According to a Pew Research report, 77% of Republicans say the economy and inflation are the most important issues facing Americans today.
But when MarketWatch surveyed students at the National Conservative Student Conference in D.C. last week, the analysis found that social issues – abortion, identity politics, the Second Amendment, and transgender activism – are the main issues for conservative young men.
In response, psychotherapist Thomas Kersting recently told "Fox & Friends" it makes "perfect sense."
"Everything is about advancing women, minorities, and so forth, and young men, young boys, are kind of being left out," he told the show host. "They're sort of being left behind. We're creating this idea that if you're a male, there's something wrong with that and that you're bad."
With the University of Michigan's "Monitoring the Future" study showing that 12th-grade boys are nearly twice as likely to call themselves conservative now than they were in the Jimmy Carter era, Kersting said they are frustrated at being villainized for their immutable traits.
"You have politicians out there saying, like, the number one problem in America is white men, and things of that nature," he noted. "I think young 12th-grade boys are kind of seeing through this."
Kersting says liberalism has changed a lot over the years, and young men are starting to see that today's Democratic Party is too radical and extreme.
"When you hear the term conservative, it's perceived by the Left as something terrible," Kersting added. "I look at conservatism as faith, family, and country and being a protector and a provider and treating women … and everybody else with respect."
Meanwhile, the study shows that 12th-grade girls are increasingly more liberal – from 19% in 2012 to 30% last year.
Kersting thinks the numbers go beyond politics and are a reflection of the way the Left has talked about men in recent years.
