In recent years, rhetoric from the Democrats has been getting increasingly abrasive. When was the last time you heard anything resembling a logical argument in favor a policy they want? All we get from them are red-hot personal attacks that keep their base riled up but repel people who make their decisions rationally.

In his latest Bastiat’s Window post, Bob Graboyes has some advice for the Democrats — try persuasion rather than abrasion.

Here’s a slice:

[9] If you vilify masses of voters, you won’t persuade me. If you instinctively presume—even silently—that voters who chose Donald Trump over Kamala Harris are either (1) racist, sexist, and homophobic or (2) stupid, then your capacity to persuade will be nil. To sway voters to your side, you must ask yourself, sincerely and sympathetically, why a decent, well-informed voter would vote the other way. Consider the peculiar juxtaposition of well-educated, high-earning white people slinging the “racist, sexist, and homophobic” charge at the millions of Trump-voting African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, Jewish Americans, Muslim Americans, Native Americans, LGBTQ Americans, not to mention women. More than once, I noted this incongruity to left-leaning friends and asked whether their status as well-educated, high-earning, white heterosexuals gives them special insights unavailable to darker-skinned and non-hetero Americans.

What if, say, Chuck Schumer happened to read Graboyes’ post. Any chance that he’d take it to heart? I’d say no, because he knows that calm and rational argumentation over public policy won’t keep his base voters at fever pitch.  They’ve been raised to expect personal attacks and anything else would risk losing them. Also, persuasion might backfire. Their arguments might be shown to be fallacious.

So, it’s a nice idea, Bob, but I don’t think you’ll get any takers.