I've lived in the urban corridor of the Colorado Front Range for nearly 20 years now. Sure, there are a lot of people here that have no clue about wildlife, no clue about how it is managed, etc. They typically don't know or care to understand land use rules or anything else that affects our wildlife. But, what I see as I interact with people, at work, or neighbors or friends of the wife, etc. is that most people are just ignorant of the realities. Yes, there is a subset of angry or militant activists, but the vast majority of the voting public here, just simply is unaware. I have had very pleasant conversations with neighbors, shared deer and elk meat with neighbors, had cook outs, etc. and have really seen that people are usually in favor of hunting and conservation if they understood it better.
What doesn't work however is putting people in labeled boxes, treating other people like they are the enemy, being so dogmatic in your point of view that you immediately alienate "the other side". If you look at how the wolf vote went here. So many people I talked to that were likely democrat voters, I would tell them about the wolves already here, how they have been migrating down from Wyoming for years, how I've heard and seen them in the Zirkels. They had no clue. When framed in that way, I'd then go on to say, I simply am against the government spending our money on something that is already happening and is inevitable. What I found is that everyone I talked to from this perspective was in agreement.
However, the tone I saw from our side was mainly scare tactics, fear, pictures of bloody dead cows, doom and gloom, etc. That was never going to resonate with anyone who was ignorant of the facts, it only came across as "the other side using fear tactics" . Alot of urban voters voted FOR Wolf introduction simply because "the other side" was against reintroduction. We all saw how well it worked in the end.
I'm not saying we don't stand up for what we believe in and hold strong to our values. However, if every issue is addressed in this "US VERSUS THEM" mentality, all we do is solidify the opposition and the shift moves faster away from where we want it to be. People have to figure out how to see each others similarities, and that they far outweigh their differences. Unfortunately, social media, news outlets, etc. have likely long poisoned the well for that to happen..