Democratic think tank Third Way published a memo to “All Who Wish to Stop Donald Trump and MAGA” on Friday. It’s dawned on them that Democrats could more easily connect with voters if they would simply stop using “words and phrases no ordinary person would ever dream of saying.”
The intent of this language is to include, broaden, empathize, accept, and embrace. The effect of this language is to sound like the extreme, divisive, elitist, and obfuscatory, enforcers of wokeness. To please the few, we have alienated the many—especially on culture issues, where our language sounds superior, haughty and arrogant.
Reminiscent of the constant revisions to the “Newspeak Dictionary” in George Orwell’s 1984, the memo features 45 words and phrases that Democrats should stop using immediately if they want to prevent voters from leaving the party. Frankly, it’s amazing they even need to be told.
The newly blacklisted words fall into six categories. The first group, “Therapy-Speak,” contains words that say, “I’m more empathetic than you, and you are callous to hurting others’ feelings.”
- Privilege
- Violence (as in “environmental violence”)
- Dialoguing
- Othering
- Triggering
- Microaggression/assault/invalidation
- Progressive stack
- Centering
- Safe space
- Holding space
- Body shaming
Totally agree — these words turn people off. The real surprise is that anyone thought they’d work.
According to the Third Way, the second group of words, “Seminar Room Language,” says, “I’m smarter and more concerned about important issues than you. Your kitchen table concerns are small… When we use words people don’t understand, studies show that the part of their brain that signals distrust becomes more active, undermining our ability to reach them.”
- Subverting norms
- Systems of oppression
- Critical theory
- Cultural appropriation
- Postmodernism
- Overton Window
- Heuristic
- Existential threat to [climate, the planet, democracy, the economy]
I’ll admit, I had to look up “heuristic,” which means “serving as an aid to learning or problem-solving through trial and error,” and I still don’t see how it fits into a political discussion.
The bigger problem with the rest of the list isn’t comprehension. It’s that people who use these terms come off as pretentious and disconnected. And outside of academia, most Americans reject “critical theory” and the concept of “systems of oppression.” These terms alienate rather than persuade.
As per the memo, the next set, which they call “Organizer Jargon,” says “we are beholden to groups, not individuals. People have no agency.”
To most of us, these terms — especially calling the homeless “the unhoused” and illegal aliens “persons who immigrated” — highlight just how utterly immersed in a bubble the Democratic Party has become and why they are no longer taken seriously.
- Radical transparency
- Small ‘d’ democracy
- Barriers to participation
- Stakeholders
- The unhoused
- Food insecurity
- Housing insecurity
- Person who immigrated
The next category addresses the language around gender and orientation, and it may be the most incendiary of all. As the Third Way frames it, these terms suggest that traditional views on gender roles are outdated or irrelevant.
I vehemently disagree. I think it says that Democrats have completely lost touch with reality. They can pretend all they like that men can become women and even have babies. That doesn’t mean the rest of us have to pretend along with them.
There are no gray areas here. There are two sexes. And, only women can get pregnant. Sorry.
- Birthing person/inseminated person
- Pregnant people
- Chest feeding
- Cisgender
- Deadnaming
- Heteronormative
- Patriarchy
- LGBTQIA+
The Democrats’ fixation on race has hurt the party.
- Latinx
- BIPOC
- Allyship
- Intersectionality
- Minoritized communities
Use of these words quickly began to grate, and soon even minority voters were leaving the party.
Finally, the last four words on the list relate to crime and prison.
- Justice-involved
- Carceration
- Incarcerated people
- Involuntary confinement
The Third Way suggests these terms say “The criminal is the victim. The victim is an afterthought.” Yes, they do, and as crime rates spike across the country, particularly in Democrat-run cities, voters are taking note.
Although the Third Way’s premise in this memo is a start, the avoidance of these words alone won’t bring the change they need. These words are simply the veneer of the toxic ideology the Democratic Party embraced and then internalized over the past decade.
It wasn’t just the Democrats’ language that voters rejected, but their efforts to rewrite history, reshape traditions, and impose new beliefs. And they demanded people adopt their new, woke worldview, and attacked those who refused to get on board.
The New York Times analysis showing that 2.1 million voters left the Democratic Party between 2020 and 2024 while Republicans added 2.4 million, shows the party is in deep trouble.
Their use of new, less alienating language won’t matter unless the party tacks back to the center — and so far, there’s little indication that will happen.
Conservative commentator Greg Price said what many of us were likely thinking after reading this memo: “Democrats are so cooked that they needed a memo to tell them that everything they say makes them sound insane to normal people.”
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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