Latest news with #SAMProject
Gizmodo
a day ago
- Politics
- Gizmodo
Democrats Commission $20 Million Study to Figure Out How to Communicate with Bros on YouTube
During the 2020 presidential race, the Bernie Sanders campaign decided to tout an endorsement from Joe Rogan. The backlash was swift: Democratic Party insiders and party-aligned activists demanded that Sanders apologize and rescind his support for the endorsement. The general consensus seemed to be that, as an avatar of 'regressive' masculinity, Rogan could not be tolerated inside the blue tent. Last month, in a sign of just how much the political calculus has changed since then, the Democratic Party announced that it was willing to spend a small fortune to 'find' its own 'Joe Rogan.' By now, the Democratic Party's 'masculinity problem' is a well-known phenomenon. Men are increasingly getting red-pilled and leaving the party that once consistently swept national elections with votes from blue-collar and white-collar men alike. Last month, the Democratic Party announced its intention to spend ghastly amounts of money to better understand the minds of men and thus develop a strategy about how best to draw them back into the party fold. Politico now provides more context about the Speaking with American Men (or SAM) project, which says it is willing to spend $20 million to understand the modern man and how best to appeal to him. SAM has already completed an initial round of research on its exotic subject, which it has shared exclusively with Politico. The outlet notes that this first foray into Dude Studies included 30 focus groups and a national media consumption survey. The results of those surveys are fairly straightforward: they have found that many young men 'believe that 'neither party has our back,' as one Black man from Georgia said in a focus group.' Participants also described Democrats as 'overly-scripted and cautious, while Republicans are seen as confident and unafraid to offend.' 'Democrats are seen as weak, whereas Republicans are seen as strong,' Ilyse Hogue, a co-founder of SAM, told Politico. 'Young men also spoke of being invisible to the Democratic coalition, and so you've got this weak problem and then you've got this, 'I don't think they care about me' problem, and I think the combination is kind of a killer.' Hogue further noted that SAM has a plan to reach its lost demographic by expanding its presence into the online platforms where men typically congregate: Hogue said part of SAM's mission 'super charg[ing] social listening' and progressive influencers on Discord, Twitch and other platforms in their fundraising proposal. They're urging Democratic candidates to use non-traditional digital advertising, especially on YouTube, in-game digital ads and sports and gaming podcasts. Yet whether Hogue has adeptly identified the problem or not, his effort seems doomed to failure. Indeed, the effort, itself, is the problem. By studying men as if they were an alien life force instead of 50 percent of the population, the Democrats have already proven themselves to be completely and utterly lame and, appropriately, unmanly. Do real men waste large sums of money learning how to talk to other men? I never recall seeing John Wayne do that. It took the Democratic Party roughly a decade to dig itself into this hole, and it will likely take another decade for them to crawl out. Indeed, since 2016, the party has largely swung left on social issues—a process that has meant distancing itself from 'traditional' men and catering to the interests of women and minorities. During roughly the same period, a reactionary feminist politics—spurred partially by Trump himself—came to power that openly sought to demonize men. This politics accused American males of a variety of social ills, from manspreading to mansplaining to 'patriarchy,' 'rape culture,' 'toxic masculinity,' 'fragility,' inceldom, and a host of other issues. The Democrats, which have traditionally been attached at the hip to the women's movement, were dragged into this morass by association. The results have been predictable. Polls have consistently shown a gendered political divide, with young women trending increasingly left, while young men have drifted rightward. An NBC poll earlier this year showed a 'staggering' gap between Gen-Z men and women, with the alignments stratified along party lines. Democratic strategists have focused on the tech platforms they can use to reach young men. This is an important part of the puzzle but ultimately not the most important one. The technology is not nearly as important as what Democrats say once they get on those platforms. Gavin Newsom recently launched his own podcast, a bold move that hasn't really paid off because his messaging has been all over the place. Other Democratic figures, including Bernie Sanders (and, interestingly enough, the disgraced Anthony Weiner) have sought to insert themselves into the long-form podcast circuit where young men digitally live. Conservatives, meanwhile, have proven themselves incredibly adept at weaponizing media to their advantage. Trump was able to capitalize on young men's disaffection with the Democrats during the 2024 election cycle by tapping into the media ecosystem where those voters lived: the so-called 'manosphere' circuit of male-oriented podcasts like Joe Rogan, Theo Von, and Flagrant. But again, the medium is less important than the message. Trump's oratory style is cartoonishly masculine—sorta like a mix between Huey Long and Tony Montana. For many men, however, it works. There's a reason that Scarface is a classic 'guy' movie: its protagonist is just one big runaway libido, all 'balls'—a man who does what he wants, when he wants, all consequences be damned. Similarly, Trump's political style is arguably all balls and no brain. He seems to speak and act from his gut in a way that feels unvarnished and assertive, even if the content of what he says and does is often idiotic and mayhem-inducing. I guess what I'm trying to say is that Democrats could save themselves $20 million by just spending a weekend watching action movies from the 1980s. In fact, Die Hard is guaranteed to teach the average bespectacled Democratic pollster more about average male psychology than a dozen 'focus groups.' Why? Because it came about during a time when red-blooded American masculinity was still a dominant part of the culture. John McClane is a cowboy in a wild west of concrete and steel. He curses, he smokes, and he wastes his enemies with a submachine and a smirk. I'm not suggesting that Tim Waltz should dispatch his enemies with a Beretta, merely pointing out that if he talked about doing it (like Trump did) it might not be the worst thing in the world.
