{"id":12524,"date":"2025-08-22T14:17:02","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T14:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/the-blacklist-of-words-democrats-should-avoid\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T14:17:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T14:17:02","slug":"the-blacklist-of-words-democrats-should-avoid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/the-blacklist-of-words-democrats-should-avoid\/","title":{"rendered":"The blacklist of words Democrats should avoid"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Democrats seem to think they can talk their way out of the political wilderness.<\/p>\n

Listen closely and you can hear it through the din of their all-caps Trumpian X feeds<\/a>, their hourslong \u201cmanosphere\u201d podcast<\/a> interviews and their more frequent swearing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nearly 10 months after the 2024 elections, and the party is still embroiled in self-recriminations over where<\/i> they\u2019re talking, what<\/i> they\u2019re talking about and, now, the actual words<\/i> they\u2019re using. Or, more precisely: which words they shouldn\u2019t utter.<\/p>\n

In a new memo<\/a>, shared exclusively with Blue Light News, the center-left think tank Third Way is circulating a list of 45 words and phrases they want Democrats to avoid using, alleging the terms put \u201ca wall between us and everyday people of all races, religions, and ethnicities.\u201d It\u2019s a set of words that Third Way suggests \u201cpeople simply do not say, yet they hear them from Democrats.\u201d<\/p>\n

They span six categories \u2014 from \u201ctherapy speak\u201d to \u201cexplaining away crime\u201d \u2014 and put in sharp relief a party that authors say makes Democrats \u201csound like the extreme, divisive, elitist, and obfuscatory, enforcers of wokeness.\u201d In the document, titled \u201cWas It Something I Said?\u201d Third Way argues that to \u201cplease the few, we have alienated the many \u2014 especially on culture issues, where our language sounds superior, haughty and arrogant,\u201d according to the memo.<\/p>\n

Among the blacklisted terms: privilege \u2026 violence (as in \u201cenvironmental violence\u201d) \u2026 dialoguing \u2026 triggering \u2026 othering \u2026 microaggression \u2026 holding space \u2026 body shaming \u2026 subverting norms \u2026 systems of oppression \u2026 cultural appropriation \u2026 Overton window \u2026 existential threat to [the climate, democracy, economy] \u2026 radical transparency \u2026 stakeholders \u2026 the unhoused \u2026 food insecurity \u2026 housing insecurity \u2026 person who immigrated \u2026 birthing person \u2026 cisgender \u2026 deadnaming \u2026 heteronormative \u2026 patriarchy \u2026 LGBTQIA+ \u2026 BIPOC \u2026 allyship \u2026 incarcerated people \u2026 involuntary confinement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are doing our best to get Democrats to talk like normal people and stop talking like they\u2019re leading a seminar at Antioch,\u201d says Matt Bennett, Third Way’s executive vice president of public affairs. \u201cWe think language is one of the central problems we face with normie voters, signaling that we are out of touch with how they live, think and talk. In recent weeks, this has become a bit of a thing, with comedians like Jimmy Kimmel and Sarah Silverman<\/a> highlighting how insane Dems can sometimes sound. Also, elected officials like [Delaware Rep.] Sarah McBride and [Kentucky Gov.] Andy Beshear<\/a> are begging their colleagues to just be normal again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople can\u2019t relate to something unless it has some edge about it,\u201d Lanae Erickson, Third Way\u2019s senior vice president, tells Playbook. \u201cAnd we had shaved off all of our edges in an attempt to never make anyone upset about anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group doesn\u2019t base its list on any specific polling. And the authors don\u2019t offer specific counter recommendations for these terms. But they do outline the values their vision of the party includes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will never abandon our values or stop doing things to protect those who need help, encouragement, trust, a second chance, acceptance, a fair shake, and the opportunity to pursue life, liberty and happiness But as the catastrophe of Trump 2.0 has shown, the most important thing we can do for those people and causes is to build a bigger army to fight them,\u201d the memo reads. \u201cCommunicating in authentic ways that welcome rather than drive voters away would be a good start.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s worth noting that in certain parts of the country, a lot of people, especially now, do <\/i>talk in this language and use the phrases Third Way recommends against, even if it doesn’t scream big tent enough. It\u2019s also worth noting an inherent irony in all of this: it\u2019s hard to police how politicians talk at the same time that you’re asking them to be authentic.<\/p>\n

The memo\u2019s authors write \u201cwe are not out to police language, ban phrases or create our own form of censorship. Truth be told, we have published papers that have used some of these words as well. But when policymakers are public-facing, the language we use must invite, not repel; start a conversation, not end it; provide clarity, not confusion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Democratic Party brand is toxic across the country at this point with way too many people \u2014 enough that there\u2019s no way for us to win a governing majority without changing that,\u201d Erickson said. \u201cPart of the problem was that we were using words that literally no normal people used \u2014 that we were sticking to messages that were so overly scripted that they basically sounded like nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

What about bright spots for the party? Erickson cited three potential 2028 Democratic presidential contenders who she says are good examples of how to communicate: Beshear, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.).<\/p>\n