia." Their base sees politics as a good-versus-evil binary, with Democrat positions as inherently good, even when they contradict past stances. Tariffs, once a Democrat tool to protect workers, are now Trump's domain. Strategically, Democrats could co-opt Trump's popular positions, but their base would revolt, and they're hardwired to oppose him as their guiding star. So, leaders like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez jet privately to decry Trump's "oligarchy" instead of joining him to cut workers' taxes. Democrats' only path to power is Trump's failure, and their actions aim to ensure it.
Democrats have spiraled from defending a deported spousal abuser and human trafficker, to excusing Tesla vandalism, to assaulting ICE agents at a New Jersey ICE facility. Their lowest point-- let's hope-- comes in justifying attacks on federal agents for simply doing their jobs. In Los Angeles, ICE agents executing money laundering warrants were surrounded by a hostile crowd. As their convoy fled, it was pelted with rocks and concrete, and the LA ICE facility was later besieged by crowds trying to breach it. Over days, the conflict worsened: police were trapped under overpasses, as debris rained down, and looting and arson spread. Echoing 2020, Democrats and media call these riots "mostly peaceful protests," despite vivid images of chaos. One reporter lamented that "it could turn very volatile if you move law enforcement in there in the wrong way and turn what is just a bunch of people having fun watching cars burn into a major confrontation and altercation between officers and demonstrators." This denial of reality is their latest straw.
Democrats blame Trump's National Guard deployment to stop attacks on federal facilities for escalating violence, not the rioters torching stores and cities. They condemn his use of authority to restore order while ignoring the chaos itself. The most striking images from the riots are of foreigners waving their home countries' flags as cars and the American flag burn, signaling not a desire to join America but to reshape it. Democrat support for this alienates American male voters, yet they seem baffled by the lack of appeal. While Trump's failure would boost Democrats politically, it spells disaster for the nation. Voters don't blame Trump for these riots; they see them as the fruit of failed Democrat policies. Clinging to this narrative, Democrats grasp at ever-thinner straws.
In 2020, Democrats backed "Get Your Booty to the Polls," a patronizing stunt that used strippers to sway black male voters, as if they were all cartoonish louts swayed by a lap dance. SAM's $20 million sequel-- studying "virality" and spamming video game ads-- doubles down, treating all men like one-diminsional bros obsessed with pixels and bravado. Both initiatives sneer at actual men, reducing them to caricatures whie ignoring their real concerns about borders, fairness, and safety, loud and clear in every poll. Grasping at these flimsy straws, Democrats bet that slick condescension can override their toxic policies. Like "Booty," SAM will backfire, repelling men who see through the insult and demand a party that respects them, not their stereotypes.
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