Sad but True?

It's not what you say, it's how people feel about you when you say it. It's almost like he's channeling Stephen Colbert speaking about truthiness but the Anonymous Liberal, in a post entitled The Lesson Every Democratic Politician Must Learn, quotes extensively from a Paul Waldman op-ed in the Boston Globe, in which he says that Dems need to learn...

that politics is not about issues. Politics is about identity. The candidates and parties that win are not those aligning their positions most precisely with a majority of the electorate. The winners are those who form a positive image in the public mind of who they are (and a negative image of who their opponents are). Issues are a vehicle to create that identity, one that combines with symbolism and narrative to shape what the public thinks about when they think about Democrats and Republicans.

[...]

But strength doesn't flow from a policy proposal, and it can't be demonstrated with a hawkish vote. The public will be convinced that Democrats are strong when they stand up for their beliefs, take political risks, and don't run scared every time they get attacked by Republicans. Think about it this way: Martin Luther King Jr. was a pacifist, and no one ever called him weak.

In short, it isn't about voting the way you think the public wants you to vote, and it isn't about your 10-point plan. It's about who you are.

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The Republicans don't win by endorsing a platform of positions each designed to appeal to a majority of people. Any number of planks on the Republican platform are extreme and would never garner majority support on their own. But through selective emphasis, focus on character, and general framing of issues, the Republicans still manage to win. And they've done so without ever trying to move to the center. What Republicans long ago realized is that voters don't vote for a platform. They often vote for a person. Sometimes they vote for a single issue.
But generally, they have little understanding of the parties' platforms and aren't all that interested in policy. Republicans understand this and try their hardest to turn elections into referendums on someone's character or on a single hot button issue. Meanwhile, Democratic strategists spend all their time tweaking the party's platform, trying to make every position perfectly moderate. The fact is, there is more than enough red meat in the progressive agenda to sell to America. So rather than trying to jettison any position that isn't approved of by over 50% of the country, Democrats need to spend a lot more time on the art of politics, on framing and selective emphasis. They need to spend less time studying Republican positions and more time studying Republican strategy.