Republicans weaponized masculinity and patriotism together against Dukakis

Evidence

Most evangelicals ended up backing George H. W. Bush, who, sensing which way the winds were blowing, had slowly aligned himself with religious conservatives. … Bush, too, lacked the rugged masculinity of his predecessor, but fortunately for him, he was running against Michael Dukakis. Republicans wasted no time in impugning Dukakis’s patriotism and sabotaging his masculinity—and in their view the two were closely connected. — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 319

Categorization

• XREF: Builds the book’s core argument — that electoral appeals operated through gendered-masculinity framing — into a specific campaign, useful concrete evidence for the reader’s explanation task.