Dem Strategist Admits Her Party ‘Doesn’t Know How To Talk To Normal People’

In a candid and critical assessment of her own party, Democratic strategist and CNN contributor Julie Roginsky delivered a stark warning to the Democratic Party on Thursday. Appearing on CNN’s Newsroom, Roginsky argued that the party’s growing struggles in connecting with ordinary voters were not the fault of any individual leader but the result of a deeper, systemic failure to communicate effectively with the electorate.

“You know, I’m going to speak some hard truths to my friends in the Democratic Party. This is not Joe Biden’s fault. It’s not Kamala Harris fault. It’s not Barack Obama’s fault. It is the fault of the Democratic Party in not knowing how to communicate effectively to voters. We are not the party of common sense, which is the message that voters sent to us. For a number of reasons, for a number of reasons, we don’t know how to speak to voters. When we address Latinos — and language, and language has meaning — we address Latino voters as Latinx, for instance, because that’s the politically correct thing to do, it makes them think that we don’t even live on the same planet as they do…But we’re so worried about alienating one or another cohort in our coalition that we don’t know what to say.”

For Roginsky, the party’s current predicament is rooted in a political culture that has become out of touch with the practical concerns of everyday Americans. Her remarks come at a time when Democrats are facing increasing challenges in winning over critical voter blocs, particularly working-class and suburban voters, who have become disillusioned with the party’s focus on identity politics and cultural issues.

Roginsky’s main critique was that the Democratic Party has lost its ability to speak to what she described as “normal people.” She pointed to several examples where Democratic rhetoric, particularly around issues like language, social justice, and identity, has alienated voters who feel that the party no longer understands their everyday concerns.

She continued, “When normal people look at that and say, ‘Wait a second, I send my kids to college so they can learn, not so that they can burn buildings and trash lawns,’ right? And so on and so forth. When we put pronouns after names and say she/her, as opposed to saying, ‘you know what, if I call you by the wrong pronoun, call me out, I’m sorry, I won’t do it again,’ but stop with the virtue signaling and just speak to people like they’re normal. There’s nothing I’m going to say to Shermichael, that I’m not going to say to you, that I’m not going to say to somebody else. I speak the same language to everybody. But that’s not what Democrats do. We constantly try to parse out different ways of speaking to different cohorts because our focus groups or our polling shows that so-and-so appeals to such and such. That’s not how normal people think. It’s not common sense. And we need to start being the party of common sense again.”

Here, Roginsky expressed frustration with what she sees as a trend in the Democratic Party of engaging in performative gestures that may win points with the party’s most progressive factions but alienate more moderate or working-class voters. The focus on issues like gender pronouns and the emphasis on symbolic gestures of inclusion, she argues, are distractions that don’t speak to the bread-and-butter concerns that matter most to average voters.

“Joe Biden is not responsible for that. Neither is Kamala Harris. It is a problem that Democrats have had for years. I’ve been banging the drum on this for I don’t know how, probably ten years, if not longer, on this. We need to get back to being the party of common sense that people look at us and say, we understand you, we appreciate what you say because you speak our language. And until we do that, we should stop blaming other people for our own mistakes.”

Ultimately, Roginsky’s message to the Democratic Party is clear: to remain a relevant political force, Democrats must return to the basics of common-sense governance and engage with voters on the issues that truly matter. Rather than embracing extreme ideological stances or trying to appease every special interest group, the party needs to focus on uniting Americans around practical policies that improve their lives.