It is the case that the average person is way, way dumber than people here would like to admit to themselves. And half of the population is dumber than that!

I bet there's a small difference in the means between red and blue, but not much. The available literature exaggerates it because of publication bias / for political reasons. I guess what I'm saying here is: most people are idiots on both sides of the spectrum.

Team Blue has managed to capture more of the intellectual elite (nearly all of the institutions except the Supreme Court), which is probably the thing you're feeling here. I don't think they've managed to capture the hearts and minds of that much of the intellectual elite, though...they've just managed to create chilling effects, spirals of silence, suppress free speech, compel other speech, etc. Which is a huge part of why we are where we are.

In any event, I stand by my original comment. Painting them as one-dimensional doesn't help you. They aren't. Trump is...hard to understand, but Musk and Vance are smart people. There are a lot of other smart people involved on Team Red. Insofar as you operate on the assumption your opponents are as simple as you claim, you shoot yourself in the foot.

Enjoy your week!