In an in-depth conversation on the MeidasTouch Network, Congressman Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) joined Ben Meiselas to discuss the evolving political landscape, particularly the shifting views of young men away from the Democratic Party. Meiselas kicked off the interview by revisiting a previous discussion they had, highlighting the growing trend of Gen Z men gravitating towards MAGA and the impact of right-leaning content on platforms like podcasts and Twitch. Both noted the need for Democrats to examine their outreach efforts and find ways to resonate with young men without compromising core values like equality and rights.
Auchincloss acknowledged the issue, pointing to polling data that revealed an alarming trend: Democrats were polling better with 85-year-old men than with 18-year-olds—a trend he described as unsustainable for the party’s future. While young men’s disengagement is concerning, Auchincloss emphasized that economic challenges like inflation had significantly eroded Democratic support across nearly every demographic. Inflation, compounded by COVID disruptions and global issues like the invasion of Ukraine, has led to widespread frustration among voters. Auchincloss argued that it’s essential for Democrats to both explain these root causes and clearly communicate their plans to address the rising cost of living, such as building more affordable housing and investing in clean energy.
The conversation shifted to the role of social media, with Auchincloss stressing the negative influence of online environments on young men’s attitudes and behaviors. He highlighted his legislative efforts to hold social media companies accountable, such as raising the age limit for social media and establishing standards to reduce harmful content. For him, the goal is to create a media landscape that fosters positive engagement rather than driving young men toward isolation or extremist ideologies.
Both Meiselas and Auchincloss discussed the “alpha” narrative prevalent in right-wing media, which often frames masculinity in a way that punches down at marginalized communities. Auchincloss shared personal stories of his mother’s achievements in the medical field and the supportive role his father played, underscoring that masculinity can be defined by respect and mutual support rather than dominance. He also advocated for Democrats to reach out to young men by highlighting real-life leaders who embody authentic strength and resilience, like veterans and community builders.
Finally, Auchincloss outlined his broader vision for a future Democratic agenda, focusing on ambitious, long-term projects like building new housing, increasing domestic manufacturing, and fostering a sense of pride and purpose among young men. He emphasized the need for Democrats to adopt a continuous campaign mindset—engaging with voters across all media channels and avoiding the last-minute scramble before elections. Meiselas echoed this sentiment, urging for consistent engagement to build a strong foundation of support over time.
Watch the full interview ad-free above, exclusively here on Meidas+. Thank you for your continued support of the MeidasTouch Network. If you appreciate our reporting and are ready to continue in this fight, please consider becoming a paid subscriber today to keep us going.
I will say this. When the Biden - Harris Administration signed the Chips and Science act that built manufacturing jobs there was no coverage. I am a copywriter and I kept thinking why did the Democrats never go to these states and talk to the people who got these new jobs and put that out on social media ? So Americans could see in real time the help the administration was providing for every day Americans. They could have filmed the building of the manufacturing site, filmed employees getting a good paying job told their story instead of just saying, "but, look at what we did for the American people." They could have used so many social media platforms to do that. The younger generation is all about the visual landscape and the Democrats missed that opportunity.
The only person who has been doing this consistently throughout his tenure as Secretary of Transportation is Pete Buttigieg. He has revolutionized getting the message out whether it be going out to every major transportation related and government funded project and making sure his visit is filmed and available to the media. He has written the playbook for how to get the word out to the public on what their government is doing for them.
That is correct Mary. However the coverage of Pete Buttigeig was maybe a few seconds of coverage on legacy media. If Pete Buttigeig would have platformed his visits on a consistent thread that would have been the way to go. I think he was really good at taking on Fox where he had more air time to push back. Love him !!
Pete was brilliant on Jubilee 25, debating 25 undecided voters with clarity, empathy, and precision. The pace was intense, but he connected with their concerns effectively. We need to engage more on platforms like this to reach not only undecided voters but all voters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE1f3n_n9UA
Hi Pattie, I will definitely watch the video tomorrow. I missed that.
