“Everybody has a way of interpreting them to be the truth or not true. There's no such thing, unfortunately, anymore, as facts” — a Trump surrogate
Here's a take on why Democrats might be falling short in elections.
The flavor of the last few years has been GOP demagoguery steadily and constantly doled out to voters.
If you want to hate Obama, it doesn't matter that he dragged your sorry behind out of a full blown recession and gave you health care. You just want to hate him, and facts about what he did for you don't matter when you vote Republican.
If you don't like immigrants or the latte-drinking elite or Democrats - you will vote GOP because they echo your hate and it doesn't matter if GOP is destroying your health care, the economy, the banking system, the environment and the climate, meanwhile.
You are upset about coal jobs and you want to blame Obama and Hillary though they plan to fund re-education and re-employment. So you vote for GOP and Trump though they will cut funding for everything that will mitigate your sufferings.
You want to hate ‘X’ though he/she will do good things ‘Y’ for you, and so you vote for Z though he won't.
So how do Democrats put forward their agendas and win elections, if people want to vote on their feelings and not on what are their best interests ?
Demagoguery. What? No.
Yes, demagoguery, but of a positive kind. Bernie Sanders is halfway there, with his demagoguery about various interest groups (including within the Democratic Party). And he is clearly doing well because no one tells him to shut up like so many do Hillary Clinton. And no one in his thrall asks him for specifics about how he will translate his demagoguery to sustainable policy, like no one in GOP thrall asks the GOP about how they will fix healthcare or the economy or anything. Hillary Clinton’s campaign was overflowing with specifics and who remembers those?
Now, demagoguery might be a winning strategy in these times but it is dangerous to public welfare if it is misleading.
Take the GOP. Their demagoguery on Obamacare roused up voters and won them multiple elections. This demagoguery is almost totally devoid of facts, so they can't keep their promises about it to their voters. The repeal and replace AHCA bill can't be revealed to voters before it is passed. A lot of the GOP's promised policies are inimical to a large number of their voters. They will have to keep the hate speech about selected Democrats and demographics going strong, so that they can sneak their policies in. (An impromptu war or two might also help).
If Democrats also go demagogue, would they become unprincipled liars like the GOP?
No, by being "principled" demagogues they can avoid this hazard.
Examples of principled demagoguery:
-Trump should explain why he refuses to accept Russian interference in the 2016 election.
-Trump and GOP will come after your Social Security and Medicare next, after decimating Medicaid.
-Trump and GOP are waging war on lower income Americans with their budget priorities
-Trump and GOP are waging war on people in rural areas by cutting government funding for their programs
-Trump and GOP are in bed with big pharma - look at their loosening of regulations.
-Trump and GOP are helping crony capitalist corporations by diverting infrastructure tax dollars to private hands.
-Trump should explain the benefits to Americans of his cuddling up to Putin.
-Trump and GOP are creating a labor shortage by indiscriminate deportations, scaring away labor needed for n % growth.
-Trump and GOP will set off another economic downturn down the road with the huge tax cuts and government cuts. It happened in the past — example 1 and example 2
In short, Democrats should go for factual fear mongering (i.e., giving people feelings based on facts) about the real dangers of Trump and GOP policies. This need not be unprincipled, if it is based on evident facts. Look at Elizabeth Warren as example — she does a great job of factual and principled demagoguery. She drives the GOP a bit crazy.
The stakes are high. For voters riding on their emotions, feelings and prejudices, it isn't working for Democrats to be polite and factual, and it isn’t working for Democrats to lead voters to calm 'self-realization' of their best interests by giving them information. Democrats should use something that works in this 'give me my feelings not my facts' era.