Posted on 02/09/2020 7:24:18 AM PST by Kaslin
Democrat strategist James Carville warned that the smug, urbanist mindset is causing the Democratic Party to be distracted by the wrong issues.
Democratic strategist James Carville unleashed on 2020 Democratic candidates for pulling the party too far left and warned Democrats are at risk of seeming “culturally arrogant” to the working class. His rant began on a viral MSNBC segment this week after the chaos of the Iowa caucuses, then he extended his admonishments in an interview with Vox.
Vox Writer Sean Illing seemed to question whether Carville’s strong reaction was warranted. Are Democrats “really destroying the party?” he asked. “What does that even mean?” Carville admitted that at the end of the day, he would vote for Bernie Sanders should he win the nomination, but reiterated, as someone who lives in the South, that the Democratic Party should not represent themselves to the public as socialists like Sanders. Here are the top warnings Carville issued to elite, coastal Democrats.
Carville complained how candidates spending time on the debate stage discussing issues that do not win on a national level, issues like: open borders, decriminalizing illegal immigration, banning nuclear energy, banning fracking, giving criminals and terrorists in jail the right to vote, and more distractions.
He reflected on how Democrats won in 2018 by doing the opposite. “We just had an election in 2018. We did great. We talked about everything we needed to talk about and we won. And now it’s like we’re losing our d-mn minds.”
How do Democrats create a winning message? “By framing, repeating, and delivering a coherent, meaningful message that is relevant to people’s lives and having the political skill not to be sucked into every rabbit hole that somebody puts in front of you,” he said.
Carville praised ideas like Sen. Cory Booker’s “baby bonds plans,” which would deposit taxpayer dollars in an investment account for every child born to a low-income person, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s government child care plans as the “kind of thing the party could connect to people’s actual lives.”
Carville stressed that becoming a majoritarian party was critical, and going far-left with Sanders so quickly is not the path to Democrat power.
“Eighteen percent of the population controls 52 Senate seats,” Carville said. “We’ve got to be a majoritarian party. The urban core is not gonna get it done. What we need is power! Do you understand? That’s what this is about.”
Carville said the purpose of a political party is to acquire power. “Without power, nothing matters.”
Carville warned that the smug, urbanist mindset was causing candidates to be distracted by the wrong issues and to lose connection with people in the South and the middle of the country.
He gave the example of New York Times writer Binyamin Appelbaum, who recently posted a “snarky tweet” about Louisiana State University.
LSU cancelled all classes, for everyone, for two days, because its football team is playing for the national championship.
Obviously LSU's professional football players aren't there for the classes, but this is some next-level stuff.https://t.co/UKXevWla1T
— Binyamin Appelbaum (@BCAppelbaum) January 14, 2020
“You know how f—ing patronizing that is to people in the South or in the middle of the country?” Carville asked. “We can’t win the Senate by looking down at people. The Democratic Party has to drive a narrative that doesn’t give off vapors that we’re smarter than everyone or culturally arrogant.”
When Illing suggested former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg seemed to be a more moderate candidate than Sanders, and thus more likely to beat Donald Trump, Carville pointed out Buttigieg’s biggest weakness: African American voters.
“Mayor Pete has to demonstrate over the course of a campaign that he can excite and motivate arguably the most important constituents in the Democratic Party: African Americans. These voters are a h-ll of a lot more important than a bunch of 25-year-olds shouting everyone down on Twitter,” he said.
In the eyes of AOC and the goofy-a$$ LIBERAL LEFT ol' Carville, and his ideas, are simply archaic!
A vote for a democrat, no matter how moderate or even conservative they claim to be while campaigning, is always a vote for Pelosi and her extreme progressive/liberal agenda because no democrat ever strays from her clutches when it comes time to vote on legislation.
You're correct!
80 to 90% of the Blacks I know have come around to supporting Trump simply because he's HELPING them into a position of HELPING THEMSELVES as things continue to get better.
> Frankly I’ve always liked Carville. I don’t like his politics but he seems to be a good guy to have a cheeseburger and beer with. <
I agree. He’s an interesting guy to listen to. And he’s an old-school JFK kind of Democrat. I suspect that come November he just might pull the level for Trump, especially if it’s Trump vs. the commie.
Democrats try to appeal to everyone and end up appealing to no one. When you make everything free you make everything worthless.
“Mayor Pete has to demonstrate over the course of a campaign that he can excite and motivate arguably the most important constituents in the Democratic Party: African Americans.”
The 13%ers don’t like having to play second fiddle to the 2%ers.
Become a party of minorities - become a minority party.
“He reflected on how Democrats won in 2018 by doing the opposite. “We just had an election in 2018. We did great. We talked about everything we needed to talk about and we won. And now it’s like we’re losing our d-mn minds.””
Over 40 house Republicans retired. Now the new crop, well funded will take those seats back.
Carville is pure politics. Ideology is what you say in order to get votes but after you win you can do whatever you want. He is Macchiavelli incarnate, fortunately he ain’t “woke” and thus he will be ignored.
Re-read his five points above. Trump won by doing every one of them.
Carville knows this is what it’s about, not plans and policies and wonky “shit that nobody wants to hear about”.
Plus he’s a damn cajun and they all be crazy ;-)
Every Republican congressional candidate should read what Carville is saying and DO ALL OF IT. They would win.
He's absolutely wrong. They need to get farther left yet. Bernie is a moderate, Republican snake in the grass. Make Karl Marx proud.
Democrats - listen to me. Paint Marx as the reactionary bourgeois devil he is. Make Ole Joe Stalin proud of you.
He’s still a Social Justice collectivist. He just doesn’t like their abrasive sales tactic.
Carville is an evil snake, but he’s a smart evil snake.
Yep. The swamp took its shot but now DJT has sucked the air out of the room.
His SOTU showed he’s already delivered on many issues, even issues important to Dem voters.
In the meantime the Dem candidates campaign on taking guns and tax cuts away, opening borders, serving the ACA up again and weakening security ..... nothing that really gives the average American anything.
Trump did this while fighting members of his own party and Dems.
More to come
they got-em some new africans, they’s called mexkins
He's got a sense of humor -- the trashcan on the head bit in the 2002 midterms was classic. So yeah...I imagine he'd be a fun guy with whom to have some beers, or even something a bit stronger.
Democrats want old straight white guys like Carville thrown in re-education camps.
Carville just hasn’t gotten the memo yet.
They will *not* listen to him, of course -- they are doubling down on their agenda items, knowing full well that they're losing in 2020 but fully plan to fight to win in 2024.
He makes a lot of really good points. I hope the Dems ignore him. Or better yet, cancel him.
Obviously LSU's professional football players aren't there for the classes, but this is some next-level stuff. -- Binyamin Appelbaum (@BCAppelbaum) January 14, 2020 ... “Mayor Pete has to demonstrate over the course of a campaign that he can excite and motivate arguably the most important constituents in the Democratic Party: African Americans. These voters are a h-ll of a lot more important than a bunch of 25-year-olds shouting everyone down on Twitter,” he said.
The Demagogic Party is and always has been the headquarters of elitist bigotry; meanwhile, President Trump is fighting for US jobs and growth, and has brought about the highest employment rate seen in my lifetime. Meanwhile, some shill concern troll at Marketwatch op-ed'd the other day how it was worrisome that lower-income people were -- egad! -- using their larger tax refunds and higher takehome pay to catch up on their bills, instead of putting it in savings accounts. The same writer would be complaining if the working people were saving it instead of catching up their bills. The only proper use for that maney is, of course, is to go back to the pre-Trump way and eff them in the b-hole with higher income taxes.
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