How to Sink the MAGA Armada

Imagine the media as a grand, lumbering ship from a Patrick O’Brian novel. The Washington Monthly is the lookout perched high in the crow’s nest, peering over the horizon.

Time and again, for 55 years, the Monthly has spotted issues years before they become mainstream stories, such as how the overweening power of monopolistic corporations threatened global supply chains, how prestigious colleges were undermining social mobility, and how reckless financiers were creating a housing bubble. 

This unmatched prescience is a joy for the Monthly’s dedicated readership—a readership that keeps us afloat. 

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After I came aboard the SS Monthly two years ago, my editors encouraged me to look for over-the-horizon stories. I dug into how Republican leaders were borrowing talking points from chauvinistic “manosphere” influencers to reach lonely young men. In 2016, “Trump proved the potential of disillusioned young men as a growth demographic,” I wrote, and his imitators were learning to “leverage online male grievance in electoral politics.” 

Matthew Cooper, our executive editor—digital, encouraged me to compare this tactic to what Democrats were doing: nothing. “By failing to articulate a commitment to helping young men, the left has let Republicans fill the vacuum,” I wrote. “They’re failing to expose the fraudulence of the right and leaving votes on the table.” What might the political consequences be? 

My story landed me an appearance on Morning Joe. Claire McCaskill, the former Senate Democrat defeated for her seat in 2018 by Josh Hawley, the Ivy League-educated MAGA enthusiast who had just penned a book on manhood, was another on-air guest that day. McCaskill voiced her worry after reading my story that her party wasn’t “accounting for the Joe Rogans of the world.” 

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Unfortunately, the 2024 election proved her warnings, and mine, disastrously accurate. Young men shifted nearly 30 points towards Trump compared to just four years ago. On social media, liberals searched desperately for a liberal Rogan-like figure to close the testosterone gap.

Sometimes, you don’t want to be able to say, I told you so. That feeling happens often at the Washington Monthly. We need your donations to keep up our important work at this dangerous time.

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A liberalism that can defeat the MAGA movement needs the Monthly. As we enter a perilous new era, the Monthly will continue covering the political currents that other outlets miss. We’ll continue imploring the media to listen and the Democratic Party to adapt. We’ll keep generating new ideas on issues like college reform, K-12 education, and health care for our veterans, and we’ll keep promoting a more just approach to international security and fair trade. We’ll keep scanning the horizon.

But we can’t do it without your help. 

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Thank you. 

Will Norris, Editor

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