Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum

The gist of this conversation seems to be that it is possible for representatives to stop being pretentious weirdoes. But that the initial, tentative efforts still have a long row to hoe in terms of becoming a widespread trend that could partially rectify the Democratic Party crisis. At least when it comes to the area of speaking habits that have alienated it from much of the country.
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2WAY
https://youtu.be/WCu7cK7qu0g

VIDEO EXCERPTS: More and more members of Congress and elected officials and candidates need to start just speaking their mind in ways that are very forthright. And be willing to put up with some blowback from the advocate community, many of whom actually don't represent a lot of the people they purport to represent.

The latter could say, "Well, if you don't use the term Latinx, then you are defaming the Latino population."

Well, frankly, the Latino population does not think that at all. Just ask people like Ruben Gallego about that.

So I think if they're willing to push back and say, "Come on, this is just wrong. You do not represent the population that you say you do, and I'm going to go ahead and talk like a normal person."

[...] You and I both know, and Lindsay too, that there are many Democrats who feel like, "Thank goodness someone's saying this and being specific."

But I'm sure the progressive caucus members are not going to say, "Oh, Matt's right. Let's eliminate that."

[...] Now Richie Torres is Afro-Latino and gay, and his view is like: "This is all nuts. Do not talk this way. None of the communities that I come from and that I represent in Congress want you to talk this way."

And so I think it's really important for people like Richie to do what he's doing, which is show that talking like normal people is not only inoffensive to the people that you worry about, but that actually is what they want from you...

Many in the advocate community don't represent groups they claim to represent ... https://youtu.be/WCu7cK7qu0g

(#2) Obviously, Democrat politicians and their staff have for years (if not decades) been trying to please the mediating social justice advocacy groups, rather than voters themselves. The former are the true weirdoes, the ones more directly linked to the left-wing ideology of literary intellectuals. And the advocacy groups are also what mainstream news media use as their standard, so that just adds to Dem representatives feeling an urgency to talk and gesticulate like fruitcakes.
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Can Democrats talk themselves out of the wilderness?
https://youtu.be/m9eDKKyscAY

VIDEO EXCERPTS: Matt, just tell people, how did this project start?

I think after the disaster of the November elections for Democrats, there's been a lot of soul-searching.

[...] And one of the reasons that we kept hearing in focus groups -- and it would show up in public opinion data of all kinds -- is that voters just think that we're weird.

That we're out of touch. We don't talk like they do. We don't think like they do. And especially that we are focused on
things that are either irrelevant to them or are completely out of step with them.

[...] So, we put a list out of 45 words and phrases that people in Democratic politics, advocates and philanthropists and staffers and some elected officials and candidates use that are just incredibly off-putting. They just do not sound like normal people.

You would never hear these words in a normal discussion in a bar or in a grocery store or, you know, in the fabled diner of American politics.

And what we've tried to convey to people is that is incredibly off-putting and you sound super strange. When you're trying to attract people and make the tent bigger, you don't want to use language that repels people and makes it smaller.

[...] we've got some of the words up there. Things like the unhoused, food insecurity, housing insecurity, person who immigrated, birthing person, dislodging, triggering, othering, microaggression. Lindsay, you ever use any of these phrases?

Every day...

Can Democrats talk themselves out of the wilderness? ... https://youtu.be/m9eDKKyscAY