"They Think You're Stupid"

Democrats need to worry less about how voters feel about Democrats and more about how voters feel about Republicans.

Photo by Gage Skidmore

With President Trump’s poll numbers swirling the drain, Democrats are once again asking themselves: How can we appeal to people who voted for Trump, but are unhappy with how that worked out for them? How can we gain a foothold in places that have turned against us?

There are good answers and bad answers to these questions, but even the smarter people trying to answer them tend to focus their attention in the wrong direction. Everyone is asking how to change what persuadable voters think about Democrats, but they hardly ever ask how to change what those voters think about Republicans. Not just in a short-term way or in regard to some policy decision, but in a deep, fundamental way that transcends issues and persists over time.

This is strikingly different from the way Republicans approach their electoral challenges. They work every day to convince voters that they should distrust, resent, and despise Democrats, irrespective of what those voters might think about any policy issue or turn of events. It’s something Democrats need to wise up to — and fortunately, there has seldom been a better opportunity to make persuasive arguments about their opponents.

Let’s take a quick look at some of what’s happening. First, Greg Sargent reports that Democratic group American Bridge plans to spend $50 million on the midterms, targeting “House districts in some pretty pro-Trump areas in rural North Carolina, central Pennsylvania, and Iowa farm country.” Their polling shows that “a lot of voters in these red places blame Trump and the GOP for their economic woes.”

Expanding the map into Republican territory — great idea! After all, Trump has done extraordinary damage to these places. Farmers in particular have been absolutely hammered by Trump’s policy decisions, including disastrous tariffs that resulted in the closing of foreign markets; severe cuts to agricultural and rural development programs; and the misbegotten Iran war that has driven up prices for diesel and fertilizer. While farmers are a small portion of the population even in rural areas, the farm economy is broad and involves many people, which may help explain why races in places like Iowa are much tighter than anyone thought they would be.

You could do a similar analysis of many different voting blocs that Trump won but who have now at least partially turned against him. Here’s one more article that isn’t about voters per se but exhibits the same dynamic, about how the explosion in Trump’s wealth and that of his family since he took office has been built not just on crypto scams, but on crypto scams that depended on fleecing MAGA voters who put their faith in Trump to make them rich, then quickly saw the value of their investments evaporate:

All but three of the 27 individual investors interviewed for this article said they knew of Donald Trump’s history of bankruptcies, unpaid contractors and failed ventures. Still, most said they believed that his position at the apex of American political power and what they perceived as his business acumen ensured lucrative returns on their investments. Many acknowledged doing little or no due diligence. Some said they still hold on to the hope that Trump will make things right. Others expressed regret, anger and embarrassment.

Regret, anger, and embarrassment — lots of voters no doubt feel the same way. That’s what unites these stories, and why it’s important not just to communicate that Trump screwed up, but that he did so — with the enthusiastic help of his party — because of their contempt for ordinary people. It’s not enough to say “Bad stuff happened and it was those guys’ fault.” Democrats have to make an argument that is much more personal and fundamental.

The trouble with apologizing

The professional centrists in the Democratic Party look at a moment like this one and say “Now those moderate voters will finally be open to our apology! We can go to them and say ‘We know you think we suck, and you’re right, we do suck, but we’re going to try to do better.’” More progressive Democrats find this message repugnant; in fact, for many of them the first reaction to hearing that Trump voters are realizing that he screwed them is to say “Serves you right, dumbass. Were you actually so clueless you didn’t realize he was lying to you?”

That sentiment is often accompanied by a strategic assessment that rather than wasting more time trying to appeal to Trump voters, it’s far better to devote energy to finding new voters and mobilizing those who only occasionally participate. But that strategic assessment is at least partly an emotional reaction to being told that now, after being proven right, they’re supposed to go hat in hand to the same voters who put the country in this nightmare and ask them — kindly, gently, apologetically — if they might consider voting differently in the future.

It sticks in those progressives’ craws, and it should. Because Democrats have been told the same thing for years, and it has gotten them nowhere.

I’m particularly attuned to how this plays out on the question of Democrats and rural America, but the same dynamic can be seen whenever we talk about Trump voters. The trouble is that Democrats have been lectured endlessly about how they need to apologize and listen to Trump voters so that they might make them feel more warmly toward Democrats, while barely anyone acknowledges how absolutely vital it is that they work to change how these voters feel about Republicans.

Another recent example: this well-meaning piece by Anthony Flaccavento of the Rural Urban Bridge Initiative, an effort to build support for progressive ideas in rural America. It’s all about re-establishing trust among rural folk by showing them that Democrats understand and care about them, and aren’t that different from them after all. And like every such book and article I’ve encountered in the years I’ve been reporting and researching this subject, it says barely a word about Republicans.

I continue to find this omission utterly mind-boggling.

Which is why at least part of the solution has to be for Democrats to say the following to everyone who voted for Trump and is now feeling glimmers of doubt, wherever they live:

Republicans think you’re stupid.

Not “You’re stupid for voting for Republicans,” but “Republicans think you’re stupid.” Which they absolutely do. They tell you that tax cuts for the rich will help you. They tell you when they lose it’s because of voter fraud. Trump tells you rising prices aren’t real, and this is a “golden age,” and that immigrants are the source of your problems, and that liberal protesters are all paid, and that we already won the Iran war, and that he cares about you. They pick your pocket and laugh at you behind your back.

Trump thinks you’re stupid, and so do all the other Republicans you elect, the ones who don’t do a damn thing to improve your community and then come around every four years and say you should be angry about a trans middle schooler playing softball or some other story they came up with so you won’t hold them responsible for what they’ve done. Go to the polls, fix an image of some snooty liberal in your head, shout “You think you’re better’n me?” and pull that lever for the party of tax cuts for the rich and deregulation for corporations. That’s what they want you to do, because they think you’re stupid.

This is a very difficult argument for most Democratic politicians to make. Whenever they talk to Trump voters they quiver with fear, terrified of saying something insulting or unkind. Because they’re thinking only “How can I get these people to like me?” rather than “How can I get these people to focus their anger where it ought to go?” The they-think-you’re-stupid argument is effective because it plays on powerful emotions, and because in this case, it’s true.

Another benefit of putting They think you’re stupid at the center of the appeal Democrats make to Trump voters is that it will help them look like they aren’t so weak. That perception of weakness is the biggest problem the Democratic Party has, and it’s not about whether they support “tough” policies on crime or foreign invasions. It’s about how they don’t seem like they have the courage of their convictions, especially when they try to talk to moderate and conservative voters.

And yes, some Trump voters may be offended when you tell them that Republicans think they’re stupid. It could make them suspect that they are stupid, and they got suckered, which nobody likes to admit. But if you go to a rural area and say “I just want to listen” without saying “You got screwed, and the people you voted for are the ones who did it to you,” you’ll get nowhere.

It may seem like a fantasy that significant numbers of Trump supporters will awaken as if from a long slumber, squint as their eyes adjust to the light, and say “Hold on — Republicans do think we’re stupid!” But one of the reasons it hasn’t happened on any scale is that no one has been making the case to them. No one has had the guts to tell them the truth. This is the best opportunity Democrats have had in years to make that case, and if they let it go by without taking advantage of it, they’d be fools.

Thank you for reading The Cross Section. This site has no paywall, so I depend on the generosity of readers to sustain the work I present here. If you find what you read valuable and would like it to continue, consider becoming a paid subscriber.