The problem is the following loop:

• With lies, grifting, and general ignorance easier to spread than the complexity of truth, Republicans always hold an inherent advantage by appealing to the lowest common denominator.

• Democrats make a mistake of trying to appeal to these special “centrists” and conservatives as if resurrecting Reagan himself under the D label would ever pull them over.

• Because of watering down their policy (and thus effficacy) they ostracize their own grassroots base that does the groundwork in phonebanking, protesting, canvassing, and perhaps most importantly – pushing back against nutjobs on social media and pushing back against their parents, aunts, uncles at Thanksgiving dinner.

And Democrats wonder why Democrat voter enthusiasm is always so low.

If Democrats for once campaigned on a platform they believed in; if they actually wholeheartedly backed a candidate who had a science-based, equality-based platform from a position of sincerity – that would be contagious.

Republicans win by fear and hatred; Democrats can’t win by that. It needs to be surrounded by love, vision, and solidarity.