DAMMIT, you're all overthinking it.

[JMCKUSICK]

35. Not sure if that was snark

The party needs to stop trying around election time and build a lasting infrastructure. Instead of running non-stop ads with that money, build from the ground up.
A great restaurant gains it's loyal customers one experience at at time. One of the best meals I've ever eaten was at Mike Shannon's Steakhouse in St. Louis, Mo in 1989. I recommended it to anyone who cared to listen for almost 30 years until he retired and closed it.
I was visiting the area and plucked it out the yellow pages and my family walked in at 9pm and they treated us like royalty even though we were all in jeans and t-shirts. Everything was perfect, the bread fresh, the lettuce on my salad ice cold, the steak a perfect MR. The four of us were the equivalent of rural voters that Dems have pretty much abandoned. Mike Shannon's treated us like we'd been going there for years.
Dems decided we weren't worth the investment a long long time ago and you can tell.
The Entire Rural Map of America is deep red.
As long as people keep blaming voters and refusing to look in the mirror, this will only get worse.
Maybe my best analogy would be the Miami Dolphins.
They won Super Bowls in 72 and 73. Since the early 80's to today with some lean years built in, (sound familiar?) they have fielded very competitive teams that were exciting to watch but couldn't win the super bowl again.
When are we going to remember that winning teams win because of what they do, not because they're "right" on paper?