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Words Democrats Shouldn’t Say Anymore

August 22, 2025 · 6:28 am ET · Leave a Comment

Playbook: “In a new memo, 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 ‘a wall between us and everyday people of all races, religions, and ethnicities.’”

“It’s a set of words that Third Way suggests ‘people simply do not say, yet they hear them from Democrats.’”

“Third Way argues that to ‘please the few, we have alienated the many — especially on culture issues, where our language sounds superior, haughty and arrogant,’ according to the memo.”

Key takeaway: “The Democratic Party brand is toxic across the country at this point with way too many people — enough that there’s no way for us to win a governing majority without changing that. Part of the problem was that we were using words that literally no normal people used — that we were sticking to messages that were so overly scripted that they basically sounded like nothing.”

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Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard

Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire -- which for more than two decades has been one of the nation's most influential political news sites.

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