It's more the far left aura surrounding them at this time. They gotta stop arguing for illegal immigrants, chicks with dicks, "restorative justice", DEI, CRT...the whole bit. It's killing them, and this idea that if they truly embraced it and had an actual extreme leftist at the helm, they would do way better, is delusional. Now, they do need a leader with a clear vision, but the far left ain't it. Even without all the social bullshit, people aren't stupid and know that they know little to nothing about economics. The "free shit" party ain't free, and socialism ain't popular among any working class voter.
Whether or not the establishment Dems actually believe in any of it, is beside the point(you don't have to tell me that they're full of shit most of the time). They've managed to make it their brand all the same(or at least a big part of it). They've also managed to piss off both sides with their double talk and hypocrisy. Problem with promoting that ideology is that it's never enough, and you're one little misstep away from dividing your base. They invited the lunatics into their party, and they're paying for it...and will continue to pay for it if they don't find a way to pivot and leave these "small" issues out of
This "aura" you speak of is a fabrication, and the product of right-wing narrative, which has been clearly effective at generating this impression.
The major political campaigns by Obama, Biden, Harris had very, very little to do immigration and "chicks with dicks," or DEI. None of their campaigns ran on these matters. They focused overwhelmingly on funding schools, healthcare, and working class rights, tax exemptions for middle and lower class families, programs for social assistance. Kamala, and even Bernie, were even lukewarm about condemning Israel.
That is, the party ran on a traditional welfare state agenda and moralism against oligarchic privilege, but it is a narrative that has ran its course and lost its persuasiveness. Clearly, most of them know that going 'officially woke' would be suicide, which is why they have never done that and have stayed within their usual rhetoric. But that is precisely what got them into trouble, not being able to change generate a rhetoric that is appealing massively and capable of luring back the working class, while making the right appear nauseating. The right, in turn, was very savvy and reinventing itself and turning from the crusty old moralist conservatism to a techo-liberatarian circus with entertainment and unhinged populist vulgarity, nevermind traditional values or morals.
I'm not sure who ever claims that "if the left embraced wokeness" it would do them any favors. If anyone does that's a really fringe and stupid position. There are a few people in congress that are of that stripe, but they are very, very few and far between.
The democratic party needs something besides what they are (center left discredited liberal progressives or centrists) and what the right says they are (a horde of communist radicals who want to open the borders and make everyone trans).
You are confusing the perception of the party with what the party itself is. The former is mediated by the counter-narrative produced by their opponents. Which is why all these woke issues are put under a magnifying glass by the Trump administration, even if they are really marginal issues that affect a tiny fraction of the population, and that do not represent the left except in extremely minoritarian places.
