I'm not convinced that "showing empathy" is the way to court Republicans. It's just seen as weakness, and weakness is a joke to them.

I'm thinking back to my grandmother's funeral in Appalachia. She had a small terrier as her companion in her final years. They were inseparable. Multiple of her male relatives made the joke "I thought we were just going to toss the dog in the grave and bury him with her". Hardy-har har. The dog was small and therefore weak and therefore a joke.

There were similar scenes between my mom and her coworkers when my dad was in hospital dieing of COVID-19. I'm not going into them because I already done triggered myself.

Anyways, that's how I ended up with a surprise dog to take back home to a blue state. He's still a good boy, even though he's now a grumpy teenager.

But, at the end of the day, if you want people’s votes, you’re going to have to figure out how to display some level of empathy, because openly hating everyone who votes differently hasn’t worked to win them over to your side.

First of all, I hate them for who and what they voted for and not becsuse it happened to be different. This isn't some pick a team and hate everyone else thing, they chose evil.

I also don't want their votes, and chasing those votes is a fool's errand. Spending the time motivating disengaged people to show up like Obama and other candidates with positive messaging is the path to success.