Clarence Page: Hey, men, Democrats want your votes. They really do.
Where are the Democrats? What are they doing about the damage President Donald Trump is doing to … everything?
I hear that a lot from my liberal friends these days, ever since Trump swept the battleground states six months ago and proceeded to dismantle government as we Americans used to know it.
With the fury of a man who is trying to make up for the time he lost on the sidelines after losing to Democrat Joe Biden, Trump has been rolling out radical changes almost daily that seem to be aimed at retribution — one of his favorite words — more than decent governance.
In the face of the onslaught, Democrats sound about as depressed as the party's approval ratings — 27% in a recent NBC News poll.
That's the party's lowest positive rating in the network's polling data since 1990. Only 7% say their support is 'very positive.'
Throwing more salt into their wounds is the simmering discontent among the party's core constituencies, upon whom the party has come to count for decades: young people, Black voters and Latinos, in particular. Trump made notable gains with these voters, a trend that — unlike 2016 — included Trump's winning the popular vote for the first time.
Self-identified Democratic voters say by a 2-to-1 margin in the NBC poll that they would rather see their party 'hold the line on their positions, even if it leads to gridlock,' instead of looking for areas of compromise to, as the old Capitol Hill saying goes, get things done.
As a self-described moderate liberal, I'm dismayed but not surprised by that angst-driven reaction. Trump's slash-and-burn approach to reform — on issues as varied as immigration enforcement to Medicaid to Veterans Affairs and COVID-19 shots, just for starters, will take a strong pushback just to land somewhere near the ever-elusive sensible center.
Where are the Dems now? Of particular interest this time around, the party is trying to woo young men — diligently.
The harsh Democratic reality includes downward long-term trends for Democrats while Republicans have been gaining ground in recent decades, particularly among noncollege graduates.
Working-class voters have been turning away from the Democrats, long viewed as the party for working families but increasingly perceived as the party of college-educated 'elites.'
Which leads us to the most significant new moves by the Dems' donor class and strategists: a $20 million 'strategic plan' called 'Speaking with American Men,' or SAM for short.
That's right, guys. Like an old Uncle Sam poster, today's Democrats want you! Perhaps more than ever.
The decline of men and concomitant rise of women in Democratic voting ranks has been observed for decades and is not expected to change drastically soon.
Democratic pollsters are advising the party leaders to avoid taking the wrong lessons from the 2026 midterms, when many of them hope President Trump's excesses will backfire in favor of the Dems.
That's wise. Trump's successes, including his victory last year, have tended to be larger than expected after the Democrats underestimated his popularity.
As Anat Shenker-Osorio, a Democratic consultant told The New York Times, 'Voters are hungry for people to actually stand up for them — or get caught trying.'
In other words, she said, 'The party is doing a lot of naval-gazing and not enough full-belly aching.'
I, too, have heard that lament, particularly from Democrats in cities like Chicago who remember an era when the party seemed less concerned with trying to sound polite and more concerned with delivering the goods to its constituents. That's especially important at times like these when funding cuts for research, veterans and health care, among other issues, can mean life and death for them.
Scott Galloway, a marketing professor at NYU and a prominent commentator, has gained a measure of fame for his speeches and research on the feeling of abandonment by the Dems that has been a major turnoff for the audience of the so-called 'Manosphere' of male podcasting.
He argues that the party's focus on other demographics, like women voters, is important, but has fed a feeling of neglect and abandonment among young men.
This development caught little attention in the era before podcasting. But today's electorate, like the news, is not what it used to be. Democrats will have to keep up with changing times before the party's candidates are overwhelmed by them.
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