Stop Respecting the American Voter

The fatal flaw in how Democrats approach the electorate.

Image by Phlebotomy Tech

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“I love the poorly educated.”

- Donald Trump

“We have to earn people’s trust back,” a Democratic “strategist” told Politico, an idea that seems both banal and unobjectionable. How could it be bad to have voters trust your party more? Wouldn’t that make it easier to win votes? Isn’t this the problem Democrats face?

No, it isn’t. Energy they spend perseverating on questions such as “Do voters trust us?” distracts them from the principal political task of the opposition, which is to convince voters that the ruling party is terrible and should be tossed from office at the first available opportunity. It sends them down a road of apology, hesitation, and weakness, the same road Democrats have traveled again and again. It always leads to the same destination: defeat.

There are many ways to think about this challenge; for now I want to focus on an idea that maintains a problematic hold on Democrats: respect.

In short, Democrats should stop trying so hard to show respect to voters.

My stars, only a snobby coastal elitist could say such a thing! But almost all the success Republicans have ever had comes from their complete lack of respect for voters. Democrats don’t have to simply duplicate what Republicans do in order to win elections, and they don’t have to try to disrespect voters. But they do need to understand that worrying about whether they’re being sufficiently respectful will get them nowhere.

The respect trap

In our recent book about rural politics, Tom Schaller and I observed that innumerable strategists and commentators have told Democrats that the solution to their steadily draining vote totals among rural whites is more respect. Show up to rural areas, listen to people, demonstrate that you understand their lives and their struggles. Hold their gaze and nod along while they talk. Respect them.

Which is exactly what Democrats have been doing in response. Kamala Harris, for instance, campaigned in rural places, picked a running mate with a rural background, put out a rural revitalization plan, and hired a capable rural organizer to head up her rural efforts. It was all very respectful. And what did it yield? Not a damn thing. While we’re still awaiting better data, from exit polls it appears that if anything, Trump expanded on his already overwhelming support among rural whites. He made none of the attempts to show respect for rural voters that Harris did, but he won their votes anyway.

Rural whites are just one subset of the electorate, but it’s a symptom of a larger problem: For Democrats, treating voters with respect too often means believing the voters are what Democrats would like them to be: reasonable, thoughtful, logical, and informed.

This is not how Republicans campaign. They assume the worst of the electorate. They believe voters are ignorant, easily manipulated, amoral, ungenerous, and governed by emotions, especially the darkest ones. No one has less respect for voters than Republicans do. Especially Donald Trump.

Does that always work? No. Democrats win plenty of elections. But the Republican approach does tend to produce messages that are simpler, easier to understand, and more emotionally resonant. This is not a new problem; for as long as I’ve been alive, Democrats have been saying “I respect you, which is why I think you’ll find that my 10-point plan has a great deal to commend it.” This is from The Onion’s book Our Dumb Century, which came out in 1999:

You don’t have to have the kind of contempt Republicans have for voters to fashion a less respect-thirsty politics. You do have to accept certain facts, including the following:

1. Most people, and especially people without firm partisan commitments, pay very little attention to politics. As a consequence, their understanding of the facts, relationships, and ideas that order the political world is often fuzzy at best.

2. Persuadable voters do not necessarily have fixed and immovable opinions or priorities; that’s why they’re persuadable.

3. Voters do not approach political decision-making through a process of logical reasoning. They respond to emotional appeals and are highly influenced by identity-based ideas.

4. One of the easiest ways to turn voters off is by obsessing over whether they dislike you.

On the last point: As I’ve argued before, Democrats need more charismatic politicians whom voters will be attracted to. But the problem with seeing the “do they like us” question through the prism of respect is that it winds up being about trying to avoid voters’ dislike, which means being apologetic and timid. If you’re constantly worried about whether people believe you’re treating them with enough respect, it doesn’t leave room to make a more forceful case against your opponents. You wind up thinking crazy things like “Voters will reward us for showing that we’re open to bipartisan solutions to problems.”

But what about all those people who keep telling reporters and focus group moderators that they’re mad because Democrats don’t treat them with respect? One must understand that they don’t believe that because of Democratic policies or Democratic attitudes. They believe that because they’ve been told so thousands upon thousands of times by their elected representatives and the conservative media from which they learn about the world. An obscure college professor making a condescending remark about Republican voters to their twelve Instagram followers will get more coverage in that media than Republicans with power trying to take health coverage away from millions of their own constituents.

Which means that no matter how respectful Democrats try to be, voters will still be inundated with that “They think they’re better’n you!” message. The way to break past it isn’t for Democrats to bow and scrape even deeper, it’s to stand up for themselves. Show some self-respect — the courage of their convictions, a willingness to oppose a still-unpopular president without fear — and keep attacking Trump and the Republicans for the damage they’re doing. “Donald Trump thinks you’re a sucker, and he’s trying to screw you” is going to be much more persuasive than “We Democrats respect you, please don’t hate us.”