From Chauncey Devega’s “Forget the 2024 autopsies. Democrats need to be bold — and ruthless” at Salon:

What Democrats have here is a failure to communicate — and that failure may prove fatal, not just for the party, but for American democracy itself.

As the shock has worn off following former Vice President Kamala Harris’ loss to Donald Trump in November, and Trump’s inauguration in January, disillusioned Democrats have been searching for someone or something — anyone or anything — to solve their entrenched messaging and branding failures. Some have even called on former President Barack Obama to fill the void by speaking out forcefully and consistently against Trump. (For his part, Obama has urged Democrats to stop “navel-gazing” and “toughen up.”) Their fruitless search for a solution has revealed a party not just in disarray, but in denial. A recent poll by the Wall Street Journal found only 33% of voters hold a favorable view of Democrats, with 63% expressing an unfavorable view of the party — the most unpopular Democrats have been in 35 years of WSJ polling.

This comes as the Democratic National Committee is conducting an autopsy of the 2024 race. But the report will not tackle hard questions, such as former President Joe Biden’s decision to seek reelection amid concerns about his age, his decision to drop out and if Harris was the best Democrat to replace him. The New York Times notes it will also avoid “key decisions” made by Harris’ campaign, including the decision to not respond to an ad memorably attacking her on the issues of transgender rights and inclusive language.

Democrats seem to be swerving the hard questions altogether, focusing instead on an effort by big money donors and the consultant class to develop a progressive alternative to MAGA’s online recruitment machine of podcasters, YouTube stars and other influencers, which the New York Times aptly described as “throw[ing] money at a problem.” They are desperate to discover or manufacture a political miracle weapon in the form of their own Joe Rogan and his millions of followers.

In a scene worthy of satire, Democratic elites — so-called limousine liberals — are also holding meetings at luxury hotels to solve the riddle of how to speak authentically to “working-class” (white) men. This new strategy even has an acronym, “SAM” — short for ‘Speaking with American Men: A Strategic Plan.’”

The report “recommends buying advertisements in video games, among other things” and “[a]bove all…shift[ing] from a moralizing tone.”

All that may be too little, too late. Since 2008, Democratic support among working-class white men has dropped by 30 percent. And in the 2024 election, Trump was able to make inroads with working-class Black and Latino men.

Part of the issue, according to Reece Peck, a communications scholar and author of “Fox Populism: Branding Conservatism as Working Class,” comes down to divergent social identities and language. He described Democrats as being centered on upper middle-class “hyper-educationed Americans” who “place immense value on language.”

“The fatal flaw is that Democrats often assume this class-specific cultural fixation is widely shared across the broader electorate,” Peck said. “In contrast, working-class Americans tend to approach language more contextually. They often interpret statements in good faith and prioritize the intention behind a message more than the exact wording — unlike many in the professional class, who insist that intention is irrelevant.”

Read more here.