By Jeffrey A. Rendall
Statistics say men aren’t wanting to work anymore, resulting in cultural isolation
Men in America are experiencing a crisis, but aside from an occasional media report, we don’t hear much about it.
Men have begun leaving the workforce in droves and experts are at a loss to explain why a growing percentage of males prefer staying at home – not to serve as caretakers or assume other, more customary female duties – but to play video games and otherwise avoid responsibilities that men were depended on to fulfill in times past.
Some of this decline is due to shifting operational demands in the workplace, but much of it appears to be the product of American culture and its overvaluation of “woke” causes and non-traditional gender identities.
What does it take to be a man? The rock group Boston posed the question four decades ago. The answer remains evasive, but something just ain’t right in America today, and a counter-movement is called for.
In an article titled, “Millions of men are ditching the workforce — and experts are sounding the alarm”, Sean Salai reported at The Washington Times recently:
“The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics breakdown found that 44.07 million of 132.8 million eligible men older than 15 — or 33.2% — were not in the labor force last month. That’s 9 million more out-of-work men (29%) than in 2012. The number of men opting not to work jumped by 891,000 over the preceding 12 months alone, as the economy shed manufacturing and finance jobs.
“’The American economy has gradually moved away from some of the industries that historically provided good jobs to men without college degrees,’ said Scott Beaulier, a University of Wyoming economist. ‘Meanwhile, much of the recent employment growth has occurred in areas such as healthcare and education, where women make up a much larger share of the workforce.’ Mr. Beaulier cited research showing that men who stay home in their 30s to play video games or seek social media fame find it ‘progressively harder’ to return to traditional work — and are more likely to end up incarcerated.
“The share of eligible men participating in the workforce dropped from 77.5% in 1976 to 66.8% last month, the lowest non-pandemic reading since 1948. Meanwhile, the share of eligible women in the workforce has climbed from 47.3% in 1976 to 56.4%, boosted by growing fields such as healthcare.”
Really? Is any of this surprising?
Not if you’ve paid attention to cultural and political trends in the past couple decades. The left has pushed increasingly hard to cut men and masculinity down to size, and, if the above cited statistics are accurate, they’ve succeeded remarkably.
And while many, many of these factors are due to cultural erosion and the advent of family-destroying measures such as same-sex marriage and the proliferation of no-fault divorce, we can’t exempt contemporary politics from the analysis, either.
Simply stated, the Democrat party deemphasizes “manly” men and demonizes them at the same time. How much of the Democrats’ main campaign emphasis is devoted to propping up anti-man causes such as “me too” and making sport of criticizing the MAGA movement because its figurehead, the 80-year-old President Donald J. Trump, has been married several times and was the subject of limitless groundless speculation over his baser desires to participate in schemes like Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex ring?
Democrats have worked so exhaustively to demonstrate that Trump is a cad, have any of them – ever – commended him for helping raise five strong, ambitious and productive children? Trump never tried to discount his ex-wives’ role in building a strong (though non-traditional) family. Each of the Trump children is renowned for their confidence, drive and intelligence in becoming leaders. All of them.
Who are the Democrats, in the alternative? They champion female bosses such as Hillary Clinton, Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi. Their male-identifying leaders are “Chucky” Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries and includes ancillary figures such as Governor Gavin Newsom and “Tampon” Tim Walz, a guy who’s famous for proposing to neutralize bathrooms so transgender kids could feel contented when using the facilities.
The Democrat Party and its adherents have become obsessed with homosexuality – and now, by transgenderism. Don’t forget how former president senile Joe Biden flew a rainbow flag from the White House balcony and seemed honored by the fact he’d invited biological men with fake breasts to show their “pride” by displaying the physically enhanced results of their sex-change operations.
Democrats have done all of this under the auspices of “inclusion” and making sure every human, no matter how strange or weird in their beliefs has been welcomed into their political tent. Remember how that Iowa college girl asked Biden in 2019 how many genders there were, only to be brusquely scolded by the doddering old fool in his reply?
At the same time, Biden himself sought to show how tough he was by periodically challenging Trump to a fist fight. Senile Joe was defending women’s honor, remember?
I guess Democrats don’t trust men to perform the task any longer. Younger American men detect this gradual political and cultural shift and are, apparently, opting to stay away from the workforce.
American higher education establishments have certainly contributed to the trend, with colleges emphasizing female empowerment and enrollment while deprioritizing men. Think of how men have been ridiculed for innate behaviors and even brought up on criminal charges under the false and discredited guise of “believe all accusers!”
It didn’t take now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearings to expose what Democrats think about young men.
President Trump promotes masculinity as well as seeks to bring back traditional male work to the culture and industry. In the coming years, we’ll see if his efforts were successful.
By the same token, if a woman waxes publicly about her “choices” in life, she’s heralded as brave and heroic. The always sadly entertaining Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez recently talked about her being torn between having a family and a career. As reported by Tiana Lowe Doescher (at the Washington Examiner), AOC said:
“Usually, I keep my private life quite private, but I have made the decision to start freezing my eggs, and I want to share that with anyone who is — and I want to share this because I was weighing it for a very long time, and I think that, you know, I was saving for it for a very long time, and there just isn’t a ton out there, I feel, and sometimes it can feel very daunting,” said the 36-year-old. “I think we need to show more depictions of women having full lives in every context and every choice.”
Our society allows someone like AOC to earn sympathy for suggesting there’s a problematic “balance” between work and a family, but if a man were to say the same or similar things, he would be ridiculed as a “wimp” or a lazy shirker.
“You aren’t the one who has to carry a baby for nine months and then take care of it when it’s born!”
Democrats downplay the role of men in raising children, too, regarding them as little more than glorified sperm donors who could be replaced by any woman without consequences to the child itself. It used to be a widely held belief that it takes a man to raise a man. The number of female-led single parent households – and the social anomalies that have resulted – seem to tragically (for many) prove the truth of the axiom.
As argued above, President Donald Trump has set the wheels in motion to bring men — and masculinity — back from the precipice. Trump’s battle against transgender ideology and its infiltration into major sports, including the WNBA, of all things, has begun the long process of making it “cool” to be a guy again.
Men don’t need to apologize for anything. I tell my son to study hard, work hard and, when it’s called for, to play hard. Is this bad? I tell my daughters the same things. They’re all grown now and I’m happy to say they’ve become productive individuals who aren’t entitled or lacking in work ethic.
Democrats are trying to break down traditional American culture. Trump backers are working to build it back up and make it stronger. Letting boys be boys and men be men will reverse the tide of men leaving the workforce. Productive work brings satisfaction which idleness can never replace.
That’s what it takes to be a man. Let’s see it in action.
Jeff Rendall is editor and publisher of GolfintheUSA.com and has written about golf and politics for over a quarter of a century. A non-practicing attorney from California, he moved to the east coast three decades ago to pursue and combine his interests in all things American history and culture. Jeff has worked as an intern on Capitol Hill and in various capacities in grassroots organizing and conservative organizations and publications, including a nearly two-decade stint at ConservativeHQ.com. Column republishing or other inquiries: Rendall@msn.com .