Hi Pattie, just watched this Jubilee with Pete. This made my point exactly when Pete was talking to the older gentleman about manufacturing saying he didn't see it. The Democrats missed that by miles for not getting that all over social media. I also feel that there was a good chance some or most of the younger voters sat this one out. They had zero passion about any of it.
Excellent point! Democrats should be shouting these achievements from the rooftops! You're so right, it was a missed opportunity to control the narrative.
Absolutely Pattie, the democrats allowed trump to control the narrative. They pushed back but not hard enough to make a difference.
Hopefully Gen Z females tell Gen Z males to keep walking.
Oh they're looking at what Korean women are doing already.
Screw young men. It is obvious that they have NO RESPECT for women.
While canvassing for Harris/Walz in a college housing area we rain into too many young male trump supporters. A few said; “my parents are republicans so I am, too”. Also, “my dad’s in law enforcement”, which to me was the more troubling.
Yes, I personally know a lot of law enforcement people from my years as a reporter, and I just cannot understand how anyone in law enforcement could vote for a criminally convicted felon. The only reasoning I can come up with, is from Trumps own quote: "I love the poorly educated", so guess that had something to do with who came out and showed the felon some love.
Yeah let's not have Governmen Class!!
I have all my adult kids back at our house. I'm supporting 3 out four of them- -High cost of living. FORGET NEW HOUSES! We need APARTMENTS that are socially nice, attainable and safe for gen X and younger generation
We Need Governmwnt Housing!
So here’s the thing…..what I’ve learned is this…men of all ages and even WOMEN and both of all races RAN to Donald! Why?
Because he is the BEST LIAR EVER! HE TOLD THESE PEOPLE EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANTED TO HEAR…OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN….EVEN THOUGH IT WAS ALL LIES FROM HIM!
Have you seen his newest TRUMP 2024 AD?? I took a nausea med and then watched it because I wanted to see what they are promising Americans…OMG!! The crap being fed directly by IV into ANY MAN WILLING TO WATCH AND BELIEVE THE CRAP IS STUPENDOUS!!
It’s a sick attack on anyone not white and male…yeah they actually say “MEN ARE SAVING AMERICA”…”MEN ARE TAKING BACK THE COUNTRY” …there are NO women included in their visuals …there’s a young woman hanging onto a young man at the end…
They tell the viewer there are storms (coming), there are clashes of good and evil (no surprise who the evil ones are)….this man has BUILT A DAMN CULT AND EXPANDED IT TO INCLUDE WOMEN AND PEOPLE OF OTHER RACES ….maybe Hispanics and other races here are covering their own butts thinking if they vote for him he won’t attack them….sigh…
Men were and are eating that crap up…why…because HE’S TELLING THEM WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR AND ONLY THAT….no real policy, no real specifics, no anything EXCEPT WHAT THEY WANT
TO HEAR….how do we fight THAT??!!
We can’t!
All we can do now is sit back and see IF HE KEEPS ANY IF HIS CRAP PROMISES….WILL THEY FIGURE HIM OUT IF HE DOESN’T?
Nope, he’ll just blame someone else…preferably demon Democrats….and they will accept his EXCUSES…WHY? BECAUSE HE IS THE LEADER OF A HUGE CULT!!
WTF do we normal human beings do with that???
“We Have Met the Enemy and He Is Us”
Walt Kelly’s funny animal comic strip Pogo provided a surprising, but effective, setting for his incisive political satire.
During the War of 1812, the United States Navy defeated the British Navy in the Battle of Lake Erie. Master Commandant Oliver Perry wrote to Major General William Henry Harrison, “We have met the enemy and they are ours.” Kelly’s parody of this famous battle report perfectly summarizes mankind’s tendency to create our own problems. In this case, we have only ourselves to blame for the pollution and destruction of our environment.
Today I'd amend this to "They are Us" meaning the first and most important thing normal human being do is to stop practicing me or you/us or them thinking.
We now live in a you AND me world and it is up to each one of us to create this for ourselves, to view and act in the world from there. Only the individual can create a context for themselves. That's what normal human beings can do that no organization or institution can do.
Context is decisive.
