In the month or so that's led up to the midterm elections, here's a snapshot of just a few things that made headlines: The President of the United States called Stormy Daniels “horseface.” An ex–Trump campaign staffer slammed Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Texas, as a “beta male." Almost the entire Republican establishment banded together to nominate a man accused of sexual assault to the highest court in the land. After that, the President publicly mocked the woman who testified under oath against him. That man was confirmed, by the way.

And an NPR-Ipsos poll released this week showed that over 40 percent of Americans believe the Me Too movement has "gone too far," with a full 77 percent of Republicans responding that false accusations are "common." (Not true.) Which of course comes after the President of the United States came out with this gem: “It’s a very scary time for young men,” Trump said in an address to reporters on the White House lawn earlier this month.

Taken together, the moments suggest a unified approach, and one that others have noticed too. The GOP’s strategy leading up to the midterms is not their usual proposal for jobs, national security, or even small government; their sales pitch is toxic masculinity. Some suspect that this could cost them valuable female voters at the polls. And the numbers suggest a modest exodus of women from the GOP is happening. Over the summer support for Republican candidates from Republican women plummeted by 11 points.

As we’ve gotten closer to this election, the gender gap has widened. Still, in all the examination over whether conservative women will or will not elect Republican candidates, there's been less vocal concern that Republicans could lose the support of men. We expect that men will stick with a power structure and a raft of terrible ideologies that serve them. That's sad.

The GOP’s strategy leading up to the midterms is not their usual proposal for jobs, national security, or even small government; their sales pitch is toxic masculinity.

And it's not the first time I've witnessed it. Just before the 2016 election, I was reporting from one of Donald Trump’s last campaign rallies in Berwyn, Pennsylvania. An infamous Gallup poll that showed seven out of 10 women had an unfavorable view of Trump had been cited ad nauseam in the national media for months. I went to Pennsylvania to speak to women who did support Trump. Almost 24 months later, one white middle-aged woman's comments have stuck with me. I raised the poll, and she paused and said, “I think seven out of 10 women probably have an unfavorable view of a lot of men.” The implication? That hasn’t stopped them from associating with terrible men before.

In that moment, I felt bad for women. But I felt sadder for men. This woman wasn’t supporting Donald Trump because she had a high opinion of him; she was supporting him because she had such a low opinion of men.

Ever since, Donald Trump has become the ultimate poster boy for toxic masculinity. And all the while, his fellow Republicans have proudly followed his lead. The case of now Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the bench is a perfect example. At the time Representative Steve King (R–Iowa) said that if the “new standard” for nominees is to never have been accused of sexual assault, “no man [would] ever qualify” for the Supreme Court of the United States again. Rep. Kevin Cramer (R–N.D.), a current Senate candidate, took it one step further, telling reporters, “Even if it's all true, does it disqualify him?” And Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman, tweeted, “If stupid, bad, or drunken behavior as a minor back in high school were the standard, every male politician in Washington, D.C., would fail.”

Are all men really comfortable with this characterization of their entire gender? And if it's not this, then what it would take for them to abandon the GOP? Because as it stands now, the GOP isn’t just sending a message to girls that their pain is no match for a man’s ambitions. It’s also sending an insidious signal to boys—you're hardwired to be bad, so why bother trying to be good?