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Can Dems Save Themselves by Spending $20M on ‘Speaking With American Men'?
In the aftermath of Donald Trump's morbidly authoritarian return to the White House, several members of the Democratic Party elite have been pitching plans and multi-million-dollar ideas for how to win back young male voters, many of whom spurned Democrats last fall. One of these proposals, 'Speaking with American Men: A Strategic Plan,' went viral after receiving a brief shout-out in The New York Times on Sunday. Described as a $20 million effort to 'study the syntax, language and content that gains attention and virality' in male-dominated spaces online (such as video games), the 'SAM' fundraising pitch was roasted by everyone from left-wing podcasters, to Kamala Harris 2024 operatives, to Joe Biden's former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who discussed the proposal with The Bulwark. After days of watching derisive comments pile up on online and on TV (including on Fox News), and joking among ourselves about starting a competing 'Speaking to Dudes' plan for only $19 million (codename: 'STD'), Rolling Stone decided to get to the bottom of questions that until now remained publicly unanswered, including: Who or what is 'SAM,' and who is actually running this thing? Our reporting soon led us to the names of two Democratic Party heavy-hitters running the 'SAM Project,' as well as to some of the national party's stalwarts who offered preemptive, hefty derision toward the new effort. Certain details of this project had been circulating in Democratic circles for weeks. One Democrat who received the fundraising prospectus says that they saw it, skimmed it, then closed it immediately because what they had seen seemed so 'fucking stupid.' Still, we wanted to see for ourselves, so we reached out to the two key figures behind the SAM Project to learn more about it and review its much-discussed fundraising prospectus (embedded below). The group also shared with us its 31-page presentation titled, 'How to Stop Losing the Culture Wars — and Win Back Men.' 'Speaking with American Men' is being led by Ilyse Hogue, the former president of the abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America, and John Della Volpe, director of polling at the Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics and an adviser to Biden's 2020 campaign. The project's fundraising pitch lists former Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas), a one-time NFL player who lost a Senate race to Ted Cruz last year, as part of the SAM Project team. In a joint interview with Rolling Stone on Wednesday, Della Volpe and Hogue wanted to clarify a few things. (Yes, they have seen the mean social media posts.) For one thing, they stress that the $20 million they set out to raise is for a two-year budget, which would be dedicated to not just research, but also for outreach, organizing efforts, and communications. The group intends to study and engage niche communities popular with young men of different races and backgrounds, including in forums and spaces focused on video games, cryptocurrencies, fitness, and DIY videos. The point of the project, they explain, is to listen to 'a cohort of young people who don't feel like the Democratic Party hears them or cares about them,' as Della Volpe puts it. He says Democrats' failure in 2024 was about 'over relying on analytics and not listening to people,' and that the Harris campaign did 'something that no other [Democratic] campaign this century has done, which is to not optimize young people.' Hogue and Della Volpe both sought to warn Democrats last year about their growing problems with men, particularly younger men. Hogue wrote several pieces for The Bulwark last year about Trump's appeals to young men and Democrats' 'male voter problem.' Della Volpe wrote an op-ed for the Times about how Trump was successfully 'exploiting the fears and insecurities of young men.' Their SAM Project is not just a fundraising pitch — it's happening. Without saying how much money they've raised, Hogue confirms they've received 'initial investment in the work that we're doing and a lot of interest, honestly, in the research that is coming out of it.' Over the past two months, Della Volpe's research firm conducted 30 focus groups among men aged 18-29. 'This level of listening is something that these young men have expressed explicitly that they have been waiting for for a long time,' says Hogue, adding that '$20 million seems like actually a drop in the bucket when you think about what is being spent over … a two-year cycle on speaking to voters. It actually feels pretty modest when you think about by how much we lost this group and how much we have to make up ground.' The SAM Project says it is being fiscally sponsored by Democracy Matters, a Washington-based nonprofit with ties to David Brock's liberal American Bridge network. While some of the planks in the SAM Project documents risk coming off as ham-fisted ('Develop, disseminate, and test high-quality, meme-friendly content'), the group aspires to engage with real problems, such as how the right radicalizes men via online platforms — 'utilizing the algorithms to cycle them into a right-wing funnel.' It also highlights key financial concerns that young men face in today's society: 'job security, home ownership, wage growth, and affordable education/trade programs.' The prospectus seeks to 'highlight the ways in which billionaire-backed culture war distractions serve as a smokescreen to divert attention from economic inequality, stagnating wages, and corporate exploitation.' The SAM Project's presentation notes that young men recognize that 'institutions have failed them.' They feel 'let down by politics, education, law enforcement, and labor systems.' They 'don't believe Democrats fight for them, but many don't think Republicans care either.' And they have 'learned to expect neglect, not support.' The presentation says that 'economic insecurity cuts across income and identity,' and young men are 'overwhelmed by the cost