The Great Manliness Flip-Flop

Tom Nichols: “Trump is hands down America’s unmanliest president, despite the weird pseudo-macho culture that his fans have created around him—and despite his moment of defiance after a bullet grazed his ear. I give him all the credit in the world for those few minutes; I have no idea if I’d have that much presence of mind with a few gallons of adrenaline barreling through my veins. But true to form, he then wallowed in the assassination attempt like the narcissist he is, regaling the faithful at the Republican National Convention about how much human ears can bleed. As it turns out, one moment of brave fist-pumping could not overcome a lifetime of unmanly behavior.”

“And so, Trump’s choice of Vance made sense. Vance, who honorably served four years in the Marines, is now a plutocrat who ran for Senate with artless griping about how childless cat ladies are going to destroy American civilization. It was a pick that probably seemed safe, even funny, when the Biden campaign was fading, especially if Trump thought he had found someone next to whom he could appear mature and tough.”

“Now consider the men on Kamala Harris’s shortlist, including Governors Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania, Andy Beshear of Kentucky, and Roy Cooper of North Carolina, and Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona. All of them are men of substance who have achieved political success as Democrats in states with heavy GOP representation. They have made reputations as guys who do their job and don’t whine about it. You may take issue with some of their politics—I do—but these are serious people, unlike the performative clowns who abased themselves for a man whose values they once claimed to reject.”