Here in the UK, the local Liberal Democrats distribute a monthly newsletter in many areas, whereas the Conservatives & Labour (apart from sitting MPs) are seldom seen except in the six weeks or so leading up to an election. Is such a thing feasible in the US?
whistling past the graveyard.......the future isn't going to be elections....it can only be resistance. There is no communicating values to people, who voted for the South African oligarchs....brought in by the Trojan Horse's Ass DJT....these so called young men GenZ knew exactly what they voted for, a rapist, racist, convicted felon, who told them he didn't need their votes.
More evidence that wealth inequality and social media definitely need more attention. Many Trump voters aren’t on board with MAGA but they remember eggs being cheaper with trump. Incumbent governments, too, worldwide are taking a hit, which didn’t help Harris.
IMHO democrats need to speak plainly and tell the truth about inflation and low wages. Corporations and tax codes reward the wealthy. We allow ourselves to be parceled up so the 1% can watch us argue with one another completely missing the game being played on us.
We need to teach everyone about government and economics and how they work because the low educated populace are quite ignorant and stupid about it!!!!!
Well, I think I accidently erased my first comment. High-school students are extremely intelligent, they have empathy, at least in my district. But the maggot right is undermining the School Boards. That is one maggots strategy, start with local government and work up. The local School Boards are under attack. Teachers n red states are quitting! Even in Calif there is a call out for teachers in rural areas.
My children had one semester Sr. year of just studying the constitution . and 1 semester studying econ. They know it. But what about other school districts? Do they teach about birth control in health? Are teachers told to skip that last unit on climate change in their biology book? do they skip over some black history moment in the highlighted margin? Education curriculum standards and style of teaching change every few years, and it can be good or it can be the whim on a new voted in school board or parent lead organization in charge of ordering the new textbooks. What is your local schoolboard doing? Have you sat in a local school board meeting? We're you there to state your opinion or just the crazies were there to push their agenda? I see in my high-school, students still read To Kill a Mockingbird, The Invisible Man, and added is Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, and why Does the Caged Bird Sing? All stories to show empathy and racial awareness. These students are the most non discrimitory generation I know! why? because they learned it in school, starting at an early age. But red states want to change that. proj 2025 wants to get rid of the national school board. They must fear like in Gallaxy quest, the school board person became president after all other above her were killed. If you are upset at young people be involved in what they learn, go to local meetings be a barometer for sanity. The first thing I learned in voting, you have to constantly defend for something , like enviornmental protections, but you only have to vote once to give it away.
I agree with you on those points. If democracy has a weak foundation, it's going to collapse. Too much is happening at local school boards that's destroying education and our freedoms.
I have been in education for a long time and have seen good changes and then poor choices when conservatives become involved because they work tthrough fear.
I guess it's time to form our own "Underground " to continually fight for our democracy.
Nah. Just issue straight razors to young women and train them on their effective use.
I know the lack of focus oñ Palestine and Gaza many thousands citizens deaths and the lack of empathy but solid support for Israel definitely had a negative impact on the democratic vote. Even if Trump's lies on this this subject there were many young people impacted by this situation.
so they voted for the guy in league with Bibi's slaughter who hates Muslims..got it
They lack an understanding of history and diplomatic relationships
It's the politics of anger.
I agree with all of this. Can't MTN be a foundation level for a powerful new multimedia, multi-channel network of content providers to counter the massive right wing disinformation network. Thing is we need to locate somewhere in the range of half $1 billion of capitalization and we need an executive committee. I think one of Meidas brothers should be on it but I could easily name a diverse committee. All of them are highly skilled in this area.
Too late now!
I think you should acknowledge that the Biden administration, without the help of Republicans, HAS been working hard to bring manufacturing and jobs and new infrastructure into many areas of the country, including in many “red” states! And often, Republican politicians then take credit for the improvements in their states, and conveniently don’t mention that they voted against it. I DO like your idea for the future to document these Democratic improvements with photos and videos on more platforms that some people use now to get their “news”.
