Which of the democratic presidential candidates supports men?

mtcapri · 2020-02-01T23:15:24+00:00

All of them would claim they do. Most would then start talking about women.

A few thoughts and observations:

Bernie has rejected the social justice narrative about everything revolving around race and gender multiple times, and insisted the focus should be on class. I very much support him in this.

Biden is mainstream and as such hasn't adopted as much of the social justice mantras as some other candidates, but he is also extremely likely to reintroduce the OCR mandates that Obama initiated, which makes him anti-male in my book.

Yang has said some pro-male things on camera from time to time, but no male issues exist on his (very lengthy) list of policies and stances, and he supports the gender wage gap myth (which is listed on his site). I don't think Yang is even still in the running though.

Warren has made it very clear she thinks she deserves the presidency because she's a woman of color (LOL). No, but seriously, Warren has tried to play every demographic card she can think of to win.

NjalBorgeirsson · 2020-02-02T06:02:49+00:00

Klobuchar doesn't seem to be able to get through a debate without making a "men are trash" comment so not her.

Edit: Buttigieg supports a $50B investment fund restricted to female entrepreneurs, so not him either.

serpentineeyelash · 2020-02-02T06:05:19+00:00

It's not an easy question to answer because the candidates are not usually asked about men's issues, and because it's a pretty broad range of issues that men face so a candidate might support some but not others. Also I'm not American so I may be missing some things.

Firstly I'll be upfront about my bias: on general human issues, I greatly prefer the most left-wing candidates - Tulsi Gabbard, Bernie Sanders, and Andrew Yang. Though there is considerable variation between them, these candidates come across as most genuine and tend to have the most humane policies on economics, war, and climate.

Because I consider the American media to be establishment propaganda, I'm suspicious that they give negative coverage to Tulsi and Bernie, while giving positive coverage to Biden and Warren and many other candidates. This also has some relevance to male issues: the media and establishment candidates tend to use identity politics narratives to attack Bernie and Tulsi, which may make those two candidates more reluctant to uncritically believe such narratives in future.

War, which is of course a major issue affecting men, is the biggest dividing line between the pro-establishment and anti-establishment Democrats. Seemingly all candidates except Tulsi and Bernie support the establishment foreign policy (eg. Joe Biden supported the Iraq War), and some have even accused the establishment candidates of being intelligence assets.

Tulsi has emerged as the most anti-war candidate. Though even Tulsi supports some form of war on Islamic terrorism, she has recently been much more aggressive than Bernie in calling out war propaganda and related narratives like "Russiagate". She has likewise been more aggressive than Bernie in calling out unfairness in the election process such as media bias, internet censorship, and election fraud, all issues that must be addressed for anti-establishment candidates to win. In contrast, Bernie has tended to try to get along with other Democrats when they tell him to fall in line.

Yang has commented on male issues more than most other candidates, but tends to hedge in his rhetoric. He's criticized male genital mutilation, but also said it's okay if it's chosen by the boy's parents for religious reasons. He said some positive things about boys' education when interviewed by Warren Farrell, but recited girl power rhetoric to the mainstream media.

Yang's central proposal of a universal basic income would help to ameliorate the male breadwinner role in a world of increasing technological unemployment. It would eliminate absolute poverty, though it would do nothing to address the issue of relative deprivation which has its own detrimental effect on the psychology and wellbeing of humans, particularly men.

Bernie is strongest on reducing class inequality in a more structural sense, with his various democratic socialist reforms which could help flatten the hierarchy among males. Though note that even Bernie is not particularly radical - although Bernie may ultimately have the radical ambition of democraticizing workplaces, most of his policies are still incremental reforms which already exist in most countries (eg. government healthcare). Other candidates have adopted some similar policies but equivocate and flip-flop on how committed they are to them, while Bernie has been consistent for decades.

Bernie's policies include attempting to create new jobs through Green New Deal style initiatives as well as fairer trade policies. Many of these jobs (eg. making buildings more energy-efficient) would be in predominantly male industries such as construction.

