The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. - Winston Churchill

I commend you for using yourself as an example. You're right. The bar to participate in politics should be raised above you. Unfortunately.. that's not really democracy, anymore. But good argument. I still stand by your right to vote. Even if it hurts a bit inside.

The firehose of bullshit falsehood plus, A Lie Can Travel Halfway Around the World While the Truth Is Putting On Its Shoes

This isn't that the left has failed to understand, this is that the left actually values accuracy where the right doesn't.

"They're eating the dogs!" he said, just making shit up. Proving that they are not, in fact, eating dogs requires a bit of work. The right works on 'feels' and their 'guts' where the left values truth and reality. It's easy to make something up as a meme and just post it, with no intent to ever defend it. Some amount of people will see it and believe it's true.

A thing that separates left and right is that we are skeptical and require proof before we believe.

Oh so good information on the left must be searched while good information on the right is actively searching for me?

[Emphasis mine.]

I would strongly disagree with the idea that the right is putting out "good information." I will agree that they are searching for gullible people like you. In this thread alone, we have the most powerful people on the right stating the shutdown is caused by the dems. It took an intern 10 minutes to print a "the democrat shutdown" sign, but takes significantly longer to write an article that describes why that isn't accurate, and that article won't be read by the people who need to see it. Falling to their level and making a 'the republican shutdown' sign and holding a press conference with it just enforces the 'both sides' narrative that only discourages people from voting.

I don't have a solution, but it certainly isn't "meme harder". It's more like "encourage critical thinking and expect people to be informed before voting". I'll even put out a point: Democratic leadership wants to encourage education by making it affordable to everyone while republican leadership constantly pushes to de-fund teachers, schools, and programs that would let the poors into college. I could back that up with examples and proof, but it would take that time I'm talking about, go looking for counterpoints instead and spend your own time making yourself better.

donald trump famously said, "I love the poorly educated". I don't think he loves them because they are amazing people, or that he wants to take care of them. He loves them because they are rubes and marks and he is a con-man.

This is your wake-up call. There is no such thing as a 'fence-sitting lefty'. You are either:

• ignorant and can be shown how to think for yourself. At which point you also get angry and become a real lefty.
• ignorant and intentionally staying that way -- good for you, I also want to just bury my head in the sand sometimes. Please don't vote republican because their meme game is better.
• a saboteur or bad-faith actor claiming to be left while actually holding right-wing views and trying to sow discord to weaken your political opponents.