of living, the instability of work, and the distance between what was promised and what's real.' On the other hand, the SAM Project's financial solutions, as described in the fundraising prospectus, seem fairly small-ball: 'expanded child tax credits, homebuyer incentives, and workforce training.' Democrats' 2024 platform, which failed to drive necessary support among young men, already contained references to such items. (The SAM Project team advises developing 'specific language' to frame these policies 'as a path to economic empowerment rather than government dependency,' which almost sounds like a conservative talking point.) Asked about the fact that Democrats had already pitched similar ideas during the Harris campaign, Hogue says it's impossible for the party to 'build trust' around their economic policies 'if you're not in the spaces [where] people are debating them far in advance of the election, and the Democrats were completely absent from those spaces.' Hogue says there are areas where many young men agree with Democrats, such as on social issues, as well as on economic policies, but the latter are 'not being emphasized.' She explains that 'unless the Democrats are saying these are top priorities because they affect young men, which they really were not, then that's not going to resonate as much as it could.' The SAM Project presentation indicates that many young men view Democrats as weak — and 'want leadership that signals strength, clarity, and follow-through — especially in a world that feels unstable and demanding.' The document says there appears to be some level of 'generational tolerance for authoritarian tendencies,' relating in part to institutions that aren't working for them. Hogue says that, in their research so far, what they've been hearing from people is that ''Democrats don't care about us, [and] even if they did care about us, they're weak. They can't get anything done.' And that is an issue — that is a gap, a chasm, that needs to be addressed.' The presentation quotes a Hispanic man from a rural background saying of Trump: 'I think he has that strong man, you know, vibe that definitely a lot of guys, you know, like or relate to. I think people view him as, you know, kinda tearing down the structures that maybe they feel haven't helped them.' The duo fronting SAM are acutely aware that they have, even at this early stage, their fair share of intra-party critics who appear far from being won over. Several of these SAM Project skeptics are not mincing words, either. 'I think both Ilyse and John are smart, talented operatives who have very good intentions. I think broadly, writ large — and this is hardly unique to Ilyse and John — it is beyond embarrassing that in the year 2025, the Democratic Party wants to spend tens of millions of dollars to figure out how to talk to half of the population. It really isn't that hard,' says Ammar Moussa, formerly the rapid response director for Harris' 2024 campaign. 'This really isn't rocket science. We're treating young men and working class voters like they're foreign aliens who just visited earth who are speaking a different language. And to some degree, we are [speaking a different language], for a multitude of reasons — mostly because the Democratic Party is staffed with operatives who no longer reflect what the electorate looks like anymore. And that's a problem.' But, Moussa adds: 'This isn't a zoo!' The Democrat who received the SAM Project's prospectus, and who requested anonymity, says: 'What pissed me off is that we're doing all this research trying to find out the right combination of words to try to get them to like us, rather than understanding what their struggles and dreams are, and what they want out of life, and meeting them there.' This person also argues that multi-million dollar fundraising efforts such as this run the risk of siphoning 'money from organizations actually doing the work.' One other Democratic recipient of the fundraising document says the pitch — particularly things like the use of word 'syntax' — made the project read as broadly 'condescending' to young American men. The price-tag of $20 million also seemed 'way too expensive,' this source says, referring to the idea of conducting a 'safari-type study' of young male voters 'as if they are a different species' as 'insulting … why do this?' But Hogue and Della Volpe contend that the issue is that there simply aren't enough effective messengers or committed Democrats actually doing the work in these spaces, and that any liberal consultants or Democratic officials saying otherwise are fooling themselves. In Hogue's view: ''Syntax' is obviously sort of an academic word, but the way that breaks down for me is, when I, in the summer of 2024, was saying, 'Hey guys, we have a problem. Trump just did a town hall on Kick with Adin Ross,' and Democratic operatives were saying to me, 'I don't understand a single word you're saying,' that is a problem. When I wrote a piece earlier that year about the intentionality of RFK Jr. doing his failed presidential launch, bench pressing shirtless in jeans, which was a direct line to the red-pill fitness channels, online Democratic operatives looked at me and said, 'I've never heard of red-pill fitness.' So they are free to suggest that the focus on language is a problem, but they don't understand the language that people are speaking in the spaces where they are absent.' 'The solution is not word-smithing our way to better slogans,' says Della Volpe, arguing that he and critics of the SAM Project likely 'feel the same way around understanding values and experiences. There's a misrepresentation, I think, of what the project is about.' Here's the SAM prospectus. See for yourself what all the hullabaloo was about: More from Rolling Stone Why Are Health Influencers Drinking Raw Milk and Honey Shots at the White House? Trump to Pardon Reality TV Stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, Who Were Convicted of Fraud, Tax Evasion Russian State Media Mocks Trump for Posts About Putin Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
