I’ve seldom seen a better example of a rhetorical question—one to which the answer is so obvious no response is necessary—than this:

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No. No there isn’t, with perhaps one exception, thanks to a woman. One would have to go back to 1998 when Democrat Michael Dukakis, a man never accused of overt manliness, decided to strap on a helmet that made him look like a 2-year-old in an NFL helmet and mount an M1 Abrams tank for a brief spin for the cameras. That ludicrously incongruous image, which has never left the public consciousness, not only doomed his candidacy but has served as an icon of Democrat lack of manly virtue since.

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When Donald Trump did a photo op in a garbage truck around the time of his wildly successful shift at McDonald’s, Democrats desperately tried to compare that to the Dukakis tank ride disaster. 

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It didn’t work because Americans knew Trump had been in real estate and construction forever and was completely comfortable around real Americans who hold real jobs. Trump fits in everywhere and with everybody. Dukakis didn’t, nor do the current crop of Democrat candidates, and particularly not Islamist, Communist Zohran Mamdani, who appears to be certain to become the next Mayor of New York City, whose residents apparently haven’t had it good and hard enough with the previous several leftist mayors.

It turns out Mamdani fell into Dukakis’ tiny footsteps when he proved he’s neither good nor hard at Brooklyn’s annual Men’s Day celebration. Talked into trying to bench press 135 pounds, the 33-year-old Mamdani had to rely on a 64-year-old spotter to keep the bar from crushing his girly-man body.

As one might expect, Mamdani’s political rivals had a field day. Andrew Cuomo had an easy lift:

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Eric Adams vigorously pumped the same iron that defeated Mamdani and without spotter rescue:

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And then Riley Gaines, with her stunning blue eyes and megawatt smile, to say nothing of her impressive physical and rhetorical muscles, delivered the ultimate emasculating blow:

Women’s sports advocate and former NCAA swimming champion Riley Gaines has joined the chorus ripping socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for his pitiful attempt to pump iron.

The openly socialist candidate for Big Apple mayor has been facing criticism for being seen struggling to lift a mere 135 pounds in a video of a campaign stop on Saturday, the New York Post reported.

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To be fair, emasculating Mamdani isn’t a heavy lift, so she produced proof of lifting what’s probably as much or more than Mamdani’s body weight:

Gaines was shocked by Mamdani’s apparent weakness and said she was able to lift “165lb relatively easy reps on a bench when I weighed 130lbs.”

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That Democrats don’t have anything approaching manly leadership these days is a matter of common, mocking knowledge recently reinforced by RFK Junior and Pete Hegseth each cranking off 50 pullups and 100 pushups in five+ minutes. Thanks to Mamdani and Riley Gaines, there will be more than enough memes to emasculate Democrats for at least the next quarter century.

I couldn’t happen to worse, more feckless people.

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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.