The primary reason why is very simple: The Republican Party is more than just a party in the minds of too many Americans, from their base to swing voting moderates. The GOP has succeeded in marketing their brand as an cultural identity, both personal and national, in the subconscious minds of too many Americans. Due to decades of GOP marketing propaganda, too many moderate and independent Americans that Democrats need to win over in order to regain their majority have a subconscious bias for the Republican Party as the party of American values, security, military strength, and economic efficiency; and Democrats as the party of weakness, minority rights over white Christian people, economic inefficiency and welfare. That’s the perception many people have of the two parties — doesn’t matter if it’s actually true or not. As a consequence, Democrats are fighting a perception war rather than a war of facts and results. This means that even though polls may show that a majority of Americans support various select positions on the Democratic platform — many Americans don’t trust Democrats to pass these policies due to the impression they have of the Democratic Party. This was observed in ACA — many Americans loved the benefits provided by the law as long as they weren’t told it was Obamacare, or told that was passed by Obama and the Democratic Party. This example extends beyond the ACA to every single entry on the Democratic Party’s platform, from gun control to single-payer to war in the middle east. This is called the halo / horns effect. This is why Republicans can get away with calling Obama a secret Russian manchurian candidate his entire presidency, and rally behind Trump when he fellates Putin. It is a battle that the Democratic Party can never win because it constantly forces Democrats to play defense to counter the relentless onslaught of false perception, rendering them unable to reshape popular perception of Democrats or have a honest debate on the issues without distraction. Democrats will always be explaining why they’re not the party of slavery anymore, or why they’re not communists, or why they’re not anti-white or anti Christian more than they are given a chance to shape perception of what they stand for. That is by design. In every other competitive context, this problem is easily solved by changing a much superficial layer of perception to influence first impression. For example, a business that has had bad PR can simply change their brand name and logo and the general public will never be the wiser. The Tea Party accomplished this to great effect — they were in fact the same extremist base of the GOP that has always existed in its modern conception, the base that drives the direction of the party. Democrats, on the other hand, have a tendency to hippie punch and marginalize any nascent rebranding attempt in their ranks Mark Penn style, and scold them to fall in line and march along the same neoliberal course that has costed them hundreds of seats over the past 23 years. The second reason why the Democratic Party won’t save us is because the election map favors a Republican congressional majority. I’m not talking about gerrymandering either — I’m talking about the fact that too many young and moderate people have been migrating away from rural regions to live in urban population centers over the past two decades. leaving large stretches of the country to reliably conservative voters who are the GOPs best footsoldiers in this perception war. The only Democratic politician the party can hope to elect from these regions are Blue Dog conserva-Dems that reliably vote with the GOP given every opportunity, and are happy to stab the Democratic president in the back and run from his accomplishments if they feel it is politically expedient to do so.
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