Yang and Bernie, like probably all the candidates, see the gender earnings gap as being caused by female economic disadvantage rather than males being pressured into a breadwinner role. However, this might not matter much considering their policies are aimed at benefiting all non-elites. It could matter much more with, say, Elizabeth Warren, who has shown a preference for means-tested policies and identity politics. And again Biden is very much an establishment Democrat, having repeatedly said he wants to cut social security.

Bernie has repeatedly spoken out against the idea that a candidate should be judged on their identity rather than their policies. Warren has often campaigned on her identity and indeed lied about her identity.

It's harder to predict where candidates would land on the more controversial male issues involving abuse, accusations, and relationship conflicts between men and women. But one ray of hope is that Bernie in 2016 criticized the campus rape kangaroo courts - I'd have to look up whether he still has a position on that. Also, feminists have accused Bernie of rape apologism because of some controversial articles he wrote at the time of the sexual revolution.

Overall I think it's a tossup between Tulsi, Bernie, and Yang. Tulsi may be strongest on peace and free speech. Yang may be strongest on technological unemployment. And Bernie may be strongest on universalism, due process, and relative inequality in economic status.

I'm pessimistic about whether any genuine candidate can win such a corrupt process as the Undemocratic Party primary elections, but Bernie has the best chance with his current surge in the polls, so now may be a good time to jump onto the Bernie bandwagon. For anyone here who hates Bernie because of what you've heard about him, you might be interested to listen to his interviews on Joe Rogan and Fox News, which have apparently won over some of his detractors.

azazelcrowley · 2020-02-02T04:02:27+00:00

Farrell did a bunch of interviews with many of them, but couldn't access the big 3. (Warren, Biden, Sanders.).

The rest were willing to meet with him and discuss mens issues. This is seperate from them necessarily having those issues on the agenda though.

genkernels · 2020-02-02T09:44:14+00:00

Bwahaha. No. Politicans don't do much for men's issues generally speaking, and the democratic party is anti-male-feminist as a rule.

Firstly, Warren Farrell got to talk to O'Rourke, Yang, and one other at minimum.

Warren and Biden are of course awful on men's issues.

Bernie Sanders has some substantial issues with supporting feminism, which is likely to negatively impact men: link1, link2, link3. He does offer the vaguely feminist paternal leave policy. And, of course, medicare for all does support men taking more dangerous jobs as an injury will be less likely to bankrupt people. There are a few other policies that are tangentially related to men like that. Oh, and he said campus rape should be investigated by police. He's a mixed bag. I like him, but he's a mixed bag.

Some have said that Yang's UBI will be a net wealth transfer from men to women (true), but it will also support the most vulnerable men in a way that the welfare system doesn't. Yang has said some somewhat more extreme feminist things than Bernie: link1, link2, link3 (well, that's arguable), link4, link5. But there are some pretty darn positive things for Yang too. link1, link2 (he even mentions intactivists very positively elsewhere, but he's pro-religious circumcision though), link3, link4.

Klobuchar I don't know a lot about, but this is bad, and this may be good.

I'm woefully underinformed about Bloomberg and Buttigieg. The latter did a wage gap stunt.

2020-02-02T08:22:39+00:00

Bernie. He’s THE man.

LeftNatTay · 2020-02-02T22:11:49+00:00

None explicitly, but Sanders would likely be the best

highmrk · 2020-02-04T23:51:56+00:00

Sanders by far. Before we’re men, we’re people with needs such as housing and healthcare and jobs, etc. He has the most comprehensive plan and is explicitly anti capitalist

jmdenn3000 · 2020-02-05T07:25:51+00:00

I've heard yang talk about the suicide rate

Title	Which of the democratic presidential candidates supports men?
Author	RT-AC66U
Upvotes	11
Comments	33
Date	February 1, 2020 9:18 PM UTC (6 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/comments/excsij/which_of_the_democratic_presidential_candidates/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/LeftWingMaleAdvocates/which-of-the-democratic-presidential-candidates.1200939 https://theredarchive.com/post/1200939

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