Counterpoint-you ascribe what I consider co-option as deliberately undertaken by the GOP. I think they got dragged there by Trump and don’t really control anything.
I don’t know that the Dems need a propaganda machine (you could argue there’s one already that’s mostly refugees from the mainstream media that have moved to podcasting and sub newsletters). The problem (or challenge) is that it doesn’t have appeal beyond the educated. Jon Stewart has a podcast-if his appeal was broader he’d be doing Joe Rogan numbers.
Ultimately, I think the whole “we have a problem with the medium” isn’t as complicated as the Dems message is oppositional to Trump and that plays poorly in any area on which he’s perceived to offer a better solution. In other words, swing voters aren’t listening to Dems defending civil rights because they are more concerned about their job, their house payment, what to do with their kids after school, etc. Trump continues to control that message there because he played one on TV.
Maybe this is overly hopeful on my part, but I would think the answer is to just try a lot of things and see which starts gaining appeal.
I also don’t want to oversimplify it, but a lot of hemming and hawing could just boil down to “run younger candidates than what the GOP has to offer” if you want to go after the younger swing voters.