The reason this stuff fundamentally matters when there’s an obvious greater threat is the extent to which popular legitimacy still matters. It doesn’t take a social scientist to explain why people will let the bad people with guns do bad things when their alternative is culturally anathema.
So yeah, hugging the flag (+ Cheney) wasn’t enough to turn things around in ‘24 because the decisive cohort had already locked into RW media ecosystem. But irrespective of policy (which matters), it’s closer to the messaging that siphons support from Rs. The other stuff induces relapse.
And to be clear - the solution for pols and orgs isn’t a rampage of punching left. Take a few tactical jabs, concede “yeah a lot of that stuff was silly” while turning the argument around to deeply unpopular current policy, and otherwise just use more universalist language.