Look at the successes of the past, and learn from them. Don't over analyze them, just look at them as a more complete overview. Don't make the mistake of dismissing them just because they worked for the opposition.
First that I personally experienced, and can remember is Ronald Reagan. Reagan wanted to enact huge tax reforms, and instead of lobbying congress, went to the people and sold his vision. He used anecdotes, ideals and visions that the people could understand, and grasp. Now, we can make the mistake of debating the effects, and the negatives that resulted. But what did he do? He had a vision, an ideal that existed in his core, he was a true believer, and he was able to express that ideal to the people.
When you talk to a bible thumper, not one of the ignorant believers, but a truly educated believer, one who has studied the bible and the words therein, you are struck with the simple fact that they believe in their very core. There is no debating them, they believe passionately in their heart and soul. The same is true of pilots. When it comes to flying, they feel it as well as understand it logically. It is in their souls.
In 1994, Newt and the Republicans tapped into a sense of frustration in the American People. They formed the Contract with America. I know, it was a publicity stunt, but it worked. Because the Politicians seemed to be listening to the people, seemed to finally understand what the people thought was wrong.
The Reform party was a short lived phenomenon, but again it tapped into a feeling of betrayal by the two main parties and did rather well considering it was upstart outsiders.
Now, consider the election of President Obama. Hope and Change. Yes we can. These were ideals that the majority sincerely hoped would be the catalyst to great new things. The only problem was that the outline was pretty vague as to what those changes would be. So when the details started coming out, the people started to feel betrayed again. Then the asinine comments that ended up being the only sound bites the people got from Congress was even worse, if that is possible.
We won in 2006 by promising an open and responsive Congress. We lost in 2010 because "we had to pass it to find out what was in it" became the battle cry.
In the modern world, with everything you say, and everything you've ever said in the Internet somewhere, you can't be hypocritical in the slightest. In 2004, Steny Hoyer and many other Democrats denounced, properly in my mind, the Slaughter Rule of the deem and pass era. You can find endless quotes online, everyone can.
Then we used it, we used it to pass the ACA. If the RW Radio and Faux News didn't tell us that it was hypocritical, the most basic of browsing on the internet would have. We used a thing we denounced, to get something we wanted. The ends do not justify the means to most people outside of Washington.
We were lucky, they ran Romney, and the bigoted folks wouldn't turn out to vote for a Mormon. If they had run a more acceptable candidate to the RW core, they might have won in 2012. But we didn't take the House back, because all we ran on was that the Republicans were awful.
Do you see what I'm getting at now? President Carter's campaign took place when I was not yet ten years old. Yet I can remember the picture of him standing up there with his smile, and his "Hello, I'm Jimmy Carter" and I've read a great deal of his history. He believed in his core of personal sacrifice, and personal risk. The man went to Three Mile Island to show he was confident that they had the matter well in hand. Nobody since would have, and I doubt anyone before him would have either. Only President Carter could have gone, and only President Carter would have.
Core beliefs are evident to people who view you. Fred Phelps is an unequaled Jackass, but he really believes that nonsense he spouts. We can't always get lucky and hope that a segment of the Republicans stays home and we win by default. We can't have as our battle plan that our one selling point is we aren't the other guys. When you go to a baseball game, it isn't the NY Yankees playing some guys who wondered in off the street. They are playing another team, one who is playing to their strengths, and to the Yankee's weaknesses. They may win, the Yankees might win, but both teams are playing to win on their own strengths.
Right now, the Republicans are playing to win. They are playing to the populist anti ACA mood. That may carry them through the election, and then again it might not. My money is leaning towards the idea that it will. The question I have is will they get enough seats to take the Senate back? I'm leaning towards no, but only just.
Our strength is not that we are not the Republicans. Our strength is our ideals, or the ideals we used to have. We need to learn from those who have succeeded, we need to learn how to express our core beliefs, assuming we have any left in Washington, in a way that works to inspire the public. It's not about slogans, or sound bites. But we have to be smart there too.
Look at Kennedy's speech calling on us to go to the moon again.
http://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/ricetalk.htm
It wasn't just that we were going to the moon. He laid out the problems we faced. A rocket larger than any we had yet manufactured. A space ship using technology that does not yet exist. Reaching the moon using materials not yet invented. Using techniques we could not yet imagine. Yet the speech inspired a people, Republican and Democrat. it was such an inspiration that even his death would not dissuade the people from this grand quest.
FDR inspired a people, when we were basically on our knees, our teeth for all intents and purposes knocked out. When Churchill spoke to the British People and told the world they would fight on the beaches, the air, the sea, in the hedgerows, the fields. They were so short of material, so much of it had been lost on Dunkirk that they could barely manage to give every soldier a rifle. They could count rounds of ammunition for their shore batteries on one hand. They could not afford the rounds needed to sight the guns in, so they would just wait until they could sight down the barrels and fire at point blank range.
Everyone who knew the truth couldn't imagine how they would muddle through. But one man inspired the people, the leaders of the military, and the Government to stand up and say that they would not surrender.
These were core beliefs of the leaders. These were ideals held in their hearts. Churchill could never inspire the British People to resist Hitler with the ideal that "We aren't them." We would have sued for peace if FDR had said to the American People and the world that we were not Japanese, and that was all you needed to know.
Great Leaders step up when the going gets tough. They go to Three Mile Island and stand facing the danger when everyone else runs away. They don't try and politically wheedle a version of what they want out of soulless political hacks. They turn to the people and say "Let's do this, together, we can do the impossible."
Where are the grand schemes. Where is the desire to push the envelope of the known, and to look at an insurmountable obstacle and snort derisively and announce that you will conquer it. Where is the grand vision that inspires the people. We are human, we can be inspired. We will follow, but we need someone to lead.
President Carter did something quite astonishing, quite unheard of. Kennedy risked his political future, Reagan risked his second term, Newt his position as power broker of the RW. But Carter put it plainly on display. He went there knowing that if he was wrong, he wouldn't live long enough to regret it. But they all invested into what they believed in. That was respected by the people, because we instinctively respect those who are willing to risk it all to try something they believe in.
We can learn from this, first recognize our core beliefs, and second, be willing to risk disaster in presenting them to the people. Because if we win on the "We're not them" platform, we have nothing to point to that the people want, or want us to do. All that is left is the people becoming disgusted with us, and eventually voting for them, because they aren't us.
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, but as a whole, this description would maybe cover 30/40% of the white population. They do however have an outsize influence because there's no real alternative offered, especially on economic issues. The only differences the ones who don't pay attention to politics see for the most part are over social issues, issues that make them uncomfortable. 
