It seems like at least one of the things that’s gone wrong with American politics is that the Democrats have absolutely zero interest in taking up the language, priorities, rhetoric or politics of the left, which kind of leaves them without much of a message except for ‘I mean, we do actually know how to govern and when we get the chance to do it we improve peoples’ lives. and have you seen the other guys’. But if people aren’t happy with how things are going, that’s a really unappealing message - and no one is happy with how things are going.
I don’t know what a good message for the Democratic party would be, but they keep losing with this one.
One of the issues is that the Democrats would have to get smarter on policy, not just shift in a left-wing direction. They’d also have to actually follow through better on some of their policies.
For instance, a program of direct-to-employee wage subsidies would help the working class and boost employment. This is to the left of current Democrat policy (increasing the minimum wage), but has some good acceptance by economists. It would also put them in a better position for courting working class whites, especially when the Truckpocalypse hits.
However, they appear to be committed to a policy of demographic shift or even replacement, so it’s unlikely they’ll go for this option.