To my fellow Democrats/liberals: Stop saying Republican voters are stupid.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

They've clearly embraced the label (along with the now-infamous "deplorable") as a badge of honor and successfully weaponized it against us. And it's paid off for them handsomely, if the number of elected offices in the US held by the GOP is any indication.

Rule #1 in electoral politics (or at the very least, one of the top 5): Never give the opposition a chance to paint you as an arrogant, condescending elitist who is out-of-touch with the uh, "commoners." For any political party, this can be a real albatross; for a left-wing or at least, vaguely center-left party whose policy platform is designed for the benefit of the "common people" (in theory if not always in practice) and whose representatives have traditionally styled themselves as representing the interests of the People against the rich, the powerful, and the privileged, this can be fatal.

And to those who say that "why does it matter what I say about Republican voters, I'm not a politician or running for office": A lot of Republican voters (and more importantly for these purposes, downscale voters (even if only relatively downscale) who may not be naturally inclined to vote Republican but deeply resent any hint of smug condescension toward them from upper-middle class people with university educations - regardless of whether it comes from the Woke crowd or the National Review) editorial board) have this thing called the Internet. And they use it. And many of them read websites or forums like this one. And some of them even post on said forums - including this one.

I know that I've been far from perfect about this myself, and no, no one on the Democratic side has any obligation to start agreeing with Republicans or right-wing politics in general. Far from it. But can those of us who are of a Left-ish bent at least acknowledge the fact that for a critically large number of Americans - particularly Americans who vote - we have utterly failed in the sense that they genuinely don't believe that we have any respect for them as people (forget politics for a minute here)? And can we also agree that this has put the Democratic Party's electoral prospects at ALL levels of government in peril?

I think it's pretty obvious that the Democrats have failed at least as much as the Republicans have succeeded (isn't the Republican Party as a whole less popular than noted loyal Republican politico Donald Trump among the party's voters? lol). And I don't see how any supporter of Democrats could be remotely satisfied with this situation. What am I missing here?

The problem with what you're saying, which does have some good arguments to be made in your favor, is that really,  I don't have any respect for Republicans/Trumpers as people. They are willfully ignorant, lack empathy, and possess all the reasoning skills and self-awareness of a glob of mud. They have failed at being human beings.

I do not think any response or strategy that does not acknowledge up front that modern Republicans/Trumpers are terrible human beings has any chance at success. They have made it clear that empathy, reason, shame,  enlightened self-interest and all the other ways human beings use to peacefully resolve disputes are not anything they are interested in. They acknowledge (barely) laws and government only because they're the ones in control. They are, and will, continue to abuse the societal contract until it breaks. And then they'll use that as "justification" for more tyranny.

They can either go through the slow and painful process of educating themselves. (Not that I think it's very likely.) Or they can wait and end up the same way the last generation of fascists did at the end of WWII, when the rest of the world joined forces to punch fascism in the face.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Oh yes, this is quite true. The problem is a liberal looks at Pruitt saying global warming isn't real, and thinks "Anyone who believes him must be stupid", when in fact, their support of him is just code for "I don't want environmentalism ruining my economy," or "I don't care if Florida is underwater in 200 years" or something like that. It's not so much a matter of stupidity as a difference in values and priorities. Which can be engaged upon. But if you assume they're stupid right off the bat, you won't engage.

Global warming is already destroying the economy:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2012/sep/26/climate-change-damaging-global-economy

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And Florida is sinking *now*.
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/04/science/flooding-of-coast-caused-by-global-warming-has-already-begun.html

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Pretending pi is 3 is not a  difference "in values and priorities" it's the difference in whether or not your buildings fall down.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Too late.

The Democrats are so incompetent, morally bankrupt, and lacking of vision that we are becoming a one-party state ruled by the Republicans as the Democrats keep losing record numbers of seats.

wanna bet that "trend" will be kind of...eh.... stopped 2018, outside of the senate?

I hope so as well, but I fear the pendulum has swung so far its stuck in the wall, and won't be moving until the whole building collapses. (I.e. I expect lots of blatant and effective GOP voter suppression, met by tepid whining from the Democrats.)

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Too late.

The Democrats are so incompetent, morally bankrupt, and lacking of vision that we are becoming a one-party state ruled by the Republicans as the Democrats keep losing record numbers of seats.

wanna bet that "trend" will be kind of...eh.... stopped 2018, outside of the senate?

I hope so as well, but I fear the pendulum has swung so far its stuck in the wall, and won't be moving until the whole building collapses. (I.e. I expect lots of blatant and effective GOP voter suppression, met by tepid whining from the Democrats.)

538 did an exhaustive study that showed that voter suppression ID laws really didnt do as much damage as previously thought. It all comes down to enthusiasm and the Dems have none

Have or had? Cause it seems like their is a lot of liberal enthusiasm against Trump

Against Trump and against the Dem establishment

The liberal/progressive left hated Clinton just as much as they hated Trump

Some, maybe. Not all of us, by any means. Many of us saw Trump for the dangerous, power-hungry madman and reprehensible incompetent he is.

Clinton was and is an establishment technocrat with a left lean on some issues, much like Obama. That made her problematic, but infinitely preferable to a egotistical man-baby in love with fraud, flattery and himself.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Most of the comments here seep to be either "but they are stupid!" or "both sides do it!". This is what's wrong with the modern left.

Please share your explanation why refusing to kneel before a horde of rabid, brain-damaged troglodytes and the billionaire sociopaths occasionally guiding their stampede is "wrong". I'm rather curious.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

No. 1 Amazon bestseller: 266 blank pages on why to vote Democrat
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/09/us/book-best-seller-trnd/

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Can we please just admit that Republican voters really are stupid and move on to how we're going to deal with real-world evil Idiocracy?

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

^ Never thought i would agree with you so completely. 101%. BOTH parties are almost total garbage... Not people - parties.

Until the advent of Trump, that was a decent argument. Now, it's comparing the nice plastic container with a bag and some stinky stuff in the bag that's tucked away in the alley with the flaming rusty dumpster of biohazards and radioactive waste rocketing across the sky and spewing toxic filth over everything. Please don't make false equivalencies between the insane idiot wanna-be super-villain, his henchmen and cultists and a somewhat worse than average political party.