The bolded was my initial point. "WHAT" is the R's fault? We have to get to a specific pain point rather than a general "It's the R's fault the government shut down".
Okay? What does that even mean to the layman? That was my point, nobody I know or talk to or interact with has felt 1 ounce of pain fromt he government being shut down right now (hence the comment, there seems to be a huge lack of urgency). Maybe I'm insulated in the suburbs. Maybe not. Maybe there just needs to be more time to allow the negative consequences to play out (e.g. holiday travel snarls). Maybe not. The point is, you have to drag the people across the glass and help them feel the pain they are supposed to be feeling from the government shutting down.
A winning message isn't "the R's are dolts and shut the government down!" if there is no pain. A winning message is to identify the pain and tie it to the R's fault, "Your prescription arthritis medicine went from $5 to $300 this month and every month after beause the greedy republicans shut down the government!"
I just made that last consquence up, but you get the point. Need to analyze and draw out the conclusions and spoonfeed it to people.