The Ragin’ Cajun is back and he’s not happy about the direction his party has taken. Bill Clinton adviser James Carville has been making the media rounds this week and sounding an alarm about the Democratic candidates for 2020 and the message they’re sending to voters.
His rant began with an appearance on MSNBC.
Douglas Ernst reported at the Washington Times:
James Carville: Dems risk becoming an ‘ideological cult,’ media filled with ‘AOC crazy’ reportersJames Carville said the Democratic Party has a stark choice before it: “Do we want to be an ideological cult? Or do we want to have a majoritarian instinct to be a majority party?”One of former President Bill Clinton’s famous “War Room” political strategists told MSNBC this week that his party — and much of the media — is flirting with disaster if it continues to go “AOC crazy.”“This party needs to wake up and make sure that we talk about things are relevant to people,” he said Tuesday. “We need to go back to 2018 where we had good, diverse, strong candidates that had real connections to the community and talked about real things.”“We’re like talking about people voting from jail cells,” he said. “We’re talking about not having a border. I mean, come on, people. Everyday people are out there struggling. We’re trying to get votes in Northern Wisconsin and Western Pennsylvania.”
Watch the segment below:
Of course, the funny part is that if you watched that whole thing you heard Carville say that he would vote for Bernie if he had to. More than anything, what Carville seems to be telling his party is to stop saying the quiet part out loud.
Carville continued this line of thinking in an interview with Sean Illing of VOX:
“We’re losing our damn minds”: James Carville unloads on the Democratic PartySean IllingWhy are you “scared to death” about the 2020 election?James CarvilleLook, the turnout in the Iowa caucus was below what we expected, what we wanted. Trump’s approval rating is probably as high as it’s been. This is very bad. And now it appears the party can’t even count votes. What the hell am I supposed to think?I’ll just say it this way: The fate of the world depends on the Democrats getting their shit together and winning in November. We have to beat Trump. And so far, I don’t like what I see. And a lot of people I talk to feel the same way…Sean IllingGive me an example of what you mean by distractions.James CarvilleWe have candidates on the debate stage talking about open borders and decriminalizing illegal immigration. They’re talking about doing away with nuclear energy and fracking. You’ve got Bernie Sanders talking about letting criminals and terrorists vote from jail cells. It doesn’t matter what you think about any of that, or if there are good arguments — talking about that is not how you win a national election. It’s not how you become a majoritarian party…Sean IllingSo your complaint is basically that the party has tacked too far to the left?James CarvilleThey’ve tacked off the damn radar screen. And look, I don’t consider myself a moderate or a centrist. I’m a liberal. But not everything has to be on the left-right continuum…Here’s another stupid thing: Democrats talking about free college tuition or debt forgiveness. I’m not here to debate the idea. What I can tell you is that people all over this country worked their way through school, sent their kids to school, paid off student loans. They don’t want to hear this shit. And you saw Warren confronted by an angry voter over this. It’s just not a winning message.
Say what you want about James Carville, but he does know a thing or two about getting Democrats elected. He’s right to be concerned about his party’s prospects in 2020.
Featured image via YouTube.
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