Independents are financially disadvantaged in the political arena so someone also needs to figure out how to mount a winning campaign without big money. Elizabeth Warren did well this last election on that front until she was effectively scrubbed by the media.
Democrats have two problems that put them at a competitive disadvantage every election. One, the political vote distribution favors conservatives based on geography. Two, their base is far more diverse across several criteria so they have to work harder and tread more carefully to keep the base together and not push needed Independents toward the Republican candidate by speaking in extremes.
Republicans take advantage of that and use it to denigrate liberals.
That said, it’s true they haven’t always been as strategic as they could be in dealing with conservative yammering. They also failed to deal with Moscow Mitch effectively. And they failed to see the threat brewing in the Republican fringe until it was too late.
That said, Republicans should have policed their own. How weak is it to depend on Democrats to do what you should want to take care of in house? How does that make you a good leader or a problem solver to know there’s a problem and not deal with it? Independents are looking at Republicans now over recent situations with Cheney, Goehmer, Boebert, Greene, and Gaetz, and seeing weakness and corruption. Jan 6th cleared up a lot of the back and forth for a lot of people on the fence. They’re paying better attention now, and looking at what parties are doing more than what they’re saying or the name calling and finger pointing back and forth.
Republicans are showing weakness.
Democrats have two advantages. They won the culture wars before Republicans bothered to show up. They win hands down by the numbers nearly every election—the bulk of the electorate is ready to progress into the 21st century. It’s a matter of time before the old guard perishes and real, meaningful, structuralchange begins. The questions here are whether is we get there in one piece as one nation or not and whether we get there before it’s too late to make a difference with our looming energy and environmental crises.
