When this election is over, win or lose, we Dems need to reckon with something.

We - me included - have spent endless time spotlighting the immoral and corrupt things Trump has done - as if people seeing them is enough to change their minds.

For some people, it is.

1/

We haven’t reckoned with a thornier reality though:

Too many people aren’t swayed by bad things because they don’t think they’re actually bad.

Having a crime on tape isn’t compelling to a jury that doesn’t believe it’s a crime.

2/

And being blunt, I’m talking about primarily white people here.

The array of comments I’ve seen in the past day from white people who still support Trump has really been something.

3/

And it isn’t the virulent, summer-toothed MAGAs I’m talking about.

It’s the “nice, polite folks” under posts like Jack Nicklaus’ endorsement of Trump.

People who use “tolerance” to mean “not holding things against shitty people.”

4/

We have a morality and character problem.

We’ve tried to solve it by showcasing Trump’s immorality.

Thankfully, I think there are enough Americans to carry an election that way.

But it shouldn’t be close like this.

5/

When this election is over, we need to reckon with that and take a good, long look at how we go after the root problem of a selfish electorate that lacks the foundation to see morality, ethics and character as virtues.

6/

And the irony ringing in my head as I type this is that the problem accelerated dramatically when bad actors said almost the exact same thing.

Newt Gingrich and the right hijacked the language of morality.

7/

We need to take it back. And we need to root out the moral rot of the past forty years.

There can be no sustained renewal until a community agrees on its social contract.

8/

We’ve been trying desperately to show enough evidence of bad acts to enough good people to win an election.

And we haven’t really reconciled with the fact that the problem isn’t a shortage of bad acts; it is a surplus of shitty people.

That needs addressing.

9/9