pileus
I saw this as I was posing my last. I sort of covered some of your points in that but let me add to them.
Yes the Republican strategy is a long term one. Its ideological beginning goes back to the time of FDR really. It took time to develop and gel and has taken some different paths at times of course. But the very wealthy and those of the Libertarian bent have worked this for a long time. There is a reason that Ayn Rand is the philosopher they look up to the most.
Many may not know it but the father of the Koch brothers Charles and David, who torment our lives today, one Fred Koch was a founding member of the John Birch Society in 1958. An anti-communist/Libertarian organization. In 1971 David Koch was a founding member of the US Libertarian Party (a rebranding of a political/economic philosophy originally called anarcho-Capitalism in the late 1800's). As we know the Koch brothers and their myrid of various think tanks and political entities have been pushing and funding much of the Republican agenda for the last 30-40 years.
I must disagree with your statement
...Yes, “they aren’t trying to win us over,” and in fact Democrats and others should not try to win the hopeless portion of “them” over, which is probably 25-30% of the electorate, that is hardened right wing conservative. The battle continues to be for that elusive 10-30% of voters and citizens that are still open to reason, facts (yes, they do exist), emotional appeals, and constructive policy....
I think that the best science on human thought and behavior has shown pretty conclusively that almost no one (low single digits) have the actual ability to reason rationally and logically. Even trained scientists can be shown to not be able to do this reliably. This is the main reason that science tries to codify the process via the scientific method and peer review. People are primarily driven by and make their decisons via subconscious mental processes (genetic triggers) as determined by our evolutionary development. Thus your mention of emotional appeals is accurate. But those appeals which work best are the ones in heavy use by others than Democrats. Nationalism, populism, xenophobia, etc are the bread and butter of those who know how to use those appeals. I see no evidence that the Democrats have any skill in this - and Trump certainly does have skill in this (if not much else). The mainstream Democrats like Clinton (a moderate Republican in a pantsuit) do make some attempt of course but it is weak in comparison.
Giving up on facts and truth entirely, just because the “other side” doesn’t acknowledge it, would be a grave mistake. But we also need to acknowledge a sizable portion of that side will never be persuaded with any type of appeal. Focus on where hay can be made.
I disagree once again. The 'grave mistake' is to lose for none of what you want to accomplish will happen if you lose. So this is where the phrase "Winning isn't everything; it is the only thing." applies. This is the lesson that the wealthy learned during the years of FDR and took it to heart. You have to fight and fight to win no matter what.
Once again you speak of 'your' facts and truths as if they are the true word. You may think this but the majority of people will not ever accept your version of the truth because 'their' facts and truths are different than yours and thus it is obvious to them that you have no idea what you are talking about.
You are never going to persuade anyone with reason. People are persuaded by the winners as history has shown. People subconsciously support the winners because they won - it is human nature. The winners get to define what is right, what is wrong, what happened, who was good and bad, what the 'facts and truths' are. The losers do what they are told or else.
Playing mainstream politics in this country will change nothing. We need a revolution.