{"id":41126,"date":"2024-08-30T23:13:17","date_gmt":"2024-08-30T19:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=41126"},"modified":"2024-08-30T23:13:17","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T19:13:17","slug":"democratic-men-are-stepping-up-for-a-woman-president-by-stepping-back-at-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/democratic-men-are-stepping-up-for-a-woman-president-by-stepping-back-at-last\/","title":{"rendered":"Democratic men are stepping up for a woman president by stepping back, at last"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

The masculinity on display at the Democratic convention was groundbreaking as men \u2212 from Joe Biden to Pete Buttigieg to Tim Walz to Doug Emhoff \u2212 aimed unreservedly to lift up women as leaders.<\/span><\/h4>\n

\"\"Second gentleman Doug Emhoff, left, and Democratic VP nominee Tim Walz, two of the men at the Democratic National Convention giving unqualified support to Kamala Harris for president.\u00a0Kevin Dietsch\/Getty Images<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Women have been running for president of the United States since 1872, and for almost that long people have been asking what women need to do in order to break what Hillary Clinton has called the \u201chighest, hardest glass ceiling\u201d left in American culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

Almost no one has asked what men need to do in order to remedy the problem that the job has been off-limits to more than 50% of the talent pool since \u2026 forever.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the 2024 Democratic National Convention, that changed. Democratic men made choices that were entirely new, or exceedingly rare, in support of a woman presidential candidate and in service to the nation. It was unprecedented.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a communication scholar who studies gender and political leadership, I\u2019ve argued that the biggest impediment to electing a woman as president is not a dearth of qualified woman candidates but a collective inability to recognize them as such. The fault is not in the candidates but in American culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

As it turns out, men in politics were also to blame.<\/span><\/p>\n

When faced with competitive women as presidential candidates, many men historically have leveraged their power and privilege in ways that undercut women\u2019s candidacies. But the Democratic convention was different.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the first time in history, men in a major political party offered unified support for a woman candidate. They refrained from strategically deploying the stereotype that strong women are not likable, as Barack Obama did with Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primaries.<\/span><\/p>\n

They accepted the party\u2019s overwhelming support for a woman candidate, instead of insisting on being entitled to superdelegates, as Bernie Sanders did in 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n

And they put their career on hold to support their spouse\u2019s candidacy instead of undercutting it by offering support to primary campaign challengers, as Bob Dole did when Elizabeth Dole sought the Republican Party\u2019s nomination in 2000.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Relinquishing male power\u2019<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Rhetorical choices reveal the underlying motivations of individuals and groups. The messaging of Democratic men at the 2024 convention signaled that their party was finally ready to do something that no major party has ever done. They were not only nominating a woman candidate but relinquishing male power and privilege.<\/span><\/p>\n

Biden surprised everyone when he pulled out of the race in response to pressure from flagging poll results, skeptical donors and party leaders, and nervous down-ballot candidates. Any resentment he may have felt, however, did not turn into pique or pettiness at the convention.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the crowd chanted, \u201cThank you, Joe,\u201d he instructed, \u201cThank you, Kamala, too,\u201d and promised to be \u201cthe best volunteer the Harris and Walz camp have ever seen.\u201d He didn\u2019t just give up his candidacy. He ceded his authority \u2013 to the people and the party, but also to Harris, specifically.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg angled to be Harris\u2019 running mate and may still harbor his own presidential aspirations, he did not use his convention speaking slot to audition for the 2028 campaign. Instead, he performed the role that historically has been reserved for women at political conventions: pitching the party\u2019s message via the perspective of a parent whose primary concern is \u201ckitchen table\u201d politics, issues that affect children and families most directly.<\/span><\/p>\n

The convention speech given by the presidential nominee\u2019s spouse has historically been an opportunity for prospective first ladies to portray their husbands as patriarchs of an ideal American family. In his speech, second gentleman Doug Emhoff painted a picture of a \u201ccomplicated\u201d and \u201cblended family\u201d with no patriarch but two active partners, equally capable of professional success and deep commitment to family.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Harris selected Tim Walz as her running mate, she defied many pundits and the oddsmakers who deemed Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro the best strategic choice. Walz\u2019s convention performance was described by one news outlet as the message of a \u201cmidwest \u2018man\u2019s man\u2019\u201d and the \u201cantidote to toxic Maga masculinity.\u201d Even Ms. magazine touted it as a \u201cMasculinity-Themed Populist Pep Talk.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But Walz did something Americans are not used to seeing \u201cman\u2019s men\u201d do. He made it clear that he could work not just with, but for, a woman. And that everyone should.<\/span><\/p>\n

After informing the crowd that the election was in the metaphorical \u201cfourth quarter,\u201d the team was \u201cdown a field goal\u201d and the offense was \u201cdriving down the field,\u201d Coach Walz made it clear that, as in his high school coaching days, he was the assistant coach. Their leader was Kamala Harris, and \u201cKamala Harris is tough. Kamala Harris is experienced. And Kamala Harris is ready.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Contented second fiddles<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

To be clear, Harris\u2019 early success as a presidential candidate should be attributed, first and foremost, to her skillful and dexterous response to a series of unprecedented events and to the savvy support of the Black women who have long sustained the Democratic Party.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the men of the convention made a collective choice to embrace \u201ctheir second-fiddle roles,\u201d as an Axios reporter described it, and treat Harris like a commander in chief. That should be unremarkable. Women have been doing it for presidential candidates since \u2026 forever. But to see so many white men stepping back so enthusiastically for a woman of color was almost unbelievable.<\/span><\/p>\n

Stepping back is not the same thing as stepping away. That\u2019s important, because the broader message of the convention was about how to create an inclusive, democratic community. When you need to make a circle wider, and let more people in, you step back. That doesn\u2019t leave you out of the circle. It makes your circle bigger.<\/span><\/p>\n

The convention offered an expansive circle that includes gay dads raising strong-willed toddlers, blended families that attend synagogue and church, football coaches who bag pheasants and serve as faculty adviser to the high school\u2019s gay-straight alliance club, and presidents who give up their power for the good of the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

It also includes a presidential candidate who looks like no other president in U.S. history. That\u2019s a big step forward for the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

Karrin Vasby Anderson<\/span><\/strong>
\nColorado State University<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 30 August 2024<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The masculinity on display at the Democratic convention was groundbreaking as men \u2212 from Joe Biden to Pete Buttigieg to Tim Walz to Doug Emhoff \u2212 aimed unreservedly to lift up women as leaders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":41127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28413],"tags":[39878,432,48073,1803,18069,18070,3479,48074,48075],"class_list":["post-41126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-democracy","tag-2024-us-presidential-election","tag-barack-obama","tag-bob-dole","tag-hillary-clinton","tag-joe-biden","tag-kamala-harris","tag-masculinity","tag-pete-buttigieg","tag-tim-walz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Democracy.jpg?fit=1200%2C784&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-aHk","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}