Basically yes. About 20% of the population is highly politically engaged and partisan (mostly the upper-middle class). The rest are neutral or lean Republican

Basically yes. About 20% of the population is highly politically engaged and partisan (mostly the upper-middle class). The rest are neutral or lean Republican or Democrat, but are really more concerned with day to day things. If you piss of your ideological base in the 20%, you will get primaried. If you screw something up so badly that it affects the day to day life of the other 80%, you will be destroyed in the general election. So the winning strategy is to go as far as you can to please your base without pissing off the main population too much. An example of this is "defund the police." Perfect for the Democratic base, but absolutely toxic to the unengaged middle watching SF shoplifting videos on Youtube. See how quickly they backed off that?