For the last few months, noted Guy Who Came Up With A Good Saying One Time James Carville has been going full Ragin’ Cajun over the Democratic Socialists of America. Practically any time a camera has been in his face, he’s taken to talking about how he doesn’t want DSA members or more left-leaning candidates popular among the DSA to run as Democrats. (Those with long memories might note that the Left were specifically told they should be Democrats instead of, say, running third party, which has been known to spoil things.)
He’s even gone so far as to say that he would leave the Democratic Party if the DSA — and Twitch streamer Hasan Piker in particular — becomes a force within it.
At some point, Carville and others are going to have to realize that Hasan Piker is a terrible boogie man. Like, really, find someone who requires just a little bit less homework, no one has time to rage out about a Twitch streamer who said some controversial-ish things like five years ago. In fact, I’d say a significant portion of that target audience does not even want to have to know what a Twitch streamer even is.
Over the weekend, Carville stopped by The Bulwark’s Sunday podcast to have a chat with Bill Kristol about the upcoming election and the future of the Democratic Party. While there, he explained that he would rather the Republicans win by five votes than the Democrats win by five votes — because with such a razor-thin margin, the DSA wing would have more leverage to do all the vile, destructive things people elected them to do. Terrifying things like universal health care and universal pre-K/daycare and paid time off and, uh, not bombing people. I guess? Oh, maybe they’ll make us all join the Muslim Brotherhood, but surely that’s a ways away.
Via Mediaite:
“I would be disappointed if it comes in at 225 House seats,” Carville said. “That would almost be – I would rather the Republicans keep the House by five than the Democrats to win by five because if that happens, they’re hostage to the DSA.”
Carville said a slim majority would leave Democratic House leaders with little room to maneuver between moderates and the party’s expanding democratic socialist wing: “Like Hakeem [Jeffries] cannot move. There’s no place for him to go.”
“And even if you have a close Senate, [Senator John] Fetterman would keep [Chuck] Schumer Pepto-Bismol all night,” Carville added.
I do not actually know what that last one means? Is he saying Fetterman would give Schumer agita or heal his agita, like Pepto-Bismol? I would imagine that Carville would be very pro-Fetterman, on account of how he’s practically a Republican these days, but I don’t know. That’s just not a saying I know or have ever heard.
As far as Jeffries goes … was he moving before? Because I can’t say as I noticed. Except for that time he went to a meeting with Jared Kushner to discuss their shared economic goals.
There has definitely been some friction between the various Democratic factions lately, with it seeming as though some of the moderates (particularly some at a certain outlet) would rather progressive candidates like Abdul El-Sayed lose, just to prove a point. Most of them have been insisting this isn’t true, but clearly Carville does not have such qualms.
All of that aside, people voted for progressive candidates because they want those candidates to have sway in the House and the Senate. In many cases, they voted for them in primaries over the more moderate candidates. They were not even thinking, probably, about James Carville, his feelings or what he wants for the Democratic Party when they cast those votes, which James Carville probably thinks was mighty selfish of them.
Now, while I would certainly prefer that Democrats win by a wide margin, I really can’t imagine any scenario in which I would think that Republicans winning by any margin would be at all preferable to Democrats winning by any margin. Then again, I’ve got a whole uterus on the line here, while James Carville does not personally need the government to do or not do a damn thing for him. In fact, things might even go real well for him if the more progressive candidates lost. People might even start calling him up and asking to give him money for his advice if that were to happen.
Because really, the primary selling point for moderates is “electability.” Very often, people are not voting for moderate candidates because “Oh boy, this is the candidate of my dreams! Can’t wait until they get into office and show the world what compromise is all about!” but because they think they have the best chance of beating the Republicans. Because hey! That’s who we’re told (frequently by people like James Carville) can beat the Republicans. In 2016, Chuck Schumer promised that “for every blue-collar Democrat we lose in western Pennsylvania, we will pick up two moderate Republicans in the suburbs in Philadelphia, and you can repeat that in Ohio and Illinois and Wisconsin.”
I don’t know how much you remember 2016, but if you need a refresher — that did not happen. And it’s hard to claim “electability” as your primary selling point when you aren’t, you know, winning elections.
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Quite frankly, what James Carville should really worry about is Democrats winning a ton of seats and ultimately, once we’ve got a Democratic president, doing all of the things for the American people that we’ve been told just can’t be done for so many years.
If that happens, well — you know what could happen? Maybe something like holding control of both the Senate and Congress for 14 years. And then maybe, after a brief interlude, holding onto the Senate for another 26 straight years and Congress for 40 years. Because that’s what happened after the New Deal.
Talk about “electability.”
Clearly, the last thing James Carville wants is people realizing that they can get elected by actually wanting to do good things for people and then subsequently doing those good things, and not by hiring James Carville.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
It is way beyond time for Carville to STFU.
Fuck that guy.
Man, I've been saying that for years.