Video games and podcasts: Can Democrats win back the bros?

Boston Globe

3 days ago

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Throughout the campaign, I
Meanwhile Trump was
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Democrats are just coming around to that reality. Pete Buttigieg gets soft kudos for recently
Even though Buttigieg recently
Or when they got onto the topic of public services, Buttigieg argued that the Scandinavians' high taxes turn into top-notch public resources. To which Schulz declared: Public spending is 'easy to do when, like, every girl's hot.' Granted, Buttigieg is gay, but even when Schulz conceded that Scandinavian dudes are cute, too, Buttigieg laughed, shrugged a little, and eventually asked: 'Where were we?'
Pete Buttigieg at a Town Hall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on May 13.
THALASSA RAASCH/NYT
To be fair, those are questions that would make both woke progressives and straight-laced conservatives squirm. But Trump isn't a polished politician — he's a guy's guy.
You can imagine him in that situation, completely at ease. He would have chuckled at the joke about not hiring women, smirking and wagging a finger at Schulz: 'You're a funny guy, you know that, but boy, you're gonna get me in trouble.' And on the question of spending money on attractive women, well, we know where Trump falls there. He would have made them laugh, just like he did when he
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Trump clearly never had any qualms about going on edgy shows. But Democrats did. Akaash Singh, one of Schulz's cohosts, told Buttigieg: 'We've begged so many Democrats to come on this platform. You're the first one.' Trump didn't need to be begged. He simply took advice from his
In their rush to find a tough-talking guy who can mobilize voters against Trump, Democrats could find themselves embracing influencers who alienate some of their own voters. Like streamer Hasan Piker, a former Rutgers frat boy who loves lifting, who's been
The biggest problem Democrats will have is convincing bros of their authenticity. It took an electoral walloping for Buttigieg to embrace the manosphere. And while Democrats try to talk the talk, they still hold onto the same progressive ideas that alienated them from many voters. On a podcast in March with the conservative bro-in-chief Charlie Kirk, who cofounded the right-wing political machine Turning Point USA, Gavin Newsom said that the question of whether to allow transgender athletes in women's sports is 'an issue of fairness.' But as California continued to be under fire for its liberal policies on transgender athletes, Newsom
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Is just showing up in bro-ey spaces enough to win back some young voters for Dems?
I conducted my own little study, free of charge, to find out. Gabe, a finance worker in his early 20s who voted for Trump and declined to give his last name, told me that Democrats might win over a few curious voters with a new male outreach strategy, but ultimately, cosmetic changes alone won't make a lasting difference. 'I think you have to realign the ideology,' he told me, listing frustrations about equity-based initiatives, costly energy policies, lockdowns during COVID, and more.
'You might be wearing a flannel, have a beard, drink protein shakes,' he said. But Democrats are 'still spewing the same garbage.'
This column first appeared in
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Carine Hajjar is a Globe Opinion writer. She can be reached at