Check Your Masculinity At The DNC Front Desk
It’s a women-led party. There’s little chance a normal white guy can make it through the ranks today.
The Democrats’ biggest star of this election cycle has turned into the party’s biggest disaster.
Controversy isn’t new to Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner. His Totenkopf tattoo and edgy Reddit posts are already old news and didn’t dent his candidacy. In fact, he became so popular among Maine Democrats that his once-frontrunner primary opponent, former Governor Janet Mills, dropped out of the race rather than face the part-time oysterman.
But now the Democrats’ blue-collar star is in serious trouble–and it has nothing to do with his fondness for the Third Reich. Several women have come forward to declare Platner a BAD MAN. Some of the complaints are legitimate, some not so legitimate. Multiple women reported that Platner messaged them on dating apps while he was married and sexted them. This would be bad for any politician, and is a story deserving of news coverage. But he’s also facing charges of being a “bad” boyfriend based on bitter ex-lovers. It’s common for public figures to be hit with such accusations, but the case against Platner is pretty thin. It’s women claiming a messy relationship with a combat veteran amounted to abuse. But it seems exaggerated. Still, these reports did produce the funniest line in the 2026 campaign. Platner’s alleged comment to one ex that he wanted to rape a home intruder, but “not in a gay way” is a content gold mine.
Regardless of the merits of these claims, it’s now implanted in the public mind that Platner has too much “toxic masculinity.” This is his biggest problem with Democratic voters, far more than his fascination with the Third Reich and anti-Christian Reddit posts. Platner’s party is a gynocracy that will ruin a man’s career over the most dubious of MeToo accusations.
Platner still might win in Maine, but his national aspirations are over. There’s no way a guy like that can win a national primary. It’s also very likely Janet Mills would’ve trounced Platner in the primary if these revelations had come out sooner. An SS tattoo is forgivable; a woman claiming you’re abusive because you argued with her 12 years ago is not.
Still, as stated above, it might not be enough to cripple his candidacy. A year ago, I thought Platner’s Totenkopf tat would be too much for Democratic voters to stomach. I was wrong. Mainers may overlook his new baggage simply because he’s a Democrat.
Democrats are desperate to win back men and hope male candidates can do the job. The problem is that the guys they recruit will be weirdos like James Talarico. The rare masculine man they recruit will be like Platner, and thus too toxic for the party’s female voters.
The future of the Democratic Party is obviously female. Over 40 percent of its lawmakers in Congress are women. Over 60 percent of President Biden’s judicial appointees were female. Roughly 60 percent of Biden’s White House staff were women, as well as 56 percent of his senior staff. Congressional and DNC staff are also mostly women. The fairer sex is arguably the most important element to the Democratic coalition and the party consistently gets the majority of the female vote.
Women decide who represents the party and who doesn’t. Several prominent Democrats have been pushed out of office over frivolous MeToo claims. Al Franken resigned from the Senate after women were outraged over an old joke pic that emerged of him pretending to grope a sleeping woman. Andrew Cuomo had to resign as New York governor not over how he botched COVID, but over how he flirted with random women. He tried to make a comeback in the New York mayoral race last year, yet the MeToo allegations–along with other issues–helped sink him.
MeToo roiled liberal-dominated institutions. Hollywood, academia, and news media were the hardest hit by these accusations. While some of the behavior called out was certainly wrong and possibly criminal, much of it was directed at men for petty offenses, such as inept flirting or second thoughts over consensual sex. The new rules put in by female HR managers made it much harder for a man with solid T-levels to exist in these institutions. Asking a woman for a out drink could cost you your career and reputation. The only guys who could survive in this environment are the ones who would never take that risk, namely gay men and absolute herbs.
Just imagine the environment over the last decade for a young, straight white guy in Democratic politics. You’re constantly lectured about your privilege due to your race, gender, and sexual orientation. You’re passed over for jobs simply because of who you are. You live in mortal terror of the consequences of asking out the wrong girl or your ex deciding you’re an “abuser” because the relationship didn’t work out. It’s an extremely hostile environment where your identity is hated and you can’t assert yourself at all.
The normal guy would get the hell out of there. The ones who stay are James Talaricos.
Despite the media presenting Talarico as the most normal guy imaginable, he’s an extremely strange person. His past comments about loving trans kids would never come from a normal man. He’s been happy to accept inferior status as a white guy in the Democratic Party. He constantly apologizes for his whiteness. His strange voice and mannerisms prompted speculation he’s gay, which made his campaign publicize his girlfriend. However, the speculation remains.
Talarico is the only young white guy who could emerge from liberal politics now. There’s no space for regular dudes. Platner did not emerge from Democratic political operations. He’s never held office before. He’s just a charismatic guy who decided to run for Senate. If he had been professionally involved in liberal politics before, he would’ve been purged long ago.
Platner realizes that he needs to fit the mold of what liberals expect a man to be. He openly professes he loves therapy, calls out “toxic masculinity,” and says real men are “compassionate.” It’s probably not enough to make voters forget about the bad-boyfriend claims, but he at least knows what they want to hear.
Democrats realize they have to appeal to people outside the progressive base to win elections. They would love for “real men” to represent them in Congress to counter their overly feminine and woke image. But there’s hardly any real men among their millennial and Zoomer cohorts. The outsiders they find are liable to have the same baggage as Platner. It would take a very strange guy who presents as an uber chud to run as a progressive Democrat. It shouldn’t surprise us that Platner has these skeletons.
There’s still a fair number of normal white guys in the Democratic Party–but they’re pretty much all over 50. (Jon Ossoff could count as an exception in some people’s books.) They all want to run in 2028, and there’s a good chance one of them will be the nominee. But don’t expect any more from the next generation. They’re all going to be extremely weird like James Talarico and Pete Buttigieg.
Anyone else can’t make it in the modern Democratic Party. It’s the party of women and minorities. Straight, white guys sit at the back of the bus–until they need a candidate to win in battleground states.
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