Following Donald Trump’s landslide win in the 2024 presidential election, helped by his podcast tour and endorsement by Joe Rogan, the Democrats are scrambling. Many on the left are saying they need their own version of Trump and Joe Rogan. But the left already had a Trump and Joe Rogan--it was Bernie Sanders and Joe Rogan. However, the Democrats rigged their primary against Bernie and the left canceled Joe Rogan over Covid.
The Democrats are simply better at rigging their primary elections than the Republicans. Neither party leaders wanted the populist candidates to win (Bernie and Trump). But the Republicans were unable to rig their primary so that their preferred establishment candidates won (Jeb Bush and Nikki Haley). The Dems successfully did it--twice (Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020). Then in 2024, they bypassed a primary altogether.
If the Democrats want to win again, they have to actually listen to the people. Let them freely vote for their preferred candidate. You know, democracy. That thing the Democrats supposedly love so much. How about actually trying it for once? Rogan supported Bernie in 2020, and he might have voted for him again in '24 if the Democrats nominated him. And he might have actually won. Of course, that would have been a disaster for the country, but if the people want socialism, they may need to learn the hard way that it does not work.
As for finding/creating their own "progressive Joe Rogan," an independent media star who appeals to men... The Dems should instead be asking themselves how do we win Rogan himself back to our side? They are not asking themselves that, however, because they can't. Doing so would require abandoning many of the progressive policies and values they championed over the past decade which are diametrically opposed to men, particularly white men like Joe Rogan.
As long as the left believes their only problem is messaging, rather than their “progressive” policies, they will never win back the men who realized the negative effects of those policies.