The gender gap in young voters widens as the election looms (it’s still good news for Harris)

The good news is that both young men and young women prefer Harris to Trump. The sad news is that the gap between the rates of each gender’s support for the Democratic candidate has widened since Harris assumed the role. Let me explain.In March, Harvard conducted a youth poll. In it women preferred Biden to Trump by 11%. Men preferred Biden by 2%. The gender preference gap was therefore 9%.In October, Harvard surveyed young voters again. Now women prefer Harris to Trump by 30%. Men prefer Harris by 10%. The gap is now therefore 20%. An increase of 11 percentage points.The top line is great news for Harris and the Democrats — their support is increasing overall in the demographic. The better news is that the young men most likely to support Trump are the least likely to vote.But I find it depressing that the gender gap is increasing. And that gap exists across all age groups.In the latest USA Today/Suffolk University national poll, women in total back Harris by 17% (53% to 36%). Men support Trump by 16% (53% to 37%). This disparity in support (33%) is the largest since a gender gap first emerged in 1980.The media is quick to talk up divides in the electorate as enmity is better for business than amity. But whatever the result after the vote is counted, the conservative vs. liberal vote will be far closer than the female vs. male vote. Which raises the question why. And the answer to that reveals some bitter news.Essentially, despite some small perceived shift among minority male voters, the election will elementally be white men vs. everyone else. Note: before someone points out they are a white man voting for Harris, I feel you. I know there are many exceptions. I also am a white man voting for Harris.The silver lining to the gender gap is that women are no longer voting as the men in their lives tell them to. But why aren’t the men listening to the women in their lives?The obvious answer is that men place far more stock in what’s important to them than they do what’s important to their female partners and family members.A statistician and a cynic will rejoin that you could equally well say that the gender gap is a product of women not listening to what’s important to their male partners and family members.But that position is silly when you consider the facts. Women are voting to protect their civil rights, including reproductive rights. Women also have greater empathy and are more supportive of other oppressed and marginalized groups. And support their rights.What are the Trump men voting for? Certainly not their rights. No one is challenging those. If they do think they are somehow ‘victims’ (much as conservative Christians laughably do) they are deluded. They are gullible saps who have eagerly consumed the expedient propaganda of wannabe fascists. A pattern familiar to students of 20th-century authoritarianism.Conservative men’s other delusion is that Trumpism is better for them economically. This position is especially stupid for union workers. How they cannot see that the conservative promotion of union-busting ‘right-to-work’ laws, and anti-regulatory zeal, drives down wages and benefits while it also worsens workplace safety, is beyond me.All workers should consider that the economy has always done better on average under Democratic administrations. The investor class should also note that stock markets perform worse on average under Republican administrations.That leaves social issues and bigotry — but I repeat myself. How transgender youth became a reason to vote for a party that doesn’t give a shit about people is baffling. Schools changing students' gender behind their parents’ backs is so rare no one has ever produced an example. And we are still waiting for a Haitian pet eater to be apprehended.Immigrant crime wave? Where? Immigrants taking American jobs? Give me an example. And also explain why there are so many jobs available when immigrants have taken them all. Post-birth abortion? Please explain to me what that is. Murdering a person, including a newborn, is a felony in every state.There’s more. Readers who care to can give examples in the comments. But in short, many men have decided that a vote for fantasies promulgated by a proven liar is a better electoral decision than voting to support the rights of the women in their lives.How a father of a daughter marches into a polling station and elects to strip his child of her rights is incomprehensible to any parent who loves their children.