On the other hand, this has been a tactic of the right, and it’s somewhat successful: Keep showing new avenues of attack, and you put your adversaries constantly on the defensive.

What’s sad is, many voters don’t care about the merits of an issue; just the optics of power and assertion. Person X is on the defensive, criticizing a bold statement and thinking they should walk back on it, Person Y is already spouting a new message.