There's a serious case that Dems need to respect voters less, not more.

[DanTex]

It's hard to look at 2016 and come to the conclusion that the candidate who respected voters more won. First, Trump routinely insulted the majority of them -- everyone who wasn't a straight white christian male. Then, Trump lied constantly, and anyone will tell you that lying is a serious sign of disrespect. Fact checkers rated Trump the least honest and Hillary the most honest of the entire primary fields.

To draw a sales analogy, Trump was the late night infomercial salesman. Dishonest and scummy. But not all salespeople are like that. If you want to buy, for example, a musical instrument, typically you will get someone knowledgeable and honest who tells you facts and helps you make a good decision. I've had great experiences with salespeople when buying computer equipment.

Hillary was more a like the computer salesperson. Lots of facts, trying to come up with solutions that would actually help voters/clients with their needs, not disrespecting them with lies and false promises.

Here's the problem. People who are in the market for customized computer machinery are intelligent and well-informed about the product they buy. People who are in the late-night infomercial market are not. And the American electorate, by and large, is not intelligent and well informed.

Here's where someone says "insulting the intelligence of voters isn't going to win elections." Which is true: I don't think any politician should campaign on a platform of "you are all idiots, vote for me." But I'm not a politician.

Late night infomercial salesmen don't say "you are going to buy this because you are dumb and will believe anything". Instead they lie. But you can be quite sure that behind the scenes, the people crafting the marketing strategy aren't thinking "gee, people looking to buy snake oil at 1am are really smart discerning people, let's make an honest case about how our product will suit their needs."

The Dems need to recognize that their audience, the electorate, is dumber than they think.