Republicans Learned What Democrats Forgot

[applegrove]

Republicans Learned What Democrats Forgot

May 21, 2026 at 10:19 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 271 Comments

https://politicalwire.com/2026/05/21/republicans-learned-what-democrats-forgot/

But the most devastating conclusion is also the simplest: Republicans are just better at politics.

The report describes a GOP that floods the zone with its message, keeps the pressure on constantly and understands that politics is not a graduate seminar.

Democrats, by contrast, are portrayed as too cautious, too slow and too committed to winning the argument while Republicans focus on winning the election.

One passage says it plainly: “At times, it seems Democrats are trying to win arguments while Republicans are focused on winning elections. Democrats operate in an ecosystem defined by reason even in cycles when the electorate is defined by rage.”

[thucythucy]

1. It's so much easier to win elections

if you have no problem with lying, cheating, and breaking the law. A huge tolerance for hypocrisy also helps.

That's the real disadvantage Democrats face. They're not willing to be as duplicitous and smarmy as Republicans.

[FoxNewsSucks]

2. Also, "R" voters are gullible and weak-minded. They yearn to be told what to think and do.

And their "team" is their whole identity.

That's why lying, cheating and stealing works so well for that side.

[Johonny]

5. And have access to the tools that flood the zone

The GOP control radio, TV, print, and now social media.

They can easily flood a zone, or prevent the flooding of a zone.

[dalton99a]

3. Important truth: People vote on emotion.

Not common sense or logic.

[Scubamatt]

7. This is so true

Pathos beats logos in the general population as a basis for decision-making.

[a kennedy]

4. and tRump IS THE BEST AT IT.

🤬 🤬 🤬

[underpants]

6. Well Repubs have a fully devoted highly rated TV network, all of talk radio,

and a complicit “mainstream media”.

We have nothing like that.

[ColoringFool]

8. That you'll never go broke underestimating.....?

[tanyev]

9. Republicans don't care about actually governing,

so they have more time available to focus on winning the next election.

[betsuni]

10. "The message is clear: Those liberals are coming for you and your family. Though you are the truest Americans,

they hate you and everything you stand for. They call you a racist and a redneck. They want to force their perverted ideas about sex and family on you. And the best way to fight back is to vote Republican -- and forget about those democratic principles you learned about in school. This is a war, and it's no time to play fair.

"It may seem strange to think that a person in rural Nebraska or Oklahoma could be instructed by a pundit from Washington, D.C., on a TV network owned by an Australian media magnate, on how to understand their own identity. ... It isn't just the conservative media; these kinds of messages are reinforced even by the mainstream outlets ... . If a small town, blue-collar man is the most authentic American, then the fact that his vote counts for more than a Black urban lawyer or a Latino suburban government worker won't arouse the outrage and demand for change that it might had he not been so valorized."

Tom Schiller and Paul Waldman, "White Rural Rage"