General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Watching MSNBC [View all]PatSeg
(47,419 posts)I don't think in the long run, that would be a winning strategy for Democrats. We are more diverse as a party both culturally and ideologically. If we only spoke to our base, we would lose. Obama had voters that turned around and voted for Trump in 2016 and there were Trump voters who switched to Biden this election.
There actually are voters in the middle who do vote for both parties over the years. When our message is perceived as too liberal, even if its not in reality, we often lose some of the middle voters to republicans. Not all voters are like us. They aren't all up-to-date on politics and current events 24/7. They often base their decisions on less substantive information, gut instinct, remarks on TV, political ads, or something they heard from friends and relatives.
As someone else on this thread mentioned, we need to work on messaging, but we are different than republicans and we can't campaign like them. Republicans tend to campaign on fear, which can have a broad appeal, while Democrats are more inclined to focus on the positive, offering real solutions to people's problems. We just have to get better at reaching more people.