The Democrats, at this late hour, are still working to find a message that works with reluctant male voters, particularly younger ones and minorities.
Michelle Obama apparently thinks she’s found it: She’s going to tell them that Donald Trump presents some sort of amorphous, unsaid threat to women’s lives, and those “lives are worth more than [your] anger and disappointment.”
You may perhaps see why the Democrats are having trouble getting traction with this message.
Apparently unsatisfied to just send her husband out to lecture “the brothers” earlier this month, the Democrats sent Michelle once more into the breach, this time in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where she was introducing Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday.
“So fellows, before you cast your votes ask yourselves what side of history do you want to be on?” she asked the crowd.
“Now I recognize that there are a lot of angry, disillusioned people out there upset with the slow pace of change. And I get it. It is reasonable to be frustrated,” she continued.
“We all know we have a lot more work to do in this country. But to anyone out there thinking about sitting out this election or voting for Donald Trump or a third-party candidate in protest because you’re fed up, let me warn you your rage does not exist in a vacuum.”
Ah, males “rage,” the same way that conservatives “pounce!”
“If we don’t get this election right, your wife, your daughter, your mother — we as women will become collateral damage to your rage,” she continued. “So are you men prepared to look into the eyes of the women and children you love and tell them that you supported this assault on our safety?”
Are the Democrats out-of-touch?
“And to the women listening, we have every right to demand that the men in our lives do better by us,” she added. “We have to use our voices to make these choices clear to the men that we love: Our lives are worth more than their anger and disappointment.”
“To the women listening: We have every right to demand the men in our lives do better by us. We have to use our voices to make these choices clear to the men that we love. Our lives are worth more than their anger and disappointment” —Michelle Obama pic.twitter.com/vxHvwGPwHe
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) October 26, 2024
There are more than a few problems with this, as you might imagine.
First, aside from the idea that Donald Trump would somehow lead to more women dying during childbirth — Michelle Obama made the case during a febrile rant before these remarks about how any sort of restriction on killing babies in the womb, not terribly successful at the ballot box in individual states, led to women dying, a statement that both hasn’t been borne out by the facts since Roe v. Wade was overturned and hasn’t gotten much traction already among voters — there was no solid evidence given by the former first lady that Trump would endanger women’s lives.
In fact, her point seemed to be better stated by reducing it to, “We have to use our voices to make these choices clear to the men that we love: Our anger and disappointment are worth more than their anger and disappointment, Y-chromosome-havers.”
This isn’t exactly the closing argument you want to make when your candidate is at grave risk of losing and her lack of support among men, in particular, could be responsible for that loss. No man who listened to Saturday’s speech could take seriously the point, as outlined by Obama, that their vote would kill women.
Contrary to popular opinion, most people are able to sniff out hyperbole from politicians — and whether they’re delivering it with a wink or because they’re desperate. This was obviously hyperbole, and obviously coming from a desperate place.
Second, if people are disappointed and angry, the Democrats should at least be able to make electoral hay with that. Remember, Kamala Harris was given ample time and resources to differentiate herself from President Joe Biden and his administration. She has failed to do so.
Irrespective of whether or not you buy her idea that Republican presidents cost female lives, what Michelle Obama is saying is that “there are a lot of angry, disillusioned people out there upset with the slow pace of change” — which is to say that she gets it. Her response is telling: Yeah, sure, things haven’t changed, but if you vote Republican you’ll kill women, so your despair isn’t worth it.
Imagine if, in three months, the vice president had put together something worth saying to male voters. Instead, she doubled down on the fact that she’s basically a younger version of Joe Biden who knows where they are most of the time. The policies are the same, but the woman delivering them would no longer be senescent.
When that didn’t work, she decided she needed someone to lecture men. The former first couple has fit the bill, as witnessed by Barack Obama’s hectoring of “the brothers” to give Harris the minority votes he apparently thinks any Democrat candidate should be able to rely upon. Apparently that wasn’t enough, so we brought Michelle out there to tell men that they’re unimportant because, without their vote, women will literally die.
With a media at their backs and a huge monetary campaign advantage, the Democrats had every opportunity to pitch to male voters before the 11th hour. It’s telling that, in one of the states Harris needs to win to have any chance at the presidency, Michelle Obama delivered a message that resonated with male voters across the United States, and not in a positive way.
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