Originally published by American Habits.

Some progressive political campaigns are embracing rugged masculinity, but there’s more to being a man than looking the part.

For several election cycles now, I’ve maintained a playful theory about how Americans choose candidates — presidential candidates, anyway. The theory goes back at least to the election of Eisenhower, which coincides with the rise of television.

It goes like this: Given the choice between Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, Americans will choose Han Solo, at least in presidential elections.

Han Solo may be the ultimate cinematic embodiment of the mythic American male archetype. He’s the rugged gunslinger, an (over)confident, swaggering man’s man who plays by his own rules.

This is not to say that every presidential victor has Han Solo charisma – only that every victor outscores his opponent on the “Solometer.”

For instance, while Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush would generally score low on the Solometer, both outscored Gerald Ford and Michael Dukakis. But Carter and Bush were, in turn, outscored by Reagan and Clinton. Eisenhower outscored Adlai Stevenson, Kennedy outscored Nixon, and so on. Some would argue over whether 2020 Biden, wearing his aviators and exuding his “Come on, man” attitude, could outscore Trump. But then, if you ask Trump, he would argue he actually won that election. (Wink.)

Fast-forward to the 2026 midterms, and the Democratic Party appears to have gotten a memo conveying something vaguely along these lines. They seem to have suddenly remembered that Americans gravitate to the rugged, independent, self-assured man of action.