Possibly the most important thing: Dems need to get better at the propaganda wars.

[frazzled]

43. And we do a very good job of the positive type of purposeful persuasion

as evidenced by the 2 million plus more votes we got nationally. Messaging is not our biggest problem. The problem is that there are large swaths of the nation that prefer the other side's message, because they harbor resentments based on bigotry, racism, and fear. And they don't want to identify themselves with a party that includes lots of people of color and educated people. They themselves are white and uneducated, and they see our rainbow coalition of minorities and hoity toity intellectuals as repulsive. So yeah, we could raise the populist flag and talk to the uneducated white working class and pretend that the black people and Hispanic people and the professors don't exist and don't matter. But that would be wrong, too: and we could gain some of the workers but lose the rest of us.

Trying to reduce this election to a single parameter, such as messaging, is foolish. A large nexus of factors played into the presidential and state and local elections: from structural issues such as the electoral college math and gerrymandering to media equivalencies and social media and fake news to voter suppression and voter apathy. And then there were the nonvoters and third party voters, which were the biggest problem at all.

We live in perilous times, where right wing positions are predominating not just here but all over the world.

The Democratic Party put on one of the best conventions I've seen in my many years. The messaging was compelling and moving, and was inclusive of every segment of society. Pounding fists and gnashing teeth with fiery bromides and exaggerated promises is not the messaging I want to see.