OPINION:
The popular mandate of President-elect Donald Trump is an affirmation of traditional masculinity.
The war on men, orchestrated by the extreme left, has suffered a serious setback with his election. Mr. Trump was told that he’d have to soften his message to appeal to women voters. He didn’t, and it doesn’t seem to have hurt him.
This year, Mr. Trump carried a majority of White women, as Republican presidential candidates have since 2004. Overall, Vice President Kamala Harris did worse among women than President Biden in 2020 or Hillary Clinton in 2016.
The image that symbolized Mr. Trump’s spirit came after he was wounded at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, when he got to his feet, pumped his fist and shouted, “Fight! Fight!” If it had been Ms. Harris, she would have fainted, and, when revived, returned to the lectern to blather about “What can be, unburned by what has been.”
Democrats tried to counter Mr. Trump’s charisma with a new model of masculinity: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who put tampon dispensers in the boys’ rooms of schools, and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, who put his career on hold to dutifully campaign for his wife.
Given a choice between Ms. Harris (who could barely articulate a coherent thought) and the Marxist Mr. Magoo on the one hand and Mr. Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance, a Marine Corps veteran, on the other, men went for the Republican ticket by a landslide. Men have taken a beating at the hands of feminists and “woke” culture for too long.
In “Why Can’t We Hate Men?” — a 2018 opinion piece in The New York Times — Suzanna Danuta Walters, director of the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program at Northeastern University, declared that the essence of masculinity is sexual violence and economic exploitation.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who calls himself a feminist, says American voters had two opportunities to elect a woman president and failed both times, as if gender were the only issue in the 2016 and 2024 elections.
Such attitudes aren’t confined to the directors of women’s studies programs and socialist politicians desperate to retain power.
A study on changing attitudes toward men found that in 1970, 65% believed “men are basically kind and considerate,” compared with 44% in 2005. “Men’s egos require that they put women down” was a sentiment shared by 58% of respondents in 2005, next to 41% in 1970.
These toxic stereotypes have been cultivated by the media, academia and Hollywood — to the detriment of both sexes.
Who needs men? Among others, children do.
Fatherless families are responsible for 90% of homeless and runaway children, 85% of institutionalized youth, 71% of high school dropouts and most minors who suffer from drug or alcohol addiction.
Where are the role models for the 43% of boys who are raised by single mothers? Boys need men to instill masculine virtues.
Women need them, too. The traditional role of men as protectors of women and children isn’t outmoded, just neglected.
When men do man up, society tries to crush them.
When Daniel Penny saved passengers on a subway car from a deranged homeless man who had a long history of violence (including punching an old woman in the face), the state of New York charged the Marine veteran with criminally negligent homicide. A jury of five men and seven women acquitted him.
Unfortunately, there was no Daniel Penny on a New York subway car on Dec. 22, when a sleeping woman was burned to death. An illegal immigrant from Guatemala has been charged with first-degree murder and arson in that attack.
Women and children pay the price for the absence of male providers and protectors in the home and on the streets. The rise of crime, especially crimes targeting women, parallels the decline of masculinity. In 1993, women were 41% of violent-crime victims. Today, they’re 48%.
That’s why the election of Donald Trump is as important to the culture as it is for the economy. Men take responsibility, whether it’s by fighting crime, guarding our borders or meeting foreign threats.
Strong men are confident enough not to be intimidated by competent women. Witness Mr. Trump’s nominations of Pam Bondi for attorney general and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem for secretary of homeland security.
For the past four years, we’ve been misled by an increasingly feeble old man who hid in the White House or on the beach in Delaware. On Jan. 20, there will be a man of the house again.
• Don Feder is a columnist with The Washington Times.
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