As a lifelong liberal and social/market researcher who has tracked public opinion for more than 40 years, I'm distressed by how little liberal activists seem to have learned from recent election results. All signs indicate that their strategy going forward is to "do the same thing that failed — only do it harder."

That strategy will only further alienate Americans who have moved away from the political center; it could lead to the re-election of President Trump.

If, however, liberals were to adjust their strategy and their tactics, they could restore a more reasonable set of elected leaders to this country. To succeed, liberals must give those who have moved to the right in recent years reasons to return to the center.

I happen to have taken several leisurely drives across Middle America in the summer of 2016 (from Washington state to Minnesota, and from Minnesota to Texas and back). Along the way, I had the opportunity to talk with many fine people who hold somewhat conservative values, and who felt they were being pushed to the political right by an overly aggressive liberal agenda. Many of them, I am confident, voted for Trump last fall even though they disliked him and found it a distasteful prospect.

Recent coverage in the Star Tribune of the rift between Gov. Mark Dayton and outstate Minnesotans further exemplifies this alienation of laboring class and rural voters ("Dayton's views falling out of favor outstate," April 2).

Liberals started aggravating Americans like these with the extreme political-correctness movement ushered in during the 1970s. As the desire to spare anyone from "feeling bad" has moved forward, colleges and universities, the historic bastions of open-minded thinking, started sacrificing free speech, barring controversial speakers from campuses, and punishing students and faculty for so-called "micro-aggressions," in which something said by one person hurts the feelings of another person.

The so-called "bias response teams" deployed at the University of Minnesota exemplify this willingness to limit free speech (" 'Bias response team' or speech police?" April 2).

This assault on the First Amendment was, and continues to be, pivotal in pushing many voters to the right.

There are seven ways in which the liberal agenda and approach need to change to move people back to the center — giving liberals a chance to regain political control. Here's a quick summary of what needs to be done:

1) Liberals must reclaim the First Amendment and defend it loudly.

Colleges and universities must bring back controversial speakers so all sides can be heard, and the doctrine that "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me" must replace hypersensitivity over such things as "micro-aggressions" and "triggers." Failure to do this will mean that Middle America, which rightfully rants about "not even being able to speak my mind without fear of reprisal or being called a racist," will continue to support the likes of Trump.

2) So-called "hate crimes" laws must be repealed and replaced — replaced with aggressive enforcement of actual criminal behaviors rather than the motives for them.

Related to political correctness, these laws are based on the assumption that people should be punished for their wrongful ideas as well as their wrongful actions. Punching someone in the face because they are of a different ethnic background has always been punishable as assault and battery. Adding additional punishment based on the puncher's motive is a step toward saying the government should be able to limit what people think.

To climb into people's minds in search of forbidden thoughts is another misguided practice that infuriates Middle America and will undermine liberal hopes of moving people back to the center. (The absurdity of "hate crimes" is reflected in debates in Australia over Section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, which makes it an offense to "insult" or "offend" someone on the basis of race, and the difficulty legislators are having in even replacing those two words with the word "harass.")

Liberals need to forget altogether pursuing this anti-hate agenda with laws. Instead, let's act more kindly toward people, demonstrating and stressing with our children the importance of courteous, proper behavior.

3) Liberals must resist the temptation to "lie with numbers" and instead enhance their reputation as purveyors or truth.

President Trump is not the only one who uses "fake news" and twists data to suit his purposes. For years now, liberals have asserted such things as: "The percentage of blacks arrested is higher than the percentage of blacks in the population, and that is proof that police are not acting fairly."

This claim is absurd. There are many explanations for such disproportionate numbers — not the least of which is that blacks are proportionately committing more crimes. This is not to say there is no problem with policing; rather, it's to suggest we should use numbers to confirm there is a problem in those neighborhoods and cultures and diagnose what leads to more criminality — so that effective help can be provided.

4) Liberals must stop denigrating individuals based on false "cause-effect" assertions.

Saying: "You're only successful because of 'white privilege.' Had you been born black, you would not have been successful," is untrue and alienates many who have worked hard to achieve.

Many forms of "privilege" or disadvantage exist in life — in intelligence, physical health (or lack thereof), personality, family income, etc. My sister-in-law, who was born with Down syndrome, could be told she was born with "white privilege" — which would be absurd. She carries for her entire life the lack of privilege associated with Down syndrome. My wife, who grew up in an impoverished, single-parent household, became a college professor. To denigrate the hard work that led to her achievements by asserting they were all attributable to "white privilege" is wrong and offensive.

This liberal tendency to paint people in a class or group with the same brush ironically violates the hope of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that one day people would "be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

5) Drop the "reparations" push (which, again, alienates people and prods them toward Trumpism) and replace it by looking for ways to help people improve their skills and find employment.

A consequence of inappropriately treating everyone in a group as if they are "the same" is the demand for financial reparations being pushed by activists within the black community.

To assert that every living white person should be accountable for the "sins of some white fathers" many years ago is a "coattail" claim related to the notion of "white privilege" and has all the same shortcomings. The inanity of telling my wife (whose grandparents came to northern Minnesota via Canada, after having migrated from France) that she is somehow responsible for the slavery in the U.S. and should, therefore, "pay up" cannot be overstated.

To make such a claim plausible at all, activists would need to offer proof that little or nothing has been done (or spent) to overcome the problems blacks have experienced. Unbiased reports of government spending for welfare programs and minority business grants and set-asides over the past 65 years would be a good start.

6) Change the mantra "Black Lives Matter" to "All Lives Matter."

"Black Lives Matter" was, and is, a marketing disaster. Although its intent is to state, "Black Lives Matter, Too," many take it to mean black lives matter more than white lives. As such, it separates people into camps, which will never be an effective means to accomplish anything positive. Let's bring people together, not push them apart.

This type of tactic is, in large part, responsible for the disappearance of the middle in the political spectrum. People feel forced to take one side or the other. That has to stop.

7) Finally, liberals need to "slow down" on some agenda items and find more palatable ways to address concerns.

Liberals have not given enough attention to the effects of their actions, and it's clear some of these effects stimulated Trump's victory. Many voters are tired of feeling as if liberals are "in their faces" all the time.

Think about the pre-election push for transgender bathroom rights. It's as if someone had said: "I know, let's find a demand that some will perceive as allowing invasions of privacy or even sexual advances against their young daughters and really push it right before an election."

The result was a rollback of any progress on these matters to date. Why not have used a "toe in the water" approach and advocated (not mandated) that schools and businesses increase the number of unisex bathrooms that are for both genders, with one toilet and a lock on the door?

Similarly, those advocating liberal causes such as Black Lives Matter who shut down freeways to attract attention alienate people who are prevented from going to work or other pressing destinations. The protesters met their short-term objective (drawing attention to their cause) but seriously damaged their chances of getting desired changes.

There is hope for liberals to turn this country around so it better addresses the issues they deem important. However, this will require that liberals "slow down," pay attention to the consequences of their "full-bore ahead" agenda and adopt a more amenable approach to people who have been alienated by the strident tactics that have been used recently.

Doug R. Berdie, of Minneapolis, is a semiretired marketing executive and researcher.