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YOUNG MALE VOTERS ARE FLOCKING TO TRUMP – BUT HE DOESN’T HAVE
THEIR INTERESTS AT HEART  
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Steven Greenhouse
September 3, 2024
The Guardian
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_ Many young men seem to admire Trump’s king-of-the-jungle vibe: he
roars, he bellows, he boasts that no one can ever beat him (unless
they cheat). He isn’t an icon of positive masculinity. He did very
little for young men during his term as president _

‘Among young men, 53% plan to vote for Trump, while 40% say
they’ll support Harris, according to a New York Times/Sienna College
poll.’ , Photograph: Spencer Platt / The Guardian

 

It’s the most startling thing I’ve seen in this
year’s presidential campaign
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astoundingly large gap between how young men and young women plan to
vote this November. Among women under age 30, an overwhelming 67% plan
to vote for Kamala Harris
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say they’ll back Donald Trump
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men, a majority – 53% – plan to vote for Trump, while 40% say
they’ll support Harris, according to a New York Times/Sienna
College poll
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That’s an astonishing 51-percentage-point gender gap.

It’s easy to understand why so many young women favor Harris – she
has an inspiring life story, champions reproductive freedom
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would break the biggest glass ceiling of all by becoming the first
female president. But I’m mystified why so many young men back
Trump.

Many of them seem to like Trump’s machismo. They like that he talks
tough. They see him as an icon of traditional manhood. But all this
raises an unavoidable question: should Trump be looked to as an icon
of manhood considering that he boasted of grabbing women’s genitals
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was found liable
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sexual assault and had an affair
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an adult film star soon after his wife gave birth? That shouldn’t be
anyone’s model of manhood.

Many young men seem to admire Trump’s king-of-the-jungle vibe: he
roars, he bellows, he boasts that no one can ever beat him (unless
they cheat). But when you cut through Trump’s tough talk and look at
the record, it becomes clear that Trump did very little for young men
in his four years as president.

Whoops, I should note that if you’re a young man making more than
$1m a year, Trump did do a lot for you, thanks to his colossal tax
cuts
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the richest 1%. But for the more than 99% of young men who don’t
make $1m a year, sorry, Trump didn’t do diddly for you, other than
cut your taxes a wee bit, a tiny fraction of the tax cuts that he gave
to the richest Americans.

I recognize that many young men feel uncomfortable about the
Democratic party, partly because some Democrats
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men as a problem – and sometimes as _the_ problem. If the
Democrats were smart, they’d see that young men – like every
other group in society – have problems that they need help with,
problems like affording a home, finding a good-paying job, obtaining
health insurance, affording college and having enough money to raise a
family.

Regardless of how you feel about Harris, the truth is that her
policies will do far more for young men than Trump’s policies will.
It’s not even close. She is serious about lifting up young men and
young women, and she has plans to do so.

Unlike Trump, Harris will help with soaring rents and home prices. She
has pledged to build
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new homes to help drive down housing prices. In another big step to
make housing more affordable, she plans to give a $25,000 subsidy to
first-time home buyers. Unlike Trump, Harris is also attacking the
problem of high grocery prices
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she has promised to crack down on price-gouging at the supermarket.

For many young men, health coverage and high health costs are a
problem. On those matters, Trump will only make things worse. He has
repeatedly promised to repeal Obamacare. That would be a disaster for
millions of young men and women because they would no longer be able
to be on their parents’ health plan until age 26. What’s more,
repealing Obamacare will push up healthcare
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Many young people complain about their mountains of student debt
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help on that; he has condemned the idea of forgiving student loans
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In contrast, Harris wants to
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Biden’s debt cancellation program, which is hugely popular with
young Americans. What’s more, Trump backed
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cuts in student aid – a move that would make it harder for young
people to afford college. Harris is eager to make college more
affordable by increasing student grants. Not only that, she is looking
to what Tim Walz [[link removed]], her
running mate, has done as Minnesota’s governor. He has made
Minnesota’s state universities and community colleges free for
students from middle-class and lower-income families.

If you’re a young man frustrated by how little your job pays, you
should know that Trump – doing a big favor for his corporate allies
– did nothing to raise the $7.25-an-hour federal minimum wage.
Harris strongly supports
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the minimum wage.

Trump has made two big promises to make your life more affordable.
Without giving details, he says he will cut auto insurance prices
nationwide in his first 100 days in office. He also says he will cut
energy and electricity prices in half during his first year in office.
If you believe those far-fetched promises, then you’ll probably
believe me when I say I have a bridge to sell you.

If you’re a young father or if you hope to have a family someday,
you should know that Harris’s policies will do far more for you than
Trump’s. Recognizing how expensive it is to raise a family, Harris
has called for creating a children’s tax credit of $3,000 per child
per year and $6,000 for a newborn.

To improve work-family balance, Harris has long pushed to enact paid
family and medical leave so that people can take much-needed paid time
off to spend with their newborns or care for sick parents or children.
(Most Republicans
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law because their corporate donors oppose it.) Trump doesn’t have
similar pro-family policies – his main policy proposals are huge tax
cuts for corporations and the ultra-rich and large tariffs on imports
that will dangerously push up inflation.

Although many young Americans don’t realize it, Biden and Harris
have worked hard to create good-paying jobs for those who don’t go
to college. Biden and Harris fought to enact three important pieces of
legislation – an infrastructure
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a green energy
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and a computer chips
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– that will create about 1m construction jobs, factory jobs and
other jobs across the US, many of them unionized jobs with strong
benefits.

If you’re a young father or if you hope to have a family someday,
you should know that Harris’s policies will do far more for you than
Trump’s. Recognizing how expensive it is to raise a family, Harris
has called for creating a children’s tax credit of $3,000 per child
per year and $6,000 for a newborn.

To improve work-family balance, Harris has long pushed to enact paid
family and medical leave so that people can take much-needed paid time
off to spend with their newborns or care for sick parents or children.
(Most Republicans
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law because their corporate donors oppose it.) Trump doesn’t have
similar pro-family policies – his main policy proposals are huge tax
cuts for corporations and the ultra-rich and large tariffs on imports
that will dangerously push up inflation.

Although many young Americans don’t realize it, Biden and Harris
have worked hard to create good-paying jobs for those who don’t go
to college. Biden and Harris fought to enact three important pieces of
legislation – an infrastructure
[[link removed]] bill,
a green energy
[[link removed]] bill
and a computer chips
[[link removed]] bill
– that will create about 1m construction jobs, factory jobs and
other jobs across the US, many of them unionized jobs with strong
benefits.

_[STEVEN GREENHOUSE is a senior fellow at the Century Foundation and
was the New York Times’ labor and workplace reporter for 19 years.
He is the author of Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and
Future of American Labor
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* Donald Trump
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* 2024 Elections
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* young men
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* masculinity
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* toxic masculinity
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* sexism
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* misogyny
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* Women
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* war on women
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* Kamala Harris
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* MAGA
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* GOP
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* Republican Party
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* student loans
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* Student Loan Forgiveness
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* Jobs
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