A prominent Democratic think tank is urging party members to abandon 45 words and phrases that they claim make Democrats “sound like the extreme, divisive, elitist, and obfuscatory, enforcers of wokeness” and alienate everyday voters across all demographics.
In other words: Stop saying these 45 “woke” words, Democrats have been told.
The center-left organization Third Way released a memo identifying specific terms that span six categories, from “therapy speak” to “explaining away crime,” arguing that Democrats must stop being “woke” because it creates “a wall between us and everyday people of all races, religions, and ethnicities” — and is costing them votes.
Among the blacklisted terms are “privilege,” “microaggression,” “triggering,” “safe space,” “the unhoused,” “birthing person,” “cisgender,” “LGBTQIA+,” “BIPOC,” “intersectionality,” “incarcerated people,” and “justice-involved.”
The memo warns that these are “words that people simply do not say, yet they hear them from Democrats.”
“We are doing our best to get Democrats to talk like normal people and stop talking like they’re leading a seminar at Antioch,” Matt Bennett, Third Way’s executive vice president of public affairs, told Politico. “We 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.”
The memo breaks down “woke” language into categories.
“Therapy-speak” has terms like “triggering,” “holding space,” and “body shaming” that Democrats warn party members are telling voters, “I’m more empathetic than you, and you are callous to hurting other’s feelings.”
“Seminar room language” including “subverting norms,” “systems of oppression,” “critical theory,” and “Overton Window” supposedly communicates, “I’m smarter and more concerned about important issues than you. Your kitchen table concerns are small.”
The organization also targets language around transgendered people and sexual orientation, arguing that terms like “birthing person,” “chest feeding,” “cisgender,” “heteronormative,” and “LGBTQIA+” communicate that voters’ “views on traditional genders and gender roles are at best quaint.”
On racial terminology, Third Way warns against “Latinx,” “BIPOC,” “allyship,” and “intersectionality,” claiming these words signal that “talking about race is even more of a minefield” and that “you will be called out as racist if you do not use the latest and correct terminology.”
They also talked about criminal justice “wokeness,” arguing that terms like “justice-involved,” “carceration,” “incarcerated people,” and “involuntary confinement” send the message that “the criminal is the victim” and “the victim is an afterthought.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost the 2024 presidential election, has used several of these terms, including “incarcerated people” and “the unhoused,” highlighting how widespread toxic “wokeness” has become among Democratic leaders.
“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,” Third Way’s senior vice president Lanae Erickson warned.
“People can’t relate to something unless it has some edge about it,” Erickson said. “And we had shaved off all of our edges in an attempt to never make anyone upset about anything.”
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, widely mentioned as a potential 2028 Democratic presidential candidate, has been particularly vocal about the need for Democrats to kill being “woke” and start being normal.
“We got to talk to people like real human beings,” Beshear told Politico. “We’ve sanitized different language so significantly that, you know, people don’t feel like we’re talking to them … It’s hard to communicate when you’re not using some normal language.”
Even Vice President JD Vance weighed in on Democratic messaging challenges during a recent Fox News interview, offering “free political advice” to Democrats: “Stop sounding like crazy people.”
The 44 “woke” words Democrats are now trying to ban are as follows:
- Privilege
- Violence (as in “environmental violence”)
- Dialoguing
- Othering
- Triggering
- Microaggression/assault/invalidation
- Progressive stack
- Centering
- Safe space
- Holding space
- Body shaming
- Subverting norms
- Systems of oppression
- Critical theory
- Cultural appropriation
- Postmodernism
- Overton Window
- Heuristic
- Existential threat to [climate, the planet, democracy, the economy]
- Radical transparency
- Small ‘d’ democracy
- Barriers to participation
- Stakeholders
- The unhoused
- Food insecurity
- Housing insecurity
- Person who immigrated
- Birthing person/inseminated person
- Pregnant people
- Chest feeding
- Cisgender
- Deadnaming
- Heteronormative
- Patriarchy
- LGBTQIA+
- Latinx
- BIPOC
- Allyship
- Intersectionality
- Minoritized communities
- Justice-involved
- Carceration
- Incarcerated people
- Involuntary confinement