Check your privilege: Democratic group urges party to drop ‘alienating’ language

A center-left think tank has urged Democrats to change how they speak in order to win back alienated voters. Users online applauded the list of objectionable words — from “intersectionality” to “privilege” — for revealing the party’s messaging problems, while others questioned the optics of the effort.

Third Way penned a memo Friday to “all who wish to stop Donald Trump and MAGA,” lamenting the “tortured language” it said Democrats use that makes them sound like the “extreme, divisive, elitist and obfuscatory, enforcers of woke-ness.” The organization wrote that removing the language helps open the party up to people who are against Trump but unsure about electing a Democrat.

“These are words that people simply do not say, yet they hear them from Democrats,” according to Third Way.

Lanae Erickson, a senior vice president at Third Way, told POLITICO’s Playbook that politicians are using words that “literally no normal people used.”

“No doubt I’ve used many of these words myself at times,” she wrote on X. “But today, we’re calling on Dems to put aside faculty lounge phrases & talk like normal human people. If we don’t, we won’t be able to build the electoral army we need to defeat MAGA & protect the communities under attack.”

However, the same vocabulary that the Third Way wants Democrats to abstain from using is found multiple times on the organization’s own website. Counter phrases weren’t offered in the memo.

“Truth be told, we have published papers that have used some of these words as well,” according to the memo. “But when policymakers are public-facing, the language we use must invite, not repel; start a conversation, not end it; provide clarity, not confusion.”

Whether the list will bring about change is tough. Alexander Sahn, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, found that less than 1% of Democrats’ campaign websites used terms Third Way said should be avoided. He wrote on X that the data came from fellow UNC professors who compiled a database in July of congressional campaign websites.

What are the phrases?

Third Way broke the terms it objects to into six groups: therapy-speak, seminar room language, organizer jargon, gender/orientation correctness, shifting language of racial constructs and explaining away crime.

The organizations said Democrats should avoid saying “centering,” “body shaming” or “privilege” as it tells people they’re cold-hearted. Phrases like “systems of oppression” and “existential threat” suggest a politician is more intelligent than everyone.

Other problematic phrases or words are:

• The unhoused
• Food insecurity
• Pregnant people
• Deadnaming
• BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color)
• Intersectionality
• Incarcerated people

“Recognize that much of the language above is a red flag for a sizable segment of the American public,” the organization wrote. “It is not because they are bigots, but because they fear cancellation, doxing, or trouble with HR if they make a mistake.”

Reactions to the list

Users online reacted quickly to Third Way’s list. Some said it hits at the core of how politicians should speak to voters. Others, though, said language isn’t the Democrats’ biggest issue.

Former Michigan State Rep. Mari Manoogian, now executive director at The Next 50, wrote that voters are more likely to pay attention when politicians sound like their neighbors. She added that successful politicians could debate their fantasy football leagues — an activity 29.2 million Americans played in 2022 — and prioritize actions on environmental protections.  

“When that many people across all demographics are managing fantasy teams but we struggle to get them engaged in politics at all levels, maybe the problem isn’t their priorities — it’s our communication,” Manoogian said.

Talk show host Jimmy Kimmel told Sarah Silverman on her podcast on Tuesday, Aug. 12, that a small but vocal group of liberals is pushing people away from the Democratic Party. He didn’t discount the points they made, but said those people are “repulsive.”

Not everyone is on board with the memo. Democratic strategist Max Burns wrote on X that the list showed that the party is preferring to say their problems rest in messaging rather than a “not doing things the voters want them to do” problem.

“This obsession with using the right words is a way to avoid having to offer courageous ideas,” Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy, wrote on X.