Member-only story
Why manly men support such an un-manly president
He may be a man-child, but they support him despite this fact
I was raised by a man’s man. He was my grandfather. My grandfather grew up poor on a farm in central Pennsylvania. A superior athlete and scholar, he was unable to accept a full scholarship to college because he couldn’t afford not to work. So he went to work in a mental institution, saving up money so he could follow his dream of moving to New York.
New York was a revelation for him. To give you an idea of how parochial was his upbringing, he had never tried ketchup until he got to the Big Apple. While there, he worked as a medic for construction crews building the Lincoln Tunnel. After completing college, he applied for the military to pay for his medical school. They declined, so he kept working to pay his own way.
Of course, upon completing medical school and with the U.S. entering the war, he was drafted anyway. He served out the war on Coast Guard vessels patrolling the North Atlantic for U-Boats. At the end of the war, he settled down with my grandmother and set to raising a family and building a career.
He was a true man’s man, a John Wayne type. He was a strong silent type, never bragging but demonstrating a quiet confidence. He could tell dirty jokes with the boys but behave…
