And the Winning Answer Is

[tclambert]

39. Clearly, intelligent discussion of the nuances of complex issues doesn't work.

Stupid people need simple, even over-simplified messages. The Republicans have shown some skill at crafting such propaganda ("Build the Wall!" "Lock her up!&quot , while Democrats kept trying to carefully explain policy positions and made eyes glaze over. It disappoints me, but I think you have to fight repeated propaganda slogans with your own repeated propaganda slogans. I'd like to think sticking closer to the truth has some value. I think making the opposition look ridiculous helps, too. That's where Hillary's lack of comedic skills hurt her.

For example, with regard to her private e-mail server, I think she should have said, "I confess! I DID use a private e-mail server . . . just like every Secretary of State before me, all the way back to Thomas Jefferson. It's true! Really, it's true. Thomas Jefferson was the first Secretary of State. And even back then, the State Department did not have good e-mail servers."

With regard to Trump's Wall, I wish she had branded it a "Magic Wall." "Because it would take a Magic Wall to keep Mexicans from climbing over. Without magic, it would just be a waste of twenty billion dollars." After making fun of his stupid magic wall, then she could discuss some of the difficulties, and some of Obama's successes, in fighting illegal immigration. But if you repeat the joke often enough, maybe you can get regular people to laugh at the stupid people when they chant, "Build the Wall!" "You mean the Magic Wall?"

In my experience, stupid people tend to shut up if you laugh at them. If you try to argue with them sensibly, following the rules of formal logic, they just start shouting so much BS you can't fact-check it all. And then they'll argue that objective facts are liberal lies. But making fun of them puts them on the defensive. I don't know that it would win over their votes, but it demoralizes them and they might stay home. Meanwhile, the fence-sitters might say, "Yeah, I can't vote for the guy who wants to build a magic wall."