Democrats’ Brilliant New Strategy: Learn To Speak Like An American
I & I Editorial Board
May 30, 2025
This week, we saw a spate of news stories blaming Democrats’ troubles on their vocabulary. They’re just using too many darn multisyllabic, academic-sounding words and turning off numbskull voters, is the basic message.
Seriously?
The Democrats’ problem isn’t linguistic, it’s ideological. But no one in the party wants to admit that.
A Washington Post story this week – “Democratic troubles revive debate over left-wing buzzwords” – begins by saying:
Maybe it’s using the word ‘oligarchs’ instead of rich people. Or referring to ‘people experiencing food insecurity’ rather than Americans going hungry. Or ‘equity’ in place of ‘equality,’ or ‘justice-involved populations’ instead of prisoners.
As Democrats wrestle with who to be in the era of President Donald Trump, a growing group of party members — especially centrists — is reviving the argument that Democrats need to rethink the words they use to talk with the voters whose trust they need to regain.
The Post goes on to say that “liberal candidates too often use language from elite, highly educated circles,” and quotes Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear saying that: “It makes Democrats or candidates using this speech sounding like they’re not normal.”
Earlier this year, a group of centrist Democrats gathered at a ritzy resort in Loudoun County, Virginia, the richest county in the country, to talk among themselves about how to regain working-class trust.
more
https://issuesinsights.com/2025/05/30/rogets-thesaurus-wont-save-democrats/
