I'd like to facilitate a respectful discussion of recent poll numbers

[ForgedCrank]

66. This is one of the reasons we suffer, I believe.

I sometimes read RW news, although at a much reduced pace. I want to see their claims and arguments, and I want to understand them. Most of the time they are obviously wrong, but sometimes they aren't. Yet none of that could ever be referenced here so we can better understand what could be done to move some of that support in our direction.
We (speaking in a very broad and general context) seem to be fixated strictly on demonizing the right as a core strategy. I'm not saying it isn't deserved, but it appears to be the primary political strategy among us. But we prohibit ourselves from openly discussing our own shortcomings, and in turn, ways to correct those or make policy more attractive to outliers. I believe the primary shortcoming is pushing the envelope too far and demanding hard lines on policy, and flat out refusal to compromise any ground whatsoever.
The trick to dominating is more broad acceptance. We will never convince people to vote Democratic by brow-beating them, calling them racist, telling them that they are stupid for not accepting promoted policies, or outright refusing to address their personal grievances. Think about how many times in real life you have managed to change someones political direction at all, let alone by insulting them (again, not speaking at you directly, I'm speaking in a general direction). As an example, pick the student loan forgiveness movement (just a random example on policy). Many are demanding this become law, outright nullification of all financial responsibility. Not all of us, but a certain segment of us. Those people who oppose know; this is an expensive endeavor, and someone has to pay. Those of the more fiscally conservative mind will flat out reject it, even if they are a primarily Democratic voter. So instead of telling them to shut up and get on board, policy adjustments are in order so that more people are covered in the arena of agreement. But we've stopped allowing that because of an all or nothing approach. This costs us dearly, and we aren't really allowed to speak in this tone so this problem can be addressed. Hell, right now I'm worried that I'll draw an alert for even addressing such a notion here. And THAT is a problem for us all.
We may not like this fact of life, but it's right there in our faces for us to deal with. Pretending it's not there won't help us in the slightest. We know that if you adjust policy for the purposes of broader acceptance, the scope of the policy grows smaller for every group that is satisfied. But that small policy is something that can be voted on and passed.
It is the extremes that hurt us. We live in a world with other people, half of them disagree with us, and a lot of those even hate us. We may despise them in turn, but they aren't going away, and there is absolutely nothing we can do about them being here. All we CAN do is start trying to compromise enough to gain those larger majorities. There is no other viable path, and we really do need to start being more open to discussing those options among ourselves.