Democrats lost the White House and both chambers of the U.S. Congress in the November election. President Donald Trump, who won the popular vote and, more importantly, beat his opponent by 86 Electoral College votes, continues to enjoy relatively strong approval ratings.

Third Way, a liberal think tank founded by former Clinton administration staffers that is hostile to populism on both sides of the political spectrum, organized a retreat for Democratic operatives in Loudoun County, Virginia, last month so they could "begin to chart the Democratic comeback."

Third Way produced a summary of the Democratic attendees' thoughts on why their party is loathsome to working-class Americans.

Rather than resume the Democratic practice of blaming imagined racism and sexism for the party's disconnect with voters, the summary obtained by Politico revealed that attendees actually engaged in some soul-searching.

Regarding the party's cultural disconnect, attendees noted that Democrats have alienated working-class voters with their overemphasis on identity politics; progressive elitism; prioritization of imagined issues over voters' real economic woes; intolerance of dissenting voices and political correctness; simultaneous defense of "elite institutions" and criticism of "institutions working-class people value" like churches or small businesses; ideological capture by radical leftists; and negative messaging about America's national identity.

Attendees noted further that the Democratic Party has lost the trust of the working class due not only to its general hostility toward success and Americans' entrepreneurial spirit but to its support for both government overreach and climate alarmism as well as its proponents' inability to own their mistakes.

'Their future is not bright.'

Democratic attendees of the 1.5-day retreat determined that the way for their party to reconnect with voters would effectively be to plagiarize from the Republican Party's playbook — to ditch identity politics; "embrace patriotism"; avoid "condescending messaging"; "allow candidates to express personal faith and values without fear of backlash"; minimize the influence of radical leftists; invade the "real communities" progressive elitists have long thumbed their noses at; and embrace "rugged individualism."

The attendees at the Democratic retreat also acknowledged that their party, whose presidential candidate scraped together only 43% of the male vote in November, needs to "be more accepting of masculinity and male voters who feel alienated from the party."

Doing so would mean breaking from the elements of the liberal media and leftists like Jillana Enteen, a professor of instruction in "gender and sexuality studies" at Northwestern University. Enteen characterized as "harmful" Vice President JD Vance's Feb. 20 suggestion that young men should embrace their masculinity rather than fall into the camp of "androgynous idiots who think the same, talk the same, and act the same."

Many of the suggestions noted in Third Way's summary were previously raised by Democratic strategist James Carville and evidently unheeded months ahead of the election.

Carville told the New York Times' Maureen Dowd, "A suspicion of mine is that there are too many preachy females" dominating the culture of the Democratic Party.

"'Don't drink beer. Don't watch football. Don't eat hamburgers. This is not good for you,'" said Carville. "The message is too feminine: 'Everything you're doing is destroying the planet. You've got to eat your peas.'"

"If you listen to Democratic elites — NPR is my go-to place for that — the whole talk is about how women, and women of color, are going to decide this election," added Carville. "I'm like: 'Well, 48% of the people that vote are males. Do you mind if they have some consideration?'"

Carville also hammered the party's elitism and leftist bent, suggesting that between the "feminine" browbeating, the "faculty lounge" attitudes, and "woke stuff," the party was headed for trouble.

Third Way noted in a report last month, "If Democrats cannot build a broader cross-class alliance, one that includes a larger share of non-college voters, their future is not bright."

In addition to rebuilding a relationship with the American working class, the liberal think tank recommended stemming the "alarming erosion of their margin in blue states" and generating an appeal in swing states.

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