It would be a huge step forward for Democrats and for general clarity in political writing if these terms went away. These came mostly from academic hothouses.
I think this ignores that there is an entire think tank/media complex devoted to making anything Dems do say toxic. It’s not the terms. If D candidates only said “fairness” and “workers” for the next 18 months, Rufo and his ilk would move mountains to make them poll net-negative, and it would work.
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Much better articulated than I managed!
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To piggyback on this, I think (while dems rarely use these) dems have a serious messaging issue and republicans are REALLY good at messaging. Republicans define everything in society with little pushback. We need pushback.
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Bingo! If you need further proof, the right is currently in the process of turning "compassion" and "empathy" into negatives, even characterizing them as sinful. They object to not just the language, but the very concepts, so there are no special combination of words they would accept.
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Dems are like Marge Simpson trying to think of a baby name that Homer can’t make fun of.
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So at some point you just have to say what you’re going to say and stop trying to reverse engineer something they can’t poison. See also: Mamdani cld say any of these words, he probably does, and it doesn’t tank him. Authenticity such as minimally-engaged voters read it outweighs vocabulary anyway.
