You are missing the point nearly entirely . We lost the election because there are way more people out there than we thought that actively resist progress . We shouldn ' t have to rely on energizing the base . People should vote because it is their civic duty not because it is energizing , whatever the fuck that means . I like how we call trump ' s base energized now , not borderline fanatically hateful and vengeful . We lost because we underestimated white hate . We didn ' t think we needed to hold white people ' s hands and make them feel special to get them to vote correctly . We proved that politicians aren ' t even the fucking problem in this backward ass country . It is the electorate that is hopelessly mired in hate and ignorance . And the electorate wants it that way . There is no need for some conspiracy of the politicians to keep them undereducated and overreactive . My attitude , although obviously shitty , has nothing to do with why asshole midwestern conservatives are among the worst people alive . I am from the midwest , I live among them unfortunately , and if I make my attitude more amenable to these apes it will make no fucking difference . The problems are far deeper and more troubling than adjusting the attitudes of the justifiably arrogant left .