Let me tell you the tale of two beards. (Yes, beard, as in male facial hair.)
Both cases say a lot about what’s wrong with the Democratic Party and its struggles to hold on to men – particularly young men.
It started last summer when then-candidate Donald Trump chose Ohio Sen. JD Vance for vice president. It seemed that all some people wanted to talk about … was Vance’s beard.
Democrats and their mouthpieces in the media did not appreciate Vance's renegade move to sport whiskers while serving in the political realm. Take this July 2024 Politico Magazine treatise, “Yes, JD Vance’s beard matters. Here’s why.”
The author talks about how for decades beards were seen as “unprofessional and unhygienic,” before pivoting to how “more recent research has shown that voters perceive facial hair as deeply masculine, which can come with both positive connotations (like competence) and negative ones (like aggression and less support of feminist issues).”
