MAGA sold us masculinity. So why are they scared of everyone?

Like any patriotic red-blooded American male, I spend a lot of time watching football. I will spend Saturdays overreacting to Ohio State losses or non-blowout wins and spend Sundays on the emotional roller coaster called the New York Giants. I also have NFL Sunday Ticket and all those streaming services so I can see plenty of other games as well. It means every two years, I get bombarded with political campaigns. Sometimes, I hit the mute button or flip to another game. And sometimes, I watch them and wonder the exact same thought every time.

Are MAGA men scared of everyone? And by everyone, I mean everyone who is even slightly different than they are. Let’s start with the two most obvious ones. Transgender Americans and Muslim Americans. Republicans are selling Americans that the cause of their problems isn’t the Iran war, tariffs or corporate greed. Nope, they have poured in over $180 million to warn you about transgender people trying to have a normal life in this country.

I often wonder how MAGA men run into so many transgender people that they are scared to death of them. I am a California liberal who was born and raised in New Jersey and went to Harvard. I think I have met only three transgender people in my life. None of those people turned me into a transgender person. They just turned me into a friend.

The same hysteria has been leveled at Muslim-Americans. Vote Democrat and you will find yourself living under Sharia law. I mean, it didn’t happen when they said it would happen under President Barack Obama’s eight-year administration. It hasn’t happened yet in New York City despite the warnings about Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Living in Anaheim, Calif., I can go to the part of town called Little Arabia. No jihadists but plenty of great places to eat.

And yet MAGA commercials insist that this time, if we elect this candidate (Abdul El-Sayed for U.S. Senate in Michigan), the dam holding back Islamists will break and this country will be overrun. In the 25 years since 9/11, we have been inundated with anti-Muslim rhetoric which works against efforts to identify and prevent Islamic extremism. If you treat everyone like a criminal, it will be harder to find the actual criminals.

In 2024, a lot of young men voted for Donald Trump. There are plenty of reasons for this, but masculinity was one of them. The overall feeling is that it is hard to be a man in America. Before you break out the small violins, know that it might not be that bad, but it is definitely not that good. The suicide rate of men is high and highest among white men . Getting married and having kids is more of a challenge. Buying a home is harder. And more young women than men are getting college degrees which means they might make more money.

Now, is this the fault of feminists, wokeism, communists, and Democrats? Not quite, but liberals really didn’t help. It seemed that every conversation on social media about toxic masculinity would devolve into people saying that all masculinity is toxic. Always choose the bear. People would rail about the patriarchy to guys who were just struggling to get through life. And who could forget how even corporations lectured us on being men. Remember that Gillette ad ? You would think that the Republicans would offer better solutions, right?

Instead, we had right-wing influencers, podcasters, and the so-called manosphere focused on the wrong things. How many times were we told to get mad over comic book characters, women (especially Black women) in movies or TV shows, women’s sports that we don’t watch, and a myriad of other trivial things. We were inundated with pick me girls, Only Fans creators, superficial dating apps, and bros selling us on focusing on trivial things. Comparing yourself to other men based on the coffee you drink or the type of meat you eat.

But in that noise there was attention. And Republicans jumped on it and said they understood what men were dealing with. Now, we know that a lot of men turned to the Republicans because it appealed more to their beliefs on manhood. But in this runup to the midterms, I have to ask. Is falling for fear-mongering part of being a man? Actively seeking out people who are different from you and finding commonalities with them ensures peace and stability. And that is what this country needs.

And the polling shows that’s what young men want too . We need men in this country to learn to adapt not just financially, but socially to changes so that they can thrive. Teaching them to live in fear only puts them behind the eight ball and ensures they will be left behind. Franklin Roosevelt famously said, “the only thing to fear is fear itself.” MAGA Republicans are telling men to fear everyone. Which mindset is manlier?

Joslin Joseph is a recipient of the 2025 Military Reporters and Editors award for Best Commentary / Opinion. A graduate of Harvard and Ohio State, he is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq. He currently lives in Anaheim, Calif.