What is left and right these days?

As much as I try to keep discussions in terms of economic outcomes than politics, it is obviously clearly not possible in numerous situations. The current topic is one of those situations.

The understanding of what constitutes as conservatism seems to have changed, due to the heavy presence of populism and the fact that being Democrat is synonymous with urbanites that have attended universities considered elite, who have climbed the ladder and are completely ignorant to what it feels like to live in e.g. middle America (where serious help from all angles is required). Feigning academic elitism further angers the vast majority of the working population in the United States, who Democrats seem to be incapable of communicating with. It is entirely confusing to interact with individuals that are struggling economically, and face higher health costs due various reasons (not limited to bad eating and exercise habits) vote for a right wing party. The very right wing party that slashed health benefits to the needy that are not capable of changing enough to not need e.g. Medicaid. Label me an autist, but I have always found it difficult to wrap my head around this contradiction; but clearly their decision to vote against the party that would give them the resources they need, is driven by feelings than logic and being easily brainwashed by propaganda. At the same time, the Democrats are now beginning to realise they have an coastal elite image problem, that they also need to be accountable to the actual working population across the entire nation and to devise policy aims which aren't too extreme left. Their rhetoric has only increased division between those that reside in rural and urban areas, which doesn't do anything for their hope to make policy that affects the lives of people being stiffed by the wealthy and powerful (which might even include themselves).

It seems as if, there are a few people from non-urban areas that want put pragmatism front and centre when it comes to the working class (the people that don't like big government, nor big corporations). They also seem to be a bit of a hard sell. How do they break through to those in their communities, that would actually benefit from policies which derive from real centre left ideologies? It might take a lot of work for the Democrats to regain their trust, to re-do their image in a way that makes them approachable to the working class from all parts of country, and not just the coastal areas.