American society must be more humane.

During the just-concluded elections, the yawning chasm between the candidate choices of men and women – particularly young Americans – received much-deserved attention.

Polls taken this fall showed a 53% gap between young men and young women, with men supporting former President Donald Trump and women flocking to Vice President Kamala Harris.

This is not a gender gap; It’s a canyon of sorts.

Over the decades, it has been customary to examine different political attitudes between the sexes from the perspective of female voters.

But this year, as young men found a home in Trump World, we found the focus was on the political attitudes and frustrations of young American men. Mainstream media are curiously studying what they see as a new phenomenon – when in reality it has been decades in the making.

The report sounded like a nature show studying exotic species in the rainforest.

Yet the young men did not hide in the tree canopy. They are among us and reacting to decades of derision, of feeling – rightly or wrongly – unwanted, unnecessary and harmful to the progress of society.

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One of the most important chroniclers of this serious problem is the writer and scholar Richard V. Reeves. Far from a conservative, Reeves worked for many years at the Brookings Institution, a respected center-left think tank, before launching the American Institute for Boys and Men.

Throughout the campaign, Reeves emphasized that, despite all the superficial accusations of “toxic masculinity” from callous progressives, men have not migrated to the right on the issues, continuing to be socially moderate towards liberals.

The problem is not their political attitude, but that of the political system towards them. They feel left behind.

“In the real world, the interests of men and women do not conflict, even if our culture warriors tell us otherwise,” Reeves writes. “It is difficult to create a society of fulfilled women if the men are in difficulty. »

Yet they flounder – and worse.

The statistics are sobering. Stagnant wages. A significant drop in male university enrollment. An epidemic of loneliness. And an increase in suicides.

We must open a new path to purpose for men, directing them toward what center-right academic and author Arthur Brooks calls “earned success.”

“Deserved success reassures us that what we do in life has importance and value, to ourselves and to those around us,” he writes. “To truly thrive, we must know that the way we spend our waking hours is not based on the simple pursuit of pleasure, money, or any other superficial goal. »

But that’s not how society treats boys.

From the early years, schools seek orderly and compliant behavior which is much easier for girls than for boys. The message too often sent to boys is that they are an irritant who must be dealt with, which is why they are diagnosed, treated and constantly disciplined.

Boys, who become young men, do not want to be ostracized. They long to be celebrated as people with purpose, value and skill – despite the ruckus and hustle.

As author John Eldredge points out in his seminal work “Wild At Heart,” on the male journey, boys want to know “they have what it takes.” They will spend their entire lives searching for the answer to this question – often with meandering, frustrating and destructive results.

There is nothing wrong with society intentionally encouraging men to aspire to a good, noble, and praiseworthy life. Aspiring to provide for your spouse and children is not selfish patriarchy; it is servant leadership filled with meaning and deep values.

Let’s help them find fulfilling work, whatever the salary attached to it. Let us pay tribute to the professions and to the men who get down and dirty doing jobs that provide for their families. Let’s stop coddling men on welfare and show that there is purpose and dignity in all work. And dissipation and despair reign in useless and idle isolation.

Eight decades ago, CS Lewis diagnosed the decline in society’s respect and demands for its men, calling these shadowy people “men without chests.”

“We create men without chests and expect virtue and enterprise from them. We mock honor and are shocked to find traitors among us. We castrate and ask the geldings to thrive.

Let’s make 2025 the year of the American man.

Sean Duffy, former deputy chief of staff to Gov. Bill Owens, is a communications and media relations strategist and ghostwriter based in the Denver area.