I think the policy positions do matter though... The Democrats were pro labor before Clinton helped to pass NAFTA. Limbaugh would even mock Democrat voters who thought Bill would "find you a job". There's no illusion of that anymore. There's just people dropping out of the workforce and the unemployment numbers being fudged to make it look like everything is fine.

Neither party responded to this until Trump came around. Meanwhile, the Democrats also seemingly gave up on the whole social safety net argument as well. Obama at least ran on helping people but, well, I don't see that anymore. While I agree that their messaging has failed, I ultimately think they've failed to provide any substance to their argument.