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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"We're losing our damn minds": James Carville unloads on the Democratic Party
The full interview is worth reading and not too long. A few highlights:
For fucks sake, weve got Trump at Davos talking about cutting Medicare and no one in the party has the sense to plaster a picture of him up there sucking up to the global elites, talking about cutting taxes for them while hes talking about cutting Medicare back home. Jesus, this is so obvious and so easy and I dont see any of the candidates taking advantage of it.
The Republicans have destroyed their party and turned it into a personality cult, but if anyone thinks they cant win, theyre out of their damn mind.
Sanders might get 280 electoral votes and win the presidency and maybe we keep the House. But theres no chance in hell well ever win the Senate with Sanders at the top of the party defining it for the public. Eighteen percent of the country elects more than half of our senators. Thats the deal, fair or not.
So long as [Mitch] McConnell runs the Senate, its game over. Theres no chance well change the courts, and nothing will happen, and hell just be sitting up there screaming in the microphone about the revolution. The purpose of a political party is to acquire power. All right? Without power, nothing matters.
And I really like his last line:
Falling into despair wont help anyone, though. I mean, you can curse the darkness or you can light a candle. Im getting a fucking welding torch. Okay?
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/2/7/21123518/trump-2020-election-democratic-party-james-carville
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/2/7/1917643/-Carville-gets-it-right?utm_campaign=trending
volstork
(5,403 posts)correct about ALL of this.
Stallion
(6,476 posts)...touting Michael Bennett-I'd be fine with Bennett but right now Biden is clogging up the right hand lane.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)Kurt V.
(5,624 posts)President and carville is raging about power.
zentrum
(9,865 posts)progressoid
(50,008 posts)gulliver
(13,197 posts)Still Sensible
(2,870 posts)and we should pay attention. Obviously this is an individual that knows what he is talking about.
Whether or not we agree with his individual prescriptions, his "Poly-Sci 101" mantra is absolutely correct--it is about taking and wielding power. And the fact is, if you don't win, it won't matter!
edited to add: P.S. I highly recommend you read the whole interview.
Laura PourMeADrink
(42,770 posts)Thinking, surely someone will run an ad after trump does this or that. Surely our side will be all over the news talking about that.
But it's getting very difficult to make a splash anymore. Too much media. Info overload. Just hope to get a trend on Twitter?. No non-dem watches CNN or MSNBC...so they don't hear.
Kurt V.
(5,624 posts)to be plastered? Besides these candidates (except Bloomberg) aren't running against trump yet. and he thinks sanders can win the presidency yet won't have enough clout to influence down ballot while admitting controlling the senate is extremely difficult for dems.
emmaverybo
(8,144 posts)post-El Paso speech. Missed Trump the world laughingstock ad and so much else.
Kurt V.
(5,624 posts)and tv news rarely. thanks for the link.
emmaverybo
(8,144 posts)Gothmog
(145,751 posts)Dem2theMax
(9,656 posts)"Falling into despair wont help anyone, though. I mean, you can curse the darkness or you can light a candle.
Im getting a fucking welding torch. Okay?"
crickets
(25,988 posts)Lonestarblue
(10,125 posts)Carville is right. We need people who are willing to go toe to toe with Trump and get tough about it. Republicans certainly will be tough, and untruthful, in their campaigns. I disagree with Carvilles choice of Michael Bennett, but I think hes wrong about Sanders. With Sanders at the top of the ticket, we will lose to Trump. Independents who like some of Trumps policies but are tired of the chaos and the theatrics will not vote for the socialist candidate. In reality, we know that Bernies policies are not true socialism, theyre just mostly good for the country, but Republicans will brand Bernie as the president who will take away private property rights and turn businesses into government communes.
I am not a Biden supporter because I have doubts that he can out-nasty Trump. And Senate Republicans are already making sure to create lots of dirt on him and his son. Im a Warren supporter because of her ideas and her fierce fighting spirit. I think she can hold her own against Trump, BUTand I say this sadlytoo many people will just not vote for a woman. Mayor Pete is smart and has run a really great campaign, but his sexual preference will be used against him. Unfair, but likely. I also like Klobuchar, and she had a really good debate in New Hampshire, but Im not sure about her ability to out-Trump Trumpand shes a female in a country with a lot of misogynists.
So where does that leave us? All of our candidates have great qualities, and theyre all just smart as hell. But my number 1 criterion is this: who can beat Trump? I dont know the answer to that question, and I cant believe Im going to write this, but it may be a compromise candidateBloomberg. He is not my first or second or third choice. I dont care that hes a billionaire, but I do care that hes too conservative and started out as a Republican. If he can beat Trump, though, Im all in. Interestingand scarytimes we live in.
Boomerproud
(7,975 posts)They showed a clip of an Iowa caucuser changing her vote from Mayor Pete because she found out he was gay. That elephant in the room breaks my heart because he's a good man and we need his talents.
struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)gave us good turn-out in 2008 and helped us elect an African American, much to my surprised delight. Trump's gang is even less popular than W's was
I wouldn't regard a female candidate as a long-shot but as a shot-in-the-arm: in the Grabber-Of-Pussy era, I'd bet we can get lots of women behind the idea that now's really finally time to have a woman President, over a century after the 19th amendment
Of course, what matters most is kicking the Grabber-Of-Pussy Party to the curb -- so I'll vote for the D nominee
DFW
(54,465 posts)I'm with him--no darkness, and for sure nothing so mild as a candle. Bring on the welding torches!
Fiendish Thingy
(15,690 posts)He provides no data that shows otherwise.
You dont think, if enough folks turnout to elect Sanders, that there wont be a big enough turnout to defeat Collins, Gardner, McSally, possibly Mitch and Lindsey?
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)were the nominee. Many house races were won by extremely narrow margins, and keeping control is doing to be far from certain no matter who our nominee is.
With a socialist populist leader promising revolution from within, it's beyond likely that voters would do the usual "balancing" of a bold presidential choice by crippling him with a congress controlled by the other party. That's what they did to Obama, and to many others stretching back into the distant past.
It seems probable that we'd lose both the house and the senate and that the increasingly fascistic Republicans would continue dismantling our progressive systems and government of, by and for the people.
People who think we need a socialist revolution need to realize that a much bigger archconservative fascistic, nationalist, Christian nation, plutocratic revolution, assisted by Russia and other enemies, is already underway.
Ex Lurker
(3,816 posts)And other issues that matter to the Democratic base. Instead try to appeal to blue collar white Trump voters who won't vote for us anyway. Sounds like a winning strategy /sarc
greytdemocrat
(3,299 posts)SMC22307
(8,090 posts)Carville is right -- Fat Nixon needs to be torched over his comments. No one's saying to abandon what you list, but economic issues ALWAYS top the list of what's important to voters. Make any suggestion of cuts to those programs third rail again. TORCH.
SMC22307
(8,090 posts)threatening cuts to SS and Medicare? It's a total fucking gift horse - the words came out of his mouth. Too many voters know he is vile and turn a blind eye, but cuts to SS and Medicare might snap some of them out of it.
Let's see.
Carville's history and personal life make his judgments questionable.
SMC22307
(8,090 posts)the words came out of his mouth at Davos. Why haven't Dems seized on this?
PJMcK
(22,060 posts)It's just that he's bit of a hay-maker.