Sad thing is, it’s kind of true (or at least was). In a two party system, its not a bad strategy to try gain electors from the other party, as the ppl more radically from your side will vote for you rather than the other party. Now then, the political spectrum and Overton window shifted so much to the right that it is not sufficient to just exist and be the “lesser evil”.

In the analogy it would be more like if they did not know the existence of smoke and you handed them a pack and then punish them after they fail to stop smoking