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+--- Thread: James Carville doesn't shy from why the Democrats lost the election (DIY appraisal) (/thread-17319.html)
James Carville doesn't shy from why the Democrats lost the election (DIY appraisal) - C C - Feb 5, 2025
Rely on Snakehead to tell it like it is. No hiding in the solace of proper doctrinal delusions of the humanities.
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INTRO: Senior Democratic strategist James Carville on Friday severely criticized former Vice President Kamala Harris, saying the Democratic Party’s decision to nominate her for president was akin to subbing a “seventh-string quarterback” into a “Super Bowl” election. (Mike Murphy and James Carville: Firing Line with Margaret Hoover)
https://youtu.be/HNrmbIEj5vI
-VIDEO EXCERPTS-
CARVILLE: We ran a presidential election– If we were planning a Super Bowl, we started our seventh-string quarterback. [...] And none of this was inevitable. Never should have happened. ... Joe Biden stands over this disaster like a colossus. ... ‘James you shouldn’t say that.’ He’s a wonderful man.
Who cares! If you don’t win a goddamn election you’ve done nothing. Zip, de nada. You don’t count. I don’t care how good a man you are. And till Democrats learn that and quit keeping their head in the cloud and talking goofy language that no one else talks. We got to be nice to people. Screw that! Run over ‘em.
MURPHY: You know, in the Republican Party, in our consulting world, we used to joke a lot because the Democratic nomination process is mostly proportional delegates. Our process is winner-take-all. So if you lose, you’re dead fast. And why do they do it that way? Well, they love losers. ‘Fifth place? Oh, get a delegate.’ You know, so this is, I totally agree with James on this. They made a dumb bet for internal incentive reasons, and they blew the election when the stakes couldn’t be higher.
HOOVER: [...] If Biden had bowed out gracefully with enough time, if there had been some kind of a primary, which you argued ... But what if he had done it in 2023?
CARVILLE: We’d have won the presidency by about– we would’ve gotten 53 and a half. [...] They actually asked Harris, ‘What would you do differently?’ She said, ‘I can’t think of anything.’
Now, if you were to put the staggering talent that exists in today’s Democratic Party– You heard what I said, the ‘staggering talent’ that exists in today’s Democratic Party, and people would have seen that, they’d have gone, ‘Shit I didn’t know they had people like that, that can actually complete a sentence.’
[...] We would have excited people and we would have had people from the middle of the country ... We have not had an inspirational presidential candidate since 2012. That’s a problem.
MURPHY: When you have a primary and a contest, like the playoffs, you get a big winner. And that credentials the nominee. They earn it. [...] have a short primary here instead of anointing somebody. ... if Kamala is that good, let her beat somebody to make her somebody. Not just an appointment. She was nominated on a telephone conference call.
[...] MURPHY: I think the key way to look at it is Trump is not a conservative, he’s a populist. He’s an applause line guy. And you can’t fight populism without other populism, ’cause the applause lines will win in the end...
[...] HOOVER: Okay, so then if both parties are increasingly focused on populist messaging moving forward, you have President Trump and Vice President Vance with a group of Republicans that have centered their pitch, their populist pitch around culture war issues: highlighting wokeness, immigration, border security, crime. Can an economically focused center-left populism, Mike, compete with the culture war driven right-wing populism?..
MURPHY: Yeah, I mean, rule one for the Democrats is, the culture war stuff is bait. The Trump guys love a DEI fight. Are you kidding? [...] And the Dems always go for the bait. ... so the point is– And the Democrats, even as terrible as they are because I don’t think they’ve learned the populist lesson. You know, right now they’re all building dream catchers and sobbing. Eventually, they will get a General Patton and they will fight back.
HOOVER: On the cultural issues. James, more than half of men under 30 supported Trump in this election. And you raised concerns about preachy women in the Democratic Party.
CARVILLE: Yeah. Yeah.
HOOVER: Who are the preachy women?
CARVILLE: You would have to have your head in the clouds to not know that Democratic messaging comes across to ordinary people as haughty, coded and superior sounding. Period. End of argument. I call it identitarianism. And identitarianism tells me that I should look at you more for your identity than your humanity, and I can’t do that. I cannot look at you first as anything other than a human being.
MURPHY: I have to say, identity has taken over the Democratic Party internal politics. It doesn’t help them win elections. I’d fire everybody at the DNC who can tell me what intersectionalism is, and I’d move it to Kansas City.
HOOVER: [Mike] Is this your father’s GOP?
MURPHY: No. No. That’s why I’m here screaming about the President of the United States who’s a Republican. I’m a conservative. I’m a right-wing nut, but I’m a conservative. I’m not whatever Trump is....
(Jan 31) Mike Murphy and James Carville: Firing Line with Margaret Hoover - PBS ... https://youtu.be/HNrmbIEj5vI