Why don't more men identify as liberal? [View all]

One of the most disturbing statistics in the last election, for me anyway, is that if you were a white male, you had an upwards of 80% chance of voting for Romney.

Now I know that this question has been asked before in many places here and in many forms, but at least for my own interest in the matter, most of the reasons given didn't quite smell at all complete. For example, the assertion of homophobia or racism or loss of privilege often dominate the conversation, and I believe that in a measure, those things factor in, especially if we're talking about people who identify as a teabagger, but I think there is more going on there than what is being set forth in these discussions.

At the risk of delivering evidence which some might describe as excessively anecdotal, let me just say that I know quite a few men who have what could easily called a liberal or progressive philosophy. Very few of them, though, identify as liberals or progressives. They typically identify themselves as 'apolitical' or 'independent thinkers'. What's odd is the fact that even the ones who self-describe as apolitical, are themselves, political junkies. It's almost as though 'liberal' or 'progressive' connotes something they don't feel particularly at home with, and won't identify with, much to my chagrin as a politically engaged person who would very much like to see as many people as possible getting on the side of liberal thought.

What is it about these words (and no I don't think trading 'liberal' for 'progressive' has created a more attractive brand) and the philosophies themselves, really, do you think might be the cause of this disconnect?