PATTI SOLIS DOYLE: What Democrats need to do to win.

First, stick to the facts, because they still matter to independents. Focus on Trump’s rhetoric, which has divided our country more than any time I can remember. Focus on how the GOP tax cuts helped the rich and passed costs onto our children. Focus on Trump’s hard-line attitude toward immigration, which has caused our government to rip children away from their mothers at the border and place them in pens. (There are still more than 200 children who have not been reunited with their parents.)

Focus on how Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs have hurt American manufacturers and strained relations with our allies. Focus on how with Kavanaugh’s appointment, Trump has successfully turned the Supreme Court into a conservative political entity for the next generation — and, in the process, thumbed his nose at victims of sexual assault and harassment everywhere.

Second, as Democrats have been doing for the last two years, channel anger in productive ways. Protests, advocacy and civil disobedience can be remarkably effective. We’ve seen how this can energize voters in the special elections that Democrats have already won, and in the incredible over-performance by Democratic voters across the country.

Making sure your elected officials know where you, as a citizen, stand is the hallmark of our democracy. But forcing Ted Cruz and his wife out of a Washington restaurant doesn’t do anything except garner sympathy for the senator from Texas. However, making your case directly to a pivotal vote in the Senate may result in a long-sought-after FBI investigation of a Supreme Court justice nominee.

When your ostensibly sane voices are still trying to sell Trump as a baby-ripper, Antifa as “effective,” and Brett Kavanaugh as an alcoholic gang-rape leader, your party’s relationship with reality has grown distant and troubled.

It might also be the case the Doyle and the rest of the Democratic machine are just selling what they think will rile the base up most — but again, at what cost in moderate, independent, and just plain old sane voters?