When President Joe Biden passed the torch to Kamala Harris, she almost immediately went on the attack against Donald Trump. This represented a radical change compared to how Biden approached the Democrats' political battle with Donald Trump and his MAGAfied Republican Party.

Trump’s strengths and brand are based on being a bully. He insults his enemies. He shows no respect for norms of behavior or human decency. Trump attacks again and again until his target is left shell-shocked. In total, Trump attempts to dominate and control every situation. His social dominance orientation is centered on hostile sexism, crude masculinity, and of course racism.

In a recent essay at the Guardian, Carter Sherman writes:

[B]ut Americans’ obsession with masculinity is, to the point that it can determine the outcome even of presidential elections where two men are running. (So, most of them.) Americans revere presidents as role models, fixating on their status – real or perceived – as founding fathers, real fathers, war heroes, and masters of diplomacy and making money and cheating on their wives without getting caught (or, at least, without getting divorced). Because presidents epitomize American notions of manhood, elections reveal what kind of man, what type and degree of masculinity, is most respected and deserving of power.

Trump has turned his campaign into a pitch for hyper-traditional masculinity. At this year’s Republican national convention, he walked on stage to the James Brown song It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World and was introduced by Dana White, the president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship who was caught slapping his wife on camera. On the campaign trail, he has hammed it up with YouTubers and podcasters who have male-centric audiences and dim views of women.

With the general public and her opponent so preoccupied by masculinity, Harris is not emphasizing her pioneering nomination. Rather, in order to win a contest that no woman has ever won, she’s trying to take advantage of stereotypes about men, women and leadership – and, when they can’t work in her favor, using them to kneecap Trump instead.

Masculinity, it turns out, may be the most partisan issue in US politics.

In a bold move, instead of trying to avoid Trump’s perceived strengths, Harris and her campaign attacked them through mockery and ridicule. Trump is notoriously thin-skinned and easily provoked. Harris has used that character flaw against him very successfully; Trump almost always takes the bait.

Instead of engaging Trump on his terms, Harris either outright ignores him or responds as though he is an adult baby throwing a tantrum. Where others have backed down, Harris, who is a former prosecutor, knows that the best strategy is to usually directly confront the bullies and common thugs because they are not used to such a response – especially from a woman. For example, during their first and likely only debate, Harris confronted and directly engaged Trump’s lies and bullying behavior. When that happened it appeared as if Trump did not know what to do. Trump, an alpha male and America’s First White President, was symbolically castrated and neutered by Kamala Harris, a Black South Asian woman.

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In a series of recent conversations with me here at Salon, political scientist M. Steven Fish described Harris’ version of a high-dominance leadership style and how she deployed it to defeat Trump during their debate last........

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