CORRECT.
There are only two possible paths to winning for the opposition:
(1) don't hate the player, hate the game. Realize that the current rules of the game are "fear/anger/hate sells, everything else is failed messaging," and play by those rules to win. Fucking LIE if you have to (fuck it, lie even if you don't have to - gild the fucking lily. Accuse every GQP official of trying to rape babies, whatever, say all the things). This is the world we live in, these are the rules of the day. Play by them or lose.
OR
(2) work to change the rules/order of the day. That is, try to steer society (which steers about as well as the Titanic, and thus far is headed for its fate) towards a more balanced approach. Today, we are 99% "toxic individualism is the only way to be," and 1% "maybe doing some things for the common good, cooperating, etc. is a good idea." If you can get those numbers even slightly more evened out -- maybe back to a 2-1 ratio of "fuck you, I got mine" to "we are all in this together, and we all do better when we all do better" -- then your more nuanced approach to politics will work.
Personally, I think that option (2) is the much, much, MUCH more preferable path, but....we have about a 1% chance of getting there in my lifetime, even if I live to be 100. We live in an option (1) world now. It sucks, but it ain't gonna change for at least a generation or two.