Far too much of the American psyche is driven by sloganeering, style-over-substance, and shiny-object distraction. There also seems to be a mass-hysteria version of the dynamic one sometimes sees in child abuse survivors, where they blame/hate the parent who failed to protect them more than the one who committed the abuse.

So…while GOPers may be seen as the aggressors, Dems are seen as too weak/passive which in turn breeds voter apathy and contempt (don’t believe me? Read just about any comment thread on dKos e_e).

I hate the saying “perception is reality” because it’s true - that’s what we’ve been reduced to. So in answer to:

re: #61 JordanRules

Equality, Fairness, Justice, Opportunity, Competance

…Dems need to repeat that (or a similar message) until it engenders a Pavlovian mental association in the minds of voters (I bet, if I asked a random sample of people for the first word that came to mind when I said “Hillary Clinton”, they’d reflexively reply either “crooked” or “emails” just because of how often it was repeated). The brilliance of Obama’s 2008 campaign were the words “Hope” and “Change” - he managed to associate them with himself, so much so that even some racists voted for him.