When we talk about “leadership” what do we mean? The answer is obvious. The leader is the hero who leads his band of brothers into the fight of life or death. He is the “Man in the Arena,” in the words of Theodore Roosevelt.

Leadership has to do with the fact that, up until the day before yesterday, the only thing that human males did was to sharpen their weapons, hunt for a bit of meat, and defend the border against the tribe or band next door. Just like chimpanzees, where the males defend the food-growing territory against the troop next door. It’s all about the babies. The more territory, the more babies the females produce.

That was in the olden time. In recent times, women have emerged into the public square, and German sociologist Georg Simmel predicted a century ago that women would transform the public square to suit “a more feminine sensibility.”

But what does that mean, in real life? The difference between men and women is rigorously explained in “Academia is Women’s Work” by John Carter. Simply put,

If you want your society to produce transcendent excellence in a given field, the only way to do so is to attach a competitive male status hierarchy to it…

Conversely, if you want reliable mediocrity, then you want women’s work… Their instinct is to perform to a perfectly acceptable standard, but not, in general, to push themselves to exceed it.

Still not sure? Fortunately, God is running a social science experiment this year in the United States between a man, Donald Trump, who is the quintessential competitive Man in the Arena, and a woman, Kamala Harris, who is the essence of “reliable mediocrity.”

What does that mean, on the ground? Just this.

I say that men have a Culture of Insult. Thus Donald Trump, in an interview with Bloomberg Media editor-in-chief John Micklethwait, told him, in regard to tariffs: “you’ve been wrong all your life on this stuff.”

And I say that women have a Culture of Complaint. Thus Kamala Harris, in an interview with FoxNews host Brett Baier, said: “May I finish responding, please? But you have to let me finish, please.”

Who do you think should be president: the insulter or the complainer? Take your pick.

Now, we all know that many women voters disliked Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 because of “mean tweets.” In other words, they don’t like the male Culture of Insult, and I understand that.

What such women fail to understand is that the leader of a nation is necessarily the Man in the Arena -- especially for the President of the United States who is also Emperor of a world-wide Empire. As the wise Google AI has it: “As of July 2024, the United States has military bases in at least 55 countries and territories.”

But I understand why women don’t like crude men like Trump. They don’t see the point. Not yet. But they will.

I say “Women Expect to be Protected.” That is to say: women go about their lives day-to-day assuming that they are protected. Living under such an expectation, it never occurs to a woman that she is unsafe until attacked on the street or molested in the women’s bathroom. Then, of course, “mean tweets” don’t matter.

So, what kind of presidential candidate goes and works at McDonald’s of a morning? It’s hard to tell; experts are divided on the issue, but it’s a natural for Mc-Donald J. Trump. It all comes down to Saul Alinsky’s Rule #6: "A good tactic is one your people enjoy."

But enough of frivolity. Let’s get philosophical, and get a head start on the experts.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but today it doesn’t matter where our food is grown. Here on the west coast, Canadian farmers grow the wheat, the railroad gets the wheat to Vancouver, and the grain ships line up in the outer harbor to load the wheat and ship it all over the world.

The only thing left for rough tough warriors to do is to keep the pirates from attacking the grain ships before they get to China.

So I understand modern politics as an effort to Make Politics Great Again. Napoleon wanted to teach the Germans about liberté, egalité, fraternité; Lincoln wanted to free the slaves; Woodrow Wilson wanted to make the world safe for democracy. Now we have activists anxious to protect the oppressed.

Do you notice what has happened? Politics, that used to be just about defending the females and the food, is now all about morality.

So now, political leadership has become moral leadership.

In 2024, I think that Donald Trump is running to be the political leader of America, and Kamala Harris is running to be the moral leader of America.

Christopher Chantrill @chrischantrill blogs at The Commoner Manifesto and runs the go-to site on US government finances, usgovernmentspending.com. Also get his American Manifesto and his Road to the Middle Class.

Image: Gage Skidmore