Democrats think doing politics is beneath them. They just need to be marginally better than Republicans and if they don't get elected then it's the voter's fault.

Literacy is less of a problem than the ability to determine a reliable source. There have always been undereducated people and dishonest journalists, but the spreading of misinformation has expanded to an unprecedented degree. A large portion of the population lives in a fictional reality built by propagandists. We can't even agree on objective facts anymore.