I think the Dems found the:“why not both?” meme when it comes to politics against the maga Republicans, who gave up on competing on policy years ago. They’ve only been competing by creating these dumb “culture wars” and ad hominem attacks of opponents. There is no principled position, there is no good faith arguments, there is no limit to their hypocrisy.
The Democrats have been getting beat on messaging for years too.
What I think we are seeing now is a sea change. The Democrats have wildly popular policy and positions on most things. They win on policy.
And now they arent letting the Republicans get away with being “weird” hypocritical unprincipled lunatics that lack substance. They aren’t ceding the field on the “manipulation” that Republicans have been engaging in for years. Call them weird. Call them old. Call them criminals.
If they hit below the belt, hit back. If they stay on the high road, meet them there. But as soon as they want to mudsling, slap em in the face with a well deserved mud pie.
When democracy is at stake you can’t afford to lose an election because you wanted to avoid calling a couch-fucking creep, weird.
I’ll also add, I think the reason you are seeing such a ground swell in Democrat support and a dogpile on JD Vance is the pent up frustration of years of Dems being doormats and not squaring up and fighting back.
This is how you beat a bully. You have to bloody their nose. Turn the other cheek sounds great but you quickly run out of cheeks. Fight back.