Some of the big newspapers have given Trump more, and sanitized, coverage than Biden/Harris. I remember early in his presidency, Biden gave a major economic speech. The next day I wanted to read about it. I found the coverage on page 19! 😡
Did you know that the president's newslady does a report Each Week? No? because the only station who broadcasts it is pbs. Support public news stations, because it's on rump hit list!
Yes Biden did a lot to help the economy after Trump screwed it up. Now Trump will take credit for the good economy we have now and say he did it. Just like after Obama had a good economy that carried through to 2017 and 18 and dumb ass people says the economy was great under Trump. Then the pandemic came and it went bad. Biden came in in 2021 and slowly but steady the economy was improving. Low unemployment low gas prices and inflation down to 2 percent. But people had no patience. Americans are spoiled people.
YES - he needs to magnify this movement and these ideas rapidly - in every rural city and high school and community college across the country - as fast a possible!
One reason that real servicemen like Congressman Auchincloss and Governor Walz don’t breakthrough to MAGA men is that less than 1% of the population is military - but if if you talk to MAGA they are all veterans -
We know what has to be done with reaching voters whom to this day, are still going down rabbit holes and that is for the people whom are running for congress, senate, or the presidency must be politically and personally engaging the American public and the digital forms of communication have to expand.
What I’ve been asking is before the madness begins and Biden is still Emperor, according to SCOTUS, what can we do now, before J6, that would be helpful so that they know that we, as American citizens, didn’t sign up for these atrocities. Dismantling our institutions, legal challenges , are all fine and dandy but I don’t think anyone here want RFK Jr. in charge of our healthcare and their children’s healthcare and gutting all these other federal agencies which have senior citizens alarmed…question is, what can be done now because when these inbred imbeciles start implementing these things, even if legal challenges are brought, the damage is done. What can we, as Americans, do now? I don’t want to sit around and wait for the carnage.
Come on, we know it's about "a woman", especially a "black woman". As for the woman trumpers, woman have to side with their men...sorry woman, it true.
I soundly reject we have to spoon feed Gen Z men. Many are extremely pampered and selfish. They don’t pay attention to anything but gaming and what’s in it for me.
Those uneducated jobs require union protection in order to not remain the working poor.
Someone should come up with a video game about resistance to the oligarchy. That might get young men's attention.
Fabulous idea!!!! But instead of violent explosions you get money or increased penis size as a reward. There has to be a reward.
I agree, Democrats don’t tout what they have actually done for America enough. Instead, they let Republicans take credit for it. Democrats need to start now and continue to be heard about all the ways they have worked to better America for every day working people. They also need to make it known when Republicans tear down or reverse these accomplishments! Start now and keep it up! Dem candidates also need to be more like Tim Walz in that he at least appears to be a down to earth every day working guy who hunts, fishes, coaches, and even owns guns. And he’s a decent guy!
They've been gobbling up the media and controlling the narrative. The other problem is the people who listen are addicted to the angertainment. We need to play to that primal fix they need but in a way that gives them the truth and reality of Earth 1 to quote Nicole Wallace.
I'd love to see someone like Dave Bautista or someone really well known to younger men to reach out more.
I also feel that so many people vote for the same Rs but never follow up on what they are or aren't doing. We need a ground game in each district. One to hear their concerns and listen to target the media aspect but also gives them progress cards and bring to their attention what their state reps/senators and their representation in DC are voting for or against each quarter. Also encouraging them to write their representatives about their concerns and have them notice if they get a response from them and any action taken. With so many gerrymandered districts these reps are never held accountable.
Democrats can't sell $10 for $5.
I didn't read anything in the post that would actually reach young men. Of course there is a need to do something, but much better ideas are needed.
I agree and am an avid follower of the channel but I have a pressing question. How and who will helps when they beat down our doors? I'm all for resistance, it's in my nature, but who do we call? Will you help us with legal assistance or are we on our own as usual? Serious question, I'm scared because I got already assaulted and the only thing that saved my was my previous dog.
The first victims of patriarchy are men.
Great post today,Ben, and young male voters is just a Start of Moving Forward. Thanks and will reStack ASAP 💯👍