Trump appealed to men.
While Harris underperformed among young women Trump overperformed among young men. Trump is of course old- objectively he is an old candidate, but his persona is young. Trump’s machismo and willingness to affront the sensibilities of bourgeois Americans struck a chord among young men. However young men are also moving to the right. The key demographic of young men has shifted, men between the ages of 18 and 29 from Democrats by nearly 30 points to the right since 2020, when they had voted for Joe Biden by a margin of 15 percent. The growing ideological gender divide has been commented on extensively[93]. Women are increasingly identifying as liberal, while men are shifting toward more conservative views. In the US, Gallup data shows that after decades where the sexes were each spread roughly equally across liberal and conservative world views, women aged 18 to 30 are now 30 percentage points more liberal than their male contemporaries. Possible explanations include the increasing effect of algorithms which creates information feedback loops that reinforce gendered views, or the ‘equality paradox’ where countries with higher levels of social equality between men and women show a greater ideological divide.[94] In other words, the wealthier and more egalitarian the country, the greater the genders are divided ideologically. Republicans have successfully utilized this masculine imagery to win voters as well as associate feminised imagery with liberal values. Hulk Hogan’s appearance at the Republican convention contrasted with Kamala’s Taylor Swift endorsement. Hogan is a comic figure to many liberals but along with the ‘sports bros’ such as Rogan and ‘tech bros’ like Musk, the appeal is directed at young men.
“One reason is that Trump – at least in the persona he publicly performs – exudes an exaggerated dominant masculinity. Supporting him may thus be a way of borrowing that ethos or displaying that tone is masculine by supporting a ‘masculine’ proxy,”
Christopher Federico, a professor of political science and psychology at the University of Minnesota,
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/09/health/trump-support-male-dominance-wellness/index.html
The emergence of hyper-masculinity in popular culture and politics may be because as societies become relatively more prosperous and equal, people more fully express their underlying traits and preferences. Another hypothesis suggests that post-industrial economies favour soft skills which women tend to possess such as group cohesion, communication, and empathy or it may simply be that men find it hard to accept the challenge to their traditional patriarchal privileges. Richard Reeves’s 2022 book Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It points to the male crisis with poorer educational outcomes with fewer men graduating from college and worsening standardized test scores and the worsening mental health, loneliness, and suicide crises among young men. This he says breeds resentment which conservatives have presented as a zero-sum game where the success of women has come at the expense of men. Michael Kimmel, in his book Angry White Men, argues a sense of aggrieved entitlement is central to the experiences of white American men drawn to the far right.[95]
Boys are falling behind at school and college because the educational system is structured in ways that put them at a disadvantage. Men are struggling in the labour market because of an economic shift away from traditionally male jobs. Fathers are dislocated because the cultural role of family providers has been hollowed out. The male malaise is not the result of a mass psychological breakdown but of deep structural challenges.
"If you are a man in this country and you don't vote for Donald Trump, you're not a man," said Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist has built a large following with his podcast, The Charlie Kirk Show. ranked #7 in Apple podcasts in news and #10 on Spotify in news.
Did Harris also fail to reach out to this group? Her campaign relied on mobilising women, anti-Trump Republicans and fearful immigrants but all of these groups were fractured and Kamla’s decision to not go on Rogan suggested she saw young men as a lost cause and the endorsement by Taylor Swift only reinforce the famine, leftist tone of her campaign.
Sociologist Michael Kimmel, has spent hundreds of hours in the company of America's angry white men in pursuit of an answer. Raised to expect unparalleled social and economic privilege, white men are suffering today from what Kimmel calls "aggrieved entitlement": a sense that those benefits that white men believed were their due have been snatched away from them. In Angry White Men, Kimmel presents a comprehensive diagnosis of their fears, anxieties, and rage.