Our Performative Male Epidemic
From the desk of Bibek, Senior Digital Strategist
There’s a sickness going around the White House, and the main symptom is a desperate need to look like the toughest guy in the room.
This week, the president, 80, turned up with a suddenly darker head of hair, launching a national guessing game about dye and wigs, because nothing says strength like waging war on your own hairline.
His war secretary, Pete Hegseth, has rebranded the Pentagon around testosterone, ordering “low-T” screenings for troops and calling it the “High-T Department of War.”
And then there’s health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the king of shirtless pushups, with no solutions for contaminated groceries constantly getting recalled under his watch.
As Judith Butler said, gender is inherently performative. And this need to perform the role of “tough guy” is how a country talks itself into a war of choice in Iran, while millions can’t afford groceries or pay their medical bills.
Real strength is quieter. It’s the unglamorous work nobody live-streams, showing up to places no one’s paying attention to, listening to underserved communities. It’s the kind of work our learners do every day. As opposed to the crowd running the country right now, which is narrower and more insecure than the country it governs. Exhibit A: women alone hold just 28% of Congress, in a nation where they’re more than half the population. The fix is more real people stepping up, whoever they are.
So if you’re sick of being overly governed by unrelatable men auditioning for a podcast, stop watching and run. Start with our course catalog.
💻UPCOMING LIVE TRAININGS
Maximize Your Field Strategy Through Precinct Prioritization
09.14
10 am PT
Running an Effective Canvass Operation
09.16
10 am PT
Explore upcoming events + trainings coming up this month.
NDTC Learner Spotlight
NDTC learner Alisa Simmons is the Democratic nominee for Tarrant County Judge in Texas. A county commissioner and former decade-long leader of the Arlington NAACP, she jumped into the top race after incumbent Tim O’Hare and his Republican colleagues redrew her commissioner seat to hand it to a Republican. Tarrant is the largest GOP-held county in Texas and a top flip target, so a win here echoes well beyond the county line.
SUBSTACK
Meet the NDTC-Trained Candidates Who Already Won in 2026
Election season is here. Some of our own people are already on the winning side of it.
ICYMI
Cada votante, en su idioma
A Spanish-language Q&A for Hispanic Heritage Month on how campaigns and local parties can reach Spanish-speaking voters, from messaging to beating voter-suppression tactics. Know someone who’d want in? Pass it along.
PARTNER ACTION
No Thrones, No Crowns, No Kings
No Kings wants you to make your plan and vote early this year.
THIS WEEK’S WINS
While the news may seem bleak, here’s what we can win when we organize and show up
The Cook Political Report moved the Texas and Iowa Senate races from lean-Republican to toss-up, putting two seats in play in states Trump carried by more than 13 points in 2024. Forecasts like this move when strong candidates show up and voters get organized. The win won’t fall in our lap, so we keep showing up and doing the work.
The Supreme Court of the US blocked a new Republican-drawn map for November. Also, earlier in the week, Maryland Supreme Court cleared a Democratic redistricting measure for the ballot. Fights like these, both of which started at the state level, depend heavily on grassroots voters, who decide who sits on state benches.
Brandon Dukes became the first Democrat in nearly 30 years to win Butler County’s 12th District, a seat Trump carried by 18 points, by running on local issues and knocking doors. Districts like this stay red until someone bothers to compete for them. Show up everywhere, and you win in places the map says you can’t.
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