The two "Sorry" diaries currently on the reclist (1, 2) are completely missing their target and misrepresent the values of progressives.
- saying that people are stupid are should not "hold us back" is the worst kind of elitist YOYO (you're on your own) politics. Isn't the whole point of solidarity to not leave anyone behind, and, rather, help them instead? Letting "the rest of us" take off is exactly what brought about the striking inequalities of the day. These people are, to a large extent, suffering, and their fear and anger are being whipped, played and misdirected. How about actually solving their problems by openly using exiting public tools (you know, like hunger) and not being afraid of saying that government was there to help?
- don't confuse the (small number) of (very rich) Republicans that push some well-designed package of values down the throats of too many people with those that absorb and parrot these ideas, not really knowing better. The whole point is that one group is taking advantage of the other (and of everybody else) by convincing to vote for things that are very beneficial to them while being very detrimental to everybody else, including most of their voters - by distracting and manipulating these voters: playing up their fears and prejudices, providing scapegoats, and making them feel about themselves while they're being robbed blind. It doesn't matter that Republican ideas are bankrupt if (1) they're still making their creators rich, (2) they're still able to push the blame on the usual scapegoats and (3) they are still being peddled to a surprisingly large extent by Democrats even when they were seemingly rejected by voters.
Current problems are largely due to an elite that managed to get rid of all restraints on its behavior, and is busy capturing all existing wealth from the rest of the population. Large swathes of the political, economic and media elites, even the notionally Democratic ones, are on board with the plan, consciously or not. Blaming the voters is worse than useless, it's counterproductive.
It's class war, and only one side is fighting. The other side is split in two: a half that wrongly thinks it is on the other side, and another half that spends too much time berating/blaming/mocking the first half rather than fighting the real other side.