The trouble is that the Right has managed to commandeer the media and the public stage to appeal to a specific group of people, who fear change and The Other. Those people are willing to go out and vote, because of that fear.

There is no similar effort coming from the Left, who are probably less comfortable with sheer propaganda as a means of instilling fear. The Left, dog help us, hope to win by appealing to voters’ minds and common sense. Plus, the Dems seem reluctant to call out the BS coming from the Religious Right, because talking about religion can be counter-productive, if not self-destructive.

The Dems in KY took the even more damaging tactic of minimizing their connections to Obama, without whom Kynect would not even exist. They could have made it plain as day that 400,000 people in the Commonwealth have health coverage now because of Obama, a Democrat. Meanwhile, it has been the GOP in Congress that has repeatedly tried to kill the ACA. For Conway to win, he needed the votes from the urban areas and university towns, and it seems those people just stayed home, letting Bevins, et alia, win.

The Democrats need to get more aggressive and dog-eat-dog political. Maybe reading some books about LBJ and the city machines run by Democrats would help.