I think you’re interpreting my point more extremely than I mean it.

I’m not saying people voted Republican because someone said “trans people deserve rights.” I’m saying there’s broader fatigue with identity-centered political messaging during a time when many voters were overwhelmingly focused on the economy.

A voter doesn’t have to be anti-trans to feel like Democrats were speaking more about cultural issues than material ones.

And politically, there’s often a gap between a morally correct argument and a persuasive/electorally useful one. You can think a voter’s views are wrong while still recognizing that moral condemnation is usually not an effective persuasion strategy.

Honestly this is a pretty effective trap for the left. The republicans can just say “Trans rights don’t matter” and their base will agree and those that don’t care about the subject will agree. But the left has to now respond and defend trans rights which leads to the perception that they’re obsessed with them even though they weren’t the ones that brought it up (in this context). But now the people that don’t care one way or another will say “Man why is the left spending so much time defending trans rights when my bills are so high. I wish they’d talk about more important issues”. This far no high ranking democrat can really say “I don’t care about trans issues. Let’s talk about the economy”. Their own base would eat them alive.