According to polling and rumors, Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign is in trouble. She is underperforming in every demographic, including minorities who should be her base, but most particularly, she is losing men in droves. Some polling suggests Harris is earning perhaps only half of the African American support that President Barack Obama received with black men who are leading the exodus. So, the Harris/Walz campaign decided to target men.

Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate to bring some kind of Midwest machismo to the ticket. He was a career soldier, but he misrepresented his military service. He was an assistant football coach, but he mandated feminine hygiene products be placed in all boys’ bathrooms. When he returned to the high school where he coached, he encountered a very mixed reception.

Whatever masculinity Walz was trying to exude was overshadowed by his awkward faux folksy manner and uber progressive policies like abortion up until delivery. With the masculinity message faltering, the campaign sent Walz on a pheasant hunting trip, but he sadly looked more like Elmer Fudd when he had trouble loading his own shotgun.

The Democrat Media Complex hailed Harris’s husband, Doug Emhoff, as the embodiment of feminist approved masculinity because he was man enough to support his wife’s career. Then we learned sending his wife to work only made it easier to get the nanny in his previous marriage pregnant, and then pay her hush money to have an abortion. With other unflattering stories brewing, Emhoff’s masculinity indeed appears toxic.

With Walz and Emhoff striking out, the campaign put a TV ad on deck showing various men boasting they “aren’t afraid of bears and eat carburetors for breakfast,” but they are man enough to braid their daughter’s hair, cry during chick flicks, and vote for Kamala Harris. But the ad was cringey and something was off. What was off was the Harris campaign could not find any real men to say those things, so the hired dubious actors to fulfill their fantasy.

CNN’s Scott Jennings astutely noted the Harris campaign keeps missing the mark, because they have never considered men just being men, but rather have been catering to men who want to be women. Actress Jennifer Garner even tried to seduce male voters by quipping that “nothing is sexier than a man voting for Kamala,” which was quite unattractive.

Press and pundits are apoplectic. Many Democrats led by James Carville swear Trump is a NAZI, but offer no evidence other than out of context nonsense. MSNBC’s Joy Reid screams we are suffering a “fascist groundswell,” particularly among racist white men, but they are dragging some black and brown men along with them. Since “White dudes for Kamala” crashed and burned, the Harris/Walz campaign called in Obama to drag black men back to the Democrat plantation.

At a campaign stop in Philadelphia, Obama scolded black men for not supporting Harris. As usual, talking about himself, Obama lamented the enthusiasm for Harris is nowhere near the enthusiasm he engendered when he ran, but he went on to surmise “the brothers” were not feeling a woman president. He accused black men of sexism for not supporting Harris and betraying their race for not supporting a black woman. The condescension was breathtaking.

The backlash to the most iconic black politician and most popular living Democrat was immediately fierce. Many black men were rightly offended and incensed. It’s raw racism to admonish anyone to vote solely on race. The sexism charge was stinging because the assumption is black men could not possibly have policy differences with Harris or have legitimate reasons for not supporting Harris, so they must be ignorant or stubborn. Do not question the Democrat machine. Do as your told and cast your vote for Harris. It backfired spectacularly.

Finally, Harris doubled down on the most racist stereotype by offering to legalize marijuana and that somehow with some cash bribes would woo back black men. Really?! Wow, Democrats think black men just want to get high, so legal dope will get the black male vote. Are black men different than other Americans who just want good jobs, relief from inflation, and crime curtailed to keep their families safe? Black men did not miss that gross slight and furiously rejected it.

This may bode well for Trump in the election, but it may be a breakthrough in identity politics which will greatly benefit the country. Black men certainly have unique experiences, but they are still Americans and share our destiny. They are responding with resentment for being taken for granted and dismissed with petty offerings. If black men rebuff Harris, it may elect Trump, but even bigger it will reshape the body politic and force both parties to campaign on policies not party and identity politics.

“Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners” (1 Corinthians 15:33).

Pete Riehm is a Navy Veteran, conservative activist, and columnist in south Alabama. Email him at peteriehm@bellsouth.net or read all his columns at http://www.renewamerica.com/.