“Your tongue’s flapping, but no noise is coming out of your big mouth!” is a memorable line spoken by Looney Tunes’ classic rooster Foghorn Leghorn.

It also sums up the current state of the Democratic Party and its growing disconnect with voters. There’s a lot of hot air and not a lot of substance.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris perfectly embodied this mix during her “brat summer” presidential run in which she talked about “joy” but couldn’t articulate what she’d actually do if she won.

Democrats are so caught up in virtue signaling and woke rhetoric that they’ve lost sight of what ordinary Americans care about – and how to communicate with them. The party is very aware of its unpopularity, but it’s struggled with how to climb out of the proverbial hole it’s found itself in President Donald Trump’s second term.

As children around the country are headed back to the classroom, Democrats have gotten some schooling of their own. What’s on their blackboard? Words they need to avoid.

‘To please the few, we have alienated the many’

The left-leaning think tank Third Way recently published a memo, first reported by Politico, tutoring liberals on a list of 45 words and phrases they need to wipe from their vocabulary.

The memo is titled, “Was it something I said?” and is directed to “All Who Wish to Stop Donald Trump and MAGA.”

“The intent of this language is to include, broaden, empathize, accept, and embrace,” the memo states. “The effect of this language is to sound like the extreme, divisive, elitist, and obfuscatory, enforcers of wokeness. To please the few, we have alienated the many − especially on culture issues, where our language sounds superior, haughty and arrogant.”

As a conservative reading this list, I find it quite humorous, but Democrats should take it seriously.

The no-no list for Democrats

Third Way divides the words to avoid into six categories, along with the rationale for why they rub most people the wrong way:

  • Therapy-Speak (examples include privilege, dialoguing, microagression). “These words say ‘I’m more empathetic than you, and you are callous to hurting other’s feelings.’ ”
  • Seminar Room Language (examples include subverting norms, cultural appropriation, systems of oppression). "This language says ‘I’m smarter and more concerned about important issues than you. Your kitchen table concerns are small.’ ”
  • Organizer Jargon (examples include radical transparency, barriers to participation, person who immigrated). “These words say ‘we are beholden to groups, not individuals. People have no agency.’ ”
  • Gender/Orientation Correctness (examples include chest feeding, patriarchy, birthing person). “These say ‘your views on traditional genders and gender roles are at best quaint.’ ”
  • The Shifting Language of Racial Constructs (examples include Latinx, BIPOC, intersectionality). “These words signal that talking about race is even more of a minefield.”
  • Explaining Away Crime (examples include justice-involved, incarcerated people). “This says ‘the criminal is the victim. The victim is an afterthought.’ "

“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,” Lanae Erickson, a senior vice president with Third Way, told Politico.

Democrats start summer meeting with 'land acknowledgment'

Unfortunately, it seems the Democrats who most needed to read this memo missed it.

The Democratic National Committee started its annual summer meeting in Minneapolis this week with a “land acknowledgment” given by Lindy Sowmick, a self-described “Indigenous queer woman” who is treasurer of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party.

Sowmick said the DNC “honors the Dakota Oyate” who are the “original stewards” of the land. She also criticized the ongoing “system built to suppress Indigenous peoples' cultural and spiritual history.”

This violates several of the Third Way naughty-list categories, including “jargon” and “seminar room language.”

While the use (or avoidance of) words is important, Democrats’ woke bloviating is a symptom of a much deeper problem. They no longer have a coherent set of principles.

Evan Barker, a former Democratic campaign operative who couldn’t bring herself to support Harris in 2024, recently hit on this in a Substack piece:

“If the Democrats want to become a winning party again, they need to recognize that policy, and not messaging has led them to defeat. This means they need to stop only defining themselves against Trump, and decide what they are going to stand for. The days of mealy mouthed corporate speak are over. What the public craves more than anything is authenticity.”

Can the Democrats deliver?

Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X: @Ingrid_Jacques

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Democrats told to dump words like ‘birthing person’ and ‘BIPOC.’ I’m speechless. | Opinion

Reporting by Ingrid Jacques, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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