Jim Webb: ‘I worry’ the Democratic party’s message ‘has become less inclusive’

Former Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia said Wednesday he’s worried that the Democratic party’s message has become less inclusive and that people in places like rural mountain areas and cities are getting left behind by both parties.

“There’s an old term in politics: Addition is the goal, not subtraction — you want to be more inclusive if you have something that is good for the country, and I worry that the Democratic party’s message has become less inclusive even as it has become more focused on different interest groups,” Mr. Webb said on NPR’s “The Diane Rehm Show.”

“If you look at the ’10 elections and the ’14 elections, you will see that the Democratic party, I believe, needs to open up and be more inclusive to the people who traditionally were part of the basic message of the Democratic party,” he said.

Mr. Webb said this weekend in Wise County in southwest Virginia, there will be a medical clinic at the county fairgrounds where potentially thousands of people who don’t have health care will receive treatment.

“These are people who should be naturally affiliated with the Democratic party,” he said. “Neither party is really focusing on how to elevate people from this area — the rural mountain areas. Not just mountain areas in America — also in the more troubled areas of our cities.”

“If you’re a kid living in West Baltimore today, 10-year-old kid, and you’re in a building where the plumbing doesn’t work and the people that you see making money are the ones selling drugs on the street, or if you’re a kid in Clay County, Kentucky, which is 94 percent white and the poorest county in America, and you see crystal meth problems and unemployment, you’re not seeing the same American dream,” Mr. Webb said.

“And the Democratic party, for the good of the country, I think can really embrace people in these situations in a much more affirmative way,” he continued.

Earlier this week on “Fox News Sunday,” Mr. Webb had echoed a similar theme; he mentioned the health clinic in Virginia and said the Democratic party has moved too far to the left and that the party needs to bring working people back into the formula.