Voter concerns related to these issues will not disappear because Democrats ratchet up the rhetoric about hatred. Mallory McMorrow may have delivered an effective riposte to a scurrilous attack on her by a political opponent but that does not mean that the Democrats, like Popeye, can simply down their spinach, come out fighting and vanquish their opponents.

But you can see why this approach appeals to Democrats, who are loathe to admit there are any real problems in the areas on which they are attacked by their conservative opponents, from schools, race and gender to crime and immigration. I have termed this the Fox News Fallacy—if conservatives criticize you for something, there must be nothing to it. In fact, I would say the Fox News Fallacy and the Mallory McMorrow Fallacy are closely connected. If you believe, under the sway of the Fox News Fallacy, that all conservative criticisms are completely made-up, then it follows that the Democratic message in these areas shouldn’t bother with any defense but simply denounce the lies Republicans tell to fan the flames of hatred. And the sterner and more uncompromising the better—hence the Mallory McMorrow Fallacy.

This has not worked and is highly unlikely to work for the midterms and beyond. The Democrats cannot escape the necessity of moving to the center on sociocultural issues which does not consist of simply opposing hatred, but rather of making it clear that Democrats have a common sense approach to these issues that is different from the approach pushed by their woke activist wing. Until that is done, the Democrats will continue to be highly vulnerable on all these issues.