A friend once told me that he was going to get a gun when he turned 18. This frightened me, but I soon realized after asking some others my age, most had similar responses. Many young men are starting to lean right at higher rates than ever before. Gallup Poll Social Series reported that from 2016 men from 18-29 years old who identify as conservative went up 5 percent. Increasingly polarizing opinions from the left have isolated young men, and as a result, men are turning toward right-wing ideologies. The only way for men to return to liberal politics is going back to a less polarizing political climate.
The fact of the matter is that both parties have created a world of extremes. When I was younger, family conversations about politics did not have tension. Now, the mention of a right or left-leaning idea sends people into a frenzy about how horrible the other side is.
It’s not that most young men support all right-leaning policies, they just don’t want to align with “radical leftists.” Now that radical left-leaning ideas have been pushed into the mainstream, they’re leaning towards right-wing ideologies as a reaction.
The American Survey Center reports, “Young men seem to care more about economic issues—inflation is high on their list of priorities—but they appear less invested in culture war topics or issues that do not affect them directly.” This highlights the growing shift of men toward the right, as they feel the left disregards their primary concerns. However, even if this perception holds, most right-leaning men have historically benefited from systemic privilege in politics.
In Josh Hawley’s recent book Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs, he exposes the state of American masculinity, attributing much of the collapse of “traditional masculine virtues” to feminists and liberals. President Donald Trump used this fragility to improve his image by providing an overly masculine political landscape that is aggressive and dominant. This is something that would easily appeal to a generation that spent their last couple of years being told their masculinity needs to be hidden.
Trump didn’t just target men and their masculinity, he targeted their ideals. The director of The Survey Center on American Life, Daniel Cox, wrote the article, “Are Young Men Becoming Conservative?”, in which he states that,
“The Dobbs decision [the ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade] was a political accelerant for young women—it was the most important issue for them heading into the 2022 midterms,” and “for young women, three issues are uniquely salient: climate change, gun policy, and abortion.”
Men don’t have any driving political factor, which means they will only care about things that will affect them personally, like economics. Because of the historically patriarchal systems on which America runs, men are largely unaffected by changing civil policies such as abortion. Trump capitalized on this by focusing his campaign promises on financial prosperity.
Young men seem to be at a tipping point in politics, and in the coming years, we will see if they become an ally or threat to democrats. Cox’s article states, “half of young men believe that American society has become ‘too soft and feminine.’” Young men may believe that democrats are more worried about involving women in politics which is straying from their core issues, causing men to move right. Cox also stated a statistic on the effects of the demonization of masculinity by the left.
“Young men are far less likely than young women to believe that society generally treats men better than women (48 percent vs. 72 percent),” he said. Since young males are less likely to recognize the wider societal benefits that women have, this raises the possibility that they are ignorant of the injustices that women endure. Young men aren’t truly aware of the difficulties women face in American society.
Young men are significantly impacting the landscape in this country as their disappointment in the left causes them to seek refuge in right politics. They may not be innately conservative, but they are leaning right due to their dissatisfaction with their perception of the Democratic Party’s disregard for economic issues and masculinity. Many young men are looking for a political home as a result of the growing polarization of both parties, and this trend may continue until the far left addresses their concerns. Young men will undoubtedly be vital in determining the political climate of the future, regardless of whether they turn out to be a strong ally or threat to the left.
