The Democrats’ Answer to Hulk Hogan

For better or worse, the image burned most permanently into my brain after the Republican National Convention was that of Hulk Hogan, ripping off his shirt in a display of testosterone-fueled camp that has come to be an integral part of former President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again movement.

Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota will probably not do that tonight.

He will, though, embody his party’s retort to the mega-masculinity of Trumpism, one that has been playing out all week in Chicago as Democrats look to chip away at Trump’s commanding lead with male voters so they can elect the nation’s first female president.

Democrats are presenting voters with a starkly different version of masculinity than the one on display last month in Milwaukee, one that celebrates Walz’s penchant for target shooting and football while framing respect for women — and voting for women — as the ultimate manly act.

It’s a defining feature of a remarkably gendered election that is turning into a bigger partisan argument over what a man is supposed to be.

“Real men respect women and their right to choose over their bodies. Real men respect the fact that women can be in leadership positions,” said Mayor Brandon Scott of Baltimore. “Real men are comfortable playing back seat to women.”

Even before Harris rose to the top of the ticket, some Democrats were warning that their party was leaving men behind. A New York Times/Siena College poll taken in July, just after President Biden stepped aside, showed Trump winning 56 percent of male voters, while Harris was winning just 37 percent of them.