Opinion: Dems or GOP?

No deep analysis here - just alerts to both parties re winning in 2022 and 2024

The questions are:

Are Republicans really stupid or are they just playing the electorate for fools?

Are Democrats really smart or are they just pandering to the electorate’s wish list?

The answer to the first part of each question is…NO. The answer to the second part is…YES.

Better said:

Republicans are really smart to understand that a stupid electorate is their best path to power.

Democrats are really stupid to assume that truthfulness and reason will sway the electorate.

Undeniable fact:

The Republican base is irretrievably ideological, which prevents the party from competing for the rational middle.

The Democrat base is inflexibly progressive, which prevents the party from using compromise to put together a winnIng combination.

And the winners will be:

The Republicans if they can partition the electorate into multiple cultural issues.

The Democrats if they can ignore the cultural bait and stick steadfastly to pragmatic proposals not watered down by the usual abstractions.

Strategy:

The Republicans must be forced to take unpopular and inhumane positions through their legislative record, Red State governors, and rulings by Trumpian judges.

The Democrats must stop emphasizing a top down federal approach and show respect for state level populism.

Campaigning::

The Republicans must break bad habits that involve demonizing opponents, name calling, misrepresenting opposing positions, racist dog whistles and wrapping the flag around every problem.

The Democrats must isolate “cancel culture “ and “wokism” and “gender assignment” as non-political issues that individuals, organizations and communities must confront within a moral context.

Hard facts:

The Republicans, addicted as they are to anecdotal facts, are not practiced at dealing with historical, scientific or journalistic facts.

The Democrats must reduce complex facts about the pandemic, phony issues like defund-the-police, Russia and China, immigration, down to kitchen table discussions.

Both parties:

Should abandon the current debate formats and opt for town meeting style engagements.

Must answer for budget priorities and justify the necessity of an ever-expanding military budget.

Should own up to the failures in responding to the pandemic and propose some innovative approaches.

Must show concrete ways to bring the country together again or propose a civil way to dissolve the nation…and which they prefer.