What Trump supporters and Christians have in common

[Tonus]

Here's the thing, though. Can we (I mean liberals/progressives) win elections when we frame everyone else as morons?

No, but that wasn't my point. There are people out there who will accept the most off-the-wall-bizarre ideas because they have access to sources that feed it to them. Media today makes it easy to stay in a bubble while feeling as if you're tapped into a lot of information sources. You don't get past that by calling them names or by slapping them on the wrists for making poor choices.

You get past it by finding a way to make a discussion of the issues compelling. This is difficult because the past 30-50 years of election cycles have shown us that going negative and attacking character is often more effective than focusing on policy. And that is at least in part because the issues can be complex and complicated and people, in general, don't want that-- they want simple problems with simple solutions because our brains evolved that way. Nonetheless, the media missed many opportunities to ask Trump how he would govern because it was easier to make fun of him since everyone thought he was going to lose big. The same media that mercilessly exposed Sarah Palin --who wasn't even the top of her ticket-- over and over thought that mocking Trump's hair and hands was sufficient. Pence should have been an easy target but the media --again, the same one that exposed Palin-- forgot he existed.

So there is a path for future elections: take the candidates seriously and ask the tough policy questions instead of scouring twitter for tidbits that can be construed as racism.