It was like Pinocchio insisting, “I’m a real boy.” That’s how Tim Walz sounded in his recent podcast interview with Gavin Newsom, claiming he’s a real tough guy. “I think some of us scare them,” Walz boasted regarding why the majority of young men are voting Republican. “I think I scare them a little bit. That’s why they spend so much time on me.”

Newsom responded in laughter, seemingly imagining the ridiculous notion of Walz as a figure of masculinity. But the clueless Walz only doubled down, huffing, “No, I’m serious! Because I can fix a truck, they know I’m not bulls**tting on this.”

Walz then added, “I’m not putting this in people’s grill. My identity is not hunting. My identity is not football coaching. My identity is not, you know, a beard and a truck.”

This is reminiscent of the laughably ridiculous campaign commercial that Harris/Walz ran to appeal to men. It was so bad that one wondered if it wasn’t a parody product from The Babylon Bee.

With takes like this, is it any wonder that the party that can’t define “woman” is having trouble identifying masculinity?

The party that plays identity politics as its bread and butter finds itself in the conundrum of trying to appeal to men, after years of demonizing men, and particularly white men, as society’s biggest problem.

They label men simply acting as men as “toxic masculinity.” The fact that men are naturally different from women and don’t engage in the same social dynamics as women was seen not simply as legitimate expressions of gender but as a problem that needed to be expunged from society. The leftists labeled this as the “patriarchy” because men, by nature, dominated positions of leadership throughout society.

Young men have had the message that they are the problem shoved in their faces for their whole lives, and when someone like Donald Trump comes along, saying what he thinks and hitting back at the bad-faith attacks intended to smear him, they don’t see weakness, but strength. They are naturally attracted to this unapologetic embrace of masculinity.

Democrats like Newsom and Walz are trying to appeal to men, whom they have participated in demonizing for years, and are finding it difficult precisely because they are coming off as phony and shallow in their dubious attempts to relate.

Their laughable appeals reveal that they actually believe the ridiculous “toxic masculinity” identity caricature they have painted men with is real. Fixing trucks, having a beard, and hunting are not what constitute masculinity any more than lipstick, high heels, and romcoms constitute femininity.

It’s those deeper, actually masculine traits that are a threat to the Democrats’ radical leftist, feminist worshiping political platform. Self-sufficiency, self-control, strength, a rejection of the victimization narrative that has sissified our culture, and an embrace of personal responsibility so as not to become a burden to others, and in so doing, developing the ability to help others, are all identifiable masculine traits. Leadership, competence, and a protective instinct are all part of masculinity.

This is one of the main reasons that military service is dominated by men, and should always be so.

Democrats have long sold their political brand as “Ask what the government can do for you.” That is indeed ironic, given that Democrat icon John F. Kennedy espoused the exact opposite message: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

The Democrats’ appeal to men is failing because they have rejected the very masculinity that makes men men.