CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina — Before Democrats were trying desperately to woo back young men, running commercials aimed at “white dudes” and sending surrogates to tell fraternity brothers that it’s okay to vote for a woman, there was Flagstock.
It was Labor Day weekend, and hundreds of young people — most of them white men — had come together near the University of North Carolina for a music festival to honor a group of frat brothers. These self-described Bros got caught up in a campus protest in April against U.S. policy toward Gaza. When the protesters tried to replace the American flag with a Palestinian emblem, the students from multiple fraternities formed a protective ring around Old Glory.
When photographs of these clean-cut young men in their khaki shorts holding up the flag hit Twitter, a moment was born in America’s right-of-center consciousness. Whether intentional or not, that patriotic tableau connected to many of the themes animating former President Donald Trump’s candidacy and the gender gap that is defining our electorate.