The liberal fear of these concepts and fear of showing these beliefs is part of why establishment liberals have become such bad orators and such weak and unconvincing political parties.
These concepts have to be harnessed, that’s just the nature of drawing in the middle of politics.
Politics is a luxury to focus on, there are huge swaths of work a day people who don’t and can’t focus on it. They need certain messages as short hand for doing the “right thing” - that’s just how politics is, not everyone can afford to live with the burden of political awareness, it’s not necessary healthy.
You have to give the devil it’s dues, and do so willingly and happily. That’s just how political campaigns are under this system.
I dislike the establishment left, but 2016 was one of the most propagandized, misinformation filled, and corrupt elections - in no way can it be considered an “easy election”.
Hindsight is 20/20… The electorate sees no where near that well, and didn’t at the time.
The truth is fascism and pseudo or proto fascism is never an easy thing to defeat, because it breaks the rules and can appeal to forces and parts of human nature that most politicians won’t or can’t run with. This is why most fascists are praised as gifted speakers - even Trump - because they’re appealing to powerful parts of human nature which are usually not spoken about in politics, let alone addressed directly.