@Garban You said above- "Why would a political party purposely disenfranchise:
People of color,
People who read,
People with non heterosexual identities,
And people that care about the people above?"

That one is relatively simple to answer if one were to stop and consider who/what it is that is a big influence on the Republican Party nowadays. Of course I'm referring to the evangelical christian influence that has long hijacked the Party, and you and I both know how organized religion(s) tend to warp the human brain and in turn cause people to believe in and support strange concepts, and also become paranoid of their fellow human beings.

On the flip side, and I know many on here won't want to acknowledge this, but the Democratic Party continues to piss off alot of people too with their failed economic policies (latino population comes to mind as one example that are growing fed up with the Democrats). While the Democrats may not exhibit the blatant hostility towards certain demographics like the Republicans do, they do manipulate and use those people all the same, all the while claiming to be helping. Take Philadelphia for instance, Jim Kenney has been the Mayor since 2016, and in the time since nothing much has improved for the citizens of Philly. Poverty is still a huge issue, too many are homeless and unemployed, high school drop out rate is still too high and the public education system continues to fail many students. Violent crime appears to be at an all time high, and when you consider what the citizens living there are going through (see the above) it's a small wonder why so many turn to a life of crime as they conclude there's nothing much good left to live for. Then people like Kenney want to blame the guns for the ills in society, and dream up more gun control laws which won't do a damn thing to improve living conditions, when in reality he should take a step back and consider what it was he maybe did wrong and that maybe a main cause of the chaos in his city is due to his poor and pitiful leadership as Mayor.

As for the not being able to read part, that could apply to both extremes. You aren't totally wrong about that, but during my time on this site I've had exchanges with a number of the resident Democrat supporters, and some of their responses to me hardly would have indicated high intelligence or ability to be logical & reasonable, and was at times totally appalling and similar to crap that the Republican supporters often do. I contend both sides can be extremely intolerant and ignorant towards their perceived opposition, and not exclusive to one or the other.

That's the problem though, we have each extreme duking it out with each other, and in the meantime we the people (meaning those who can still think for themselves) get stuck in the middle of that horseshit, oh well so much for "unity". True unity will never occur so long as each extreme is at each other's throat, and we just keep bouncing back and forth and back and forth between the two once one side gets to be too much for the time being, and meanwhile the problems in society still don't have any viable longterm solutions. Hate to say this, but that's pretty much what this post accomplished, only addressing one side of the issue, and the saga continues...

From Lincoln's time to nearly one-hundred years afterwards the Republican Party was the preferred Party of those who believed in individual rights and overall fairness for everyone. In the 1960s during the human rights revolution/hippie era, the Republican Party as a whole took a sharp turn away from their traditionally held views, and even embraced racist gun control legislation, but I digress as that's a whole other topic perhaps for a future post.

Again, not saying you're wrong about your conclusions above, what you said has merit, just wish more people out there would find as much time to criticize both sides a little more often is all.

Asked and answered - they can't think Money and power has blinded them to how the democratic system is supposed to work.

They can have any strategy they want, as long as they get to choose their voters.

The cruel nature of those in charge - pale, male and Yale (borrowed from a PBS documentary) is very appealing to many people. We had that confirmed with the number of Americans who voted for trump in 2020. While they are clearly in the minority among the voting public they are not when it comes to the Supreme Court, our elected officials and in areas of influence through out our society.
I know people who think the rich white males know how to run things and can do it best. The sad fact is everyone scares the shit outta them because we just might find out how really cruel, stupid and selfish they actually are. Even so there will always be a certain percent of the population that will support them.
Along the same lines of there will always be a certain number of the population that just want to get fucked up using drugs, no matter how many interventions are done. Sort of the long way of saying what skado said.

Partly because conservatives ALWAYS vote and many liberals vote when it’s convenient to do so.

Maybe they didn’t arrive at it by thinking.

It worked for the German Nazi's and the Italian Fascists for quite a few years, why wouldn't it work for the Repuglicans?