Every now and again, the left says exactly what they truly think. This past week, a cadre of left-wing commentators took a break from lecturing the rest of the nation about civility — "Wear a mask! Check your privilege! Bake the cake, bigot!" — to review my new book, "Manhood: The Masculine Virtues America Needs."
News flash: they did not like it. And in saying why, they revealed their profound contempt for normal, everyday Americans.
The book’s message is straightforward. It’s all about why we need good, strong men in this country, and what we can learn from the Bible about what a strong man looks like. But true to form, the left hated all of it, particularly the Bible part.
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One reviewer pronounced me "an especially dreary type of fervent Christian" for suggesting the Bible had some relevance for today. Another complained all the talk about masculinity had a "MAGA-vibe." "Demagoguery," said a third.
These are the same people, of course, who say that all manhood is toxic, that to speak of "healthy masculinity" is akin to talking about "healthy cancer." You know the type. They run our universities and increasingly vie to indoctrinate your children in schools. They say if you show up to your kids’ school board meetings, you are a "domestic terrorist" who needs to be paid a visit by the FBI.
Their ideological crusade against masculinity, faith and the family has done real damage. Thousands of American men today are aimless, adrift and struggling, cut off from the good jobs that allowed their fathers and grandfathers to build and support families. They’re not getting married or having kids. They’re withdrawing from school and the labor force.
Meanwhile, the working men who do hold down a job, put in their time, and provide for their kids are lampooned in liberal pop culture as idiots and Neanderthals. They’re the ones Target and Budweiser think need to be taught to be tolerant and "inclusive."
From the commanding heights of culture, the left relentlessly shouts to men that they’re the real problem with America, that the nation would be better off if men stepped back rather than stepped up. Is it any wonder so many have sunk into isolation and addictions?
Of course, the left can’t admit they’re wrong about any of this, or that their crusade has made men worse off. And they positively detest anyone who dares point it out.
But in the great middle of America, to talk about the need for strong men is to acknowledge the obvious. Every honest man wants to provide for his family. Women want to raise strong sons. Everyday Americans know we need to protect our marriages and our homes and our nation.
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But for the left, mentioning any of this makes you a knuckle-dragging idiot. If you’re a man, you’re supposed to shut up, watch your job go overseas and do as you’re told. Or as New York Times columnist David French — the high-and-mighty, holier-than-thou, one-time wannabe presidential candidate — claims, real men just go with the cultural flow. You know, accept things as they are. Don’t bother trying to lead. Obey your betters.
At bottom, the left wants America’s men drugged, apathetic and weak — or worse, confused about what "manhood" means in the first place. That’s because strong men, men who have mastered themselves and their passions, are nobody’s pawns. They can’t be pushed around by bureaucrats and administrators. They challenge the status quo. That’s why the left wants to make them grovel.
Red-blooded, blue-collar American men deserve better. They deserve the truth. So here it is: Hold your heads up high, as warriors and builders and husbands and fathers made in God’s image. Stop kowtowing to left-wing pieties. Never feel embarrassed to lead.
The left will rage over this. Plenty of them already are doing just that. But that’s because they’re afraid—afraid of what America’s men could build and do and become if they weren’t held back by hostile policies and propaganda. They’re afraid of the world that could be, a world where strong men step up and left-wing lies evaporate like smoke.
America’s men are poised to transform this nation for the better — if we let them.
