Longtime Democratic strategist James Carville said the party has a “wokeness” problem on its hands that could come back to haunt it if it isn’t addressed soon.
Mr. Carville told Vox this week that President Biden’s long-term goals may go unrealized if the party doesn’t steer clear of rhetoric used by “people in faculty lounges in fancy colleges.”
The outspoken Mr. Carville told writer Sean Illing that Democrats need to become “ruthless,” abandon terms such as “Latinx” and avoid talk of abolishing police departments if they want continued success at the ballot box.
“Wokeness is a problem and everyone knows it. It’s hard to talk to anybody today — and I talk to lots of people in the Democratic Party — who doesn’t say this. But they don’t want to say it out loud,” he said for an interview published Tuesday. “Because they’ll get clobbered or canceled. … I think it’s because large parts of the country view us as an urban, coastal, arrogant party, and a lot gets passed through that filter. That’s a real thing. I don’t give a damn what anyone thinks about it — it’s a real phenomenon, and it’s damaging to the party brand.”
Similar commentary on “woke” politics was offered by HBO “Real Time” host Bill Maher during his most recent broadcast, which he likened to saying “let’s eat in the bathroom and s—- in the kitchen.”
“Abolish the police? And the Border Patrol?” Mr. Maher asked. “The problem isn’t that I don’t get what you’re saying or that I’m old, the problem is your ideas are stupid.”
Mr. Carville’s assessment of the situation was equally peppered with expletives for “woke” Democrats.
“Maybe tweeting that we should abolish the police isn’t the smartest thing to do because almost f—-ing no one wants to do that,” he told Vox. “We won the White House against a world-historical buffoon. And we came within 42,000 votes of losing. We lost congressional seats. We didn’t pick up state legislatures. … There’s too much jargon and there’s too much esoterica and it turns people off.”
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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