"Now, the Democrats need to do a much better job of messaging." Translation: better propaganda and lies.
No stupid. The Republican Party is the party of lies. They've been lying to you since Richard Nixon. He lied about attacking Cambodia, in addition to Watergate.
Reagan lied about everything. Iran Contra, the Savings & Loan Scandal. More Reagan staffers were indicted and found guilty than under Nixon. Even Reagan admitted his economic policies were a failure, which resulted in the stock market crash. Instead of raising income taxes on the wealthy, reversing his earlier cuts, he raised taxes on the Middle Class.
That's why Bush 41 ran on a slogan of "Read my lips! No New Taxes!". Then he promptly broke that promise, which is largely why he lost in 1992. Clinton also raised taxes, but he also increased the minimum wage - something that hadn't happened in 1980, decreased unemployment, reduced poverty, and balanced the budget. America prospered and Clinton was wildly popular, and Republicans couldn't have that.
They started rumours about the Clintons that lead to a 6 year Special Counsel's investigation which found no bribery, no corruption, and no sexual harassment, or "pay for play", so they went with what they had: a lie about a blow job in a civil suit.
W lied his way into Iraq, with disastsrous consequences. And crashed the economy.
Obama saved the economy; replaced all of the jobs lost and set the nation back on the road to prosperity, despite the racist backlash to his election. Donald Trump was elected by disaffected white people, who were left out of the Obama recovery.
Trump lied about the pandemic and over a million Americans have died as a result. He also crashed the economy.