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If you're on the fence, I get it. We've all seen the signs, literally and figuratively, on one side of the political spectrum. "The future is female." "Women will save democracy." "Smash the patriarchy." When men's existence as good and useful humans is acknowledged at all, we receive, at best, a pat on the head and assurance that what's good for women is good for us too. We rarely hear the word "masculinity" without it being preceded by the word "toxic." Some women go so far as to try and define "positive" masculinity, or say we need to get beyond it, as if we don't already know what masculinity is and what it's for.

By a number of objective measures, many men, especially young men, are grappling with serious challenges not of their own making. Very few people seem to have noticed; fewer seem to care.

None of this is part of the future we imagine. We don't want to denigrate women. But we don't want a matriarchy any more than we want a patriarchy. We want to collaborate with women as equals. We want our role in building this great country, literally and figuratively, to count for something in its political discourse and in its policies.

Here's the thing. That's what Kamala Harris wants too. I'm sure, because that's how she has lived her life, and that's how she is running her campaign. As prosecutor, District Attorney in San Francisco, Attorney General of California, US Senator, Vice President, and now as presidential candidate, Harris has eagerly immersed herself in environments that require a toughness rarely seen in anyone, man or woman. In each role, she has done her job very well—no more, no less. Harris is not carrying the feminist banner. Like every smart, tough, patriotic public servant, she merely wants to serve the country she loves and all its citizens to the best of her ability.

Kamala Harris has pledged to unify America and to work on behalf of all of us. So has her running mate, Tim Walz. Picking Walz wasn't just an astute political move. Clearly, Harris gets along with the Midwestern veteran, teacher and hunter. The two will form a potent leadership team. And, "mind your own business" is a fitting mantra for our times.

The Biden/Harris administration has done much more for our country than they have gotten credit for. Access to healthcare has been expanded. Social Security and Medicare have been preserved. Our infrastructure is being fixed and improved. Post-pandemic inflation has been curbed without recession. Stocks have doubled in value. Jobs and GDP are up. Our problem isn't lack of wealth, it is wealth inequality, something Harris and Walz have Plans To Address head on. NATO strength has been restored and expanded, thank goodness, given the number of bad actors who want to destroy us. We all know who is responsible for killing the secure borders bill authored by conservative Republican Senator James Lankford. It wasn't the current president, who promised to sign it, as has Kamala Harris when the time comes.

With respect, if you think Elon Musk and the former president for whom he simps have the answers to your problems, if you think they possess some sort of magical fairy dust able to lower your grocery bill and create world peace, you might have spent just a little too much time watching bro-culture podcasts. These bizarre individuals have neither the awareness nor the inclination to do more in the public sphere than serve their own interests.

If I've lost you at this point, or if I need to convince you that the fake "masculinity" on the other side isn't borne of insecurity and weakness, this message probably isn't for you. For me, a man doesn't need to strip women of their civil rights to feel like a man. A man doesn't need to create arbitrary hierarchies based on gender or skin color or religion to feel he is on top. A man lifts people up. He doesn't obsessively tear people down.

Women are pissed off, and rightly so. They are living through a renewed era of existential threat they spent generations trying to overcome. As our fathers would say, "Be a man." See their truth, and accept it. Give women the support they need to recover their bearings and their agency in what for them is a very dangerous environment. Give them support, even if they do not ask for or acknowledge it.

And give Kamala Harris the chance to lead, to show us what she can do. Vanquish once and for all the aged, fragile, damaged person opposing her, who—you know this—offers us nothing but division and violence, and embodies the most toxic of human traits.

This article originally appeared on the Newtown Democrats website.