The Big Question ...
... I wish I had the answer to.
Whenever we Dems lose an election, there is always a post mortem. Every speech is analyzed, every statement is searched for flaws, every talking point is scrutinized for possible misinterpretation by the voters, every action is weighed and measured in hopes of finding what the (D) candidate did that led to his/her loss.
And inevitably, some supposed failure will be unearthed, and pointed to in a moment of political epiphany: "Here's the problem - here's where it all went wrong."
The truth is that the fault lies not with our candidates, or with our party's messaging, or with our Democratic policies. The fault lies with voters who
who are too ignorant, too ill-informed, and just too stupid to recognize that they're being 'had' by the Republicans.
How do you speak the truth to people who immediately dismiss it as 'fake news'? How do you reason with people who have no capacity to reason anything? How do you present facts to people who think facts are simply a matter of opinion, and are not grounded in reality? How do you get through to people who put their fingers in their ears and scream la, la, la, I can't hear you?
Winning over voters who simply refuse to acknowledge the truth about their Republican politicians has always been difficult - but in the past, it has been done. But winning over cult members is almost impossible. Call them what you will - low-info, low IQ, or downright dumb as bricks - but the outcome is the same: they're not people who don't hear the truth - they're people who won't hear the truth.
If our Democratic candidates have a fault, it is being grounded in reality; it is being fact-checkers, it is being purveyors of the truth. We don't pander to the ignorant by promising to end the teaching of CRT in our schools, already knowing that is isn't taught. We don't advance the idea that giving tax beaks to the wealthy creates jobs - a theory that has been disproven time and time again.
So that leaves us with having to answer the Big Question - how do we reach the unreachable in a world where American citizens gather to witness the return of the long-dead JFK Jr., who has been in hiding for years and is about to announce his determination to run as Trump's VP in 2024?
How do we combat the idiocy of people like Mike Lindell, who - despite having been proven wrong over and over - still has a devout following?
How do we convince people that the January 6th insurrection actually happened - when they've already been convinced that it didn't?
I wish I knew the answer. I wish I could offer some brilliant insight into how to convince truth-deniers that the truth actually exists - and matters. I wish I could do something that would open the eyes of those who are determined to keep them shut.
But attributing blame to ourselves and our candidates is, IMHO, exactly what the Republicans want. To find ourselves somehow at fault is to support the idea that the Republicans are NOT at fault for our democracy's demise - all evidence to the contrary.
The most we can hope for is that somehow, in some way, if we keep fighting every battle, the war will eventually be won.
So don't give in to the idea that we are at fault for election losses. We are not fighting a political party - we are fighting the mindless, zombie-like cult the GOP has built.
= new reply since forum marked as read
..and you won't have to convince the worthless fucks of anything. 
Maybe adapt this to cover consumers of information:
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https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/media-resources/truth-advertising
Maybe use a DU-style alert system.
Or adapt the old Fairness Doctrine for the current environment.
Or build a lot more rubber rooms.
