This will not be a startling revelation. Elections are won by the votes of people who are generally ignorant of the issues and the stances of the candidates, and who are herded to one candidate or the other by irrelevancies, false notions and the casual voters' individual and collective failures to undertake even the slightest due diligence. A good name for the people who cast the votes is that they are the "casual voters".
The casual voters vs. serious political junkies and policy wonks =
World Series watchers vs. baseball fans
High Holiday attendees vs. observant Jews
Saw the movie vs. read the book
Driving range hits vs. playing 18 holes
A Lone Ranger mask vs. a full fledged disguise
The casual voter has only a flimsy, apathetic, and vague understanding of civics, history, politics, legislation, and governing. The casual voter's experience when selecting a candidate is more like smelling the aroma of a hot dog than experiencing the taste and texture when swallowing a hot dog. For that reason, political parties were formed to create a brand. All the voter needed was to know which party's brand offered him the best deal.
The Democrats had a strong brand that was associated in the minds of the casual voters as being the party that would: (1) Fight for the right of all people to be elevated to a higher socio-economic class; and (2) Tap the ideas of the smartest minds in the room to engineer governmental programs that would enable the elevation to happen.
The Democrat’s brand was designed and sold to the average voters by the deeds, words and priorities of the administrations of FDR, JFK and LBJ who emphasized that Americans were like one big family, and when one group was in trouble, the family had a duty to rally to help. Legislation was recognized was the most efficient and practical vehicle to achieve socio-economic elevation, and government workers were accepted as the specialists best able to achieve that result. The brand was so strong that Eisenhower and then Nixon embraced socio-economic elevation as a universally accepted goal.
Over time, the subsequent generations of the families for whom socio-economic elevation was achieved as a result of the policies and legislation pushed by the Democratic Party, forgot the elements of the Democrat's brand. While still exhibiting a preference for just whiffing the aroma of how government worked, the beneficiaries of the laws enacted to achieve the Democratic party’s goals, became ignorant of reasons and need for the laws, and that it was the Democratic Party's brand that helped elevate the modern, forgetful, casual voter.
Meanwhile, instead of continuing to focus on the brand and educating new generations of voters of brand as well as the need to be vigilant or gains will be eroded, Democratic candidates tried to divine from consultants and focus groups what their loyal base wanted at a micro and petty level. In campaigns, the candidates abandoned the big picture and lofty, universal goals of the brand. Instead, they pandered to win votes when campaigning, and abandoned the brand when reaching positions of legislative power. The message of the Democratic Party became a transient, rudderless and untethered grab bag of promises made to whichever group's votes were needed in a particular election. Casual voters from traditionally Democratic Party voting families to whom the candidate's current, parochial message had not been custom tailored, saw no core credo, and became fair game for the Republicans.
The Democratic Party’s brand became the Sears department store of politics. Just as it is unlikely Sears will ever be resurrected as the go-to store of the future, and its brand name will soon be forgotten, unless the Democratic Party immediately refreshes and then sticks to selling and implementing its brand, it will face the same fate as Sears.
there is hope. The Democratic party must shed all but its brand building message that the Democrats will (1) Fight for the right of all people to be elevated to a higher socio-economic class; and (2) Tap the ideas of the smartest minds in the room to engineer governmental programs that would enable the elevation to happen. candidates must eschew pandering. Every specific issue should be defined by and strained through the elements of the brand. It will take guts, but it will actually make campaigning much more efficient.