Gf, Novato, Calif.: By and large, it is not the progressive Democrats who are expressing unwillingness to vote for a middle-of-the-road Democrat. Over and over again it is the “moderates” who are saying that they won’t vote for a “far left” (in their minds) Democratic candidate. They naïvely believe that voting for a progressive is as bad as voting for Trump.

Thomas L. Friedman: Thank you for your thoughtful comments. I have always considered myself a pro-growth Democrat — someone who wants to grow the pie but also redivide it in ways that guarantee everybody, not only a minimum slice, but a fair shot at a bigger one.

I am convinced that this is still a center-right, center-left country. The broader point I was trying to make in this column, though, is that most people don’t listen through their ears. They listen through their stomachs. If you can make a gut connection with people, they actually don’t worry about the details so much. They’ll say, ‘I trust you — you work out the details.’ That is part of Donald Trump’s genius. We in the media keep trying to show his supporters more negative details about him — which is our job and valid — but we cannot overcome the gut connection he has forged.

What I worry about from the first Democratic debates was that by so many candidates offering so many free things to so many people — some of them not even American citizens — the gut message being conveyed by the party was that it’s for open borders and for taking care of people who just walked into our country illegally, more than taking care of our fellow Americans, like veterans who are badly in need of improved health services. You just lose people that way. It sounded pie in the sky.

As I wrote, I want taxes raised to fund more pre-K education for more American kids. And I would like to see some kind of program for reducing student debt, maybe in return for some national service. I am very concerned about our income gaps and how to bridge them long-term.

But people will not hear you, or will actually vote against their interests at times, if they think — or can be made to believe — that you actually care more about noncitizens than you do about them, or that you care only about disadvantaged minorities. I want the Democrats’ best ideas to be heard, but first, they have to get into the guts of a wider audience and earn its trust. As the saying goes: Culture eats strategy for breakfast every day.