General Discussion

Celerity

(50,954 posts) Tue Jul 22, 2025, 09:25 AM 8 hrs ago

James Carville: My Fix for the Confused and Leaderless Democrats

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/opinion/carville-democrats-midterms-mamdani.html

https://archive.ph/o8uAg

Constipated. Leaderless. Confused. A cracked-out clown car. Divided. These are the words I hear my fellow Democrats using to describe our party as of late. The truth is they’re not wrong: The Democratic Party is in shambles.

Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary wasn’t an isolated event. It represents an undeniable fissure in our political soul. We are divided along generational lines: Candidates like Mr. Mamdani are impatient for an economic future that folks my age are skeptical can be delivered. We are divided along ideological lines: A party that is historically allegiant to the state of Israel is at odds with a growing faction that will not look past the abuses in Gaza and the West Bank. From Medicare for All purists to Affordable Care Act reformists, the list goes on and on.

The Democratic Party is steamrolling toward a civilized civil war. It’s necessary to have it. It’s even more necessary to delay it. The only thing that can save us now is an actual savior, because a new party can be delivered only by a person — see Barack Obama in 2008 and Bill Clinton in 1992. No matter how many podcasts or influencer streams our candidates go on, our new leader won’t arrive until the day after the midterms in November 2026, which marks the unofficial-yet-official beginning of the 2028 presidential primary contest. No new party or candidate has a chance for a breakthrough until that day.

Until then, we must run unified in opposition to the Republicans to gain as many House seats as possible in the midterms, because every congressional seat we gain in 2026 means we will be more likely to bring about change in 2028. And there’s good news on that front. There’s plenty of tantalizing political scandal surrounding the president right now. But issues of moral or ethical concern are almost always more powerful when they’re self-inflicted. Let President Trump rope-a-dope with MAGA on the Jeffrey Epstein case and don’t get in the way.

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10 replies

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Highlight:

James Carville: My Fix for the Confused and Leaderless Democrats (Original Post) Celerity 8 hrs ago OP

Fck this guy mcar 8 hrs ago #1

My fix for James Carville milestogo 8 hrs ago #2

My fix is that people like James retire from the party and go away. Autumn 8 hrs ago #3

I don't disagree with... SickOfTheOnePct 8 hrs ago #4

Dumb and for crying out loud, what an ego. Passages 8 hrs ago #5

Until the Dems believe that the young people are the future, nothing will change. mucholderthandirt 8 hrs ago #6

Just go away James Ferrets are Cool 8 hrs ago #7

Systems resist change, and Carville represents the existing system Fiendish Thingy 7 hrs ago #8

"And we are all going to die anyway. You can take that to the bank." - The CarvGeezer (pundot) BoRaGard 7 hrs ago #9

On Today's Schedule Montauk6 7 hrs ago #10

mcar

(44,944 posts)

1. Fck this guy

Reply to Celerity (Original post)

Tue Jul 22, 2025, 09:28 AM

8 hrs ago

milestogo

(21,326 posts)

2. My fix for James Carville

Reply to Celerity (Original post)

Tue Jul 22, 2025, 09:32 AM

8 hrs ago

Go away.

Autumn

(48,176 posts)

3. My fix is that people like James retire from the party and go away.

Reply to Celerity (Original post)

Tue Jul 22, 2025, 09:32 AM

8 hrs ago

Much as I love Barack Obama and Bill Clinton they didn't deliver a new party. They saved the old one. And the old party is no longer relevant.

SickOfTheOnePct

(8,002 posts)

4. I don't disagree with...

Reply to Celerity (Original post)

Tue Jul 22, 2025, 09:36 AM

8 hrs ago

...Carville's claim that there is a fissure in the Democratic party, I think that's pretty obvious. Not sure though that he provided any answers as to how to fix it.

Mamdani, for example. I don't live in NYC, but if I did, I would vote for him, because he's the Democratic nominee.

Do I like his policy proposals? No.
Would I have preferred that someone other than him (or Cuomo) was up for and won the nomination for the party? Yes.
Do I still want him to be elected as mayor of NYC? Yes.

But to me, the problem with the divisions that became very evident after Mamdani won the nomination is that we can't win in this country with just registered Democrats - we need the third-party registrants, or no-party registrants, to win at the national level.

I don't know what the answer is, wish I did.

Passages

(3,273 posts)

5. Dumb and for crying out loud, what an ego.

Reply to Celerity (Original post)

Tue Jul 22, 2025, 09:37 AM

8 hrs ago

mucholderthandirt

(1,616 posts)

6. Until the Dems believe that the young people are the future, nothing will change.

Reply to Celerity (Original post)

Tue Jul 22, 2025, 09:44 AM

8 hrs ago

We'll keep skewing to the right of center, and we'll keep losing. We have to make the young people know that we care about their future, and the future of the world. It's not going to happen if we keep putting forth the old guard, who end up voting with the Republicans because unity.

That doesn't work. It never worked. It's going to work even less now. I'm old, I've seen a lot come and go, and to be honest, I trust the younger generation more than I do my own. With the rise of MAGA, we lost our small edge that kept Dems in office. There's no way we can work with the crazy people. It's destroyed any potential for good America had. Now we have to change course, think of what works for the most people, not the rich, and get this country back on track.

Ferrets are Cool

(22,318 posts)

7. Just go away James

Reply to Celerity (Original post)

Tue Jul 22, 2025, 09:44 AM

8 hrs ago

Fiendish Thingy

(20,088 posts)

8. Systems resist change, and Carville represents the existing system

Reply to Celerity (Original post)

Tue Jul 22, 2025, 10:21 AM

7 hrs ago

The Democratic Party is steamrolling toward a civilized civil war. It’s necessary to have it. It’s even more necessary to delay it.

Translation: “please let us keep our status quo hierarchy just a little while longer so our big donors don’t get scared off and the youngsters force us to do things differently”

, we must run unified in opposition to the Republicans to gain as many House seats as possible in the midterm

Translation: “even though Mamdani is running a successful, popular campaign opposing Republican policies, the failed policies of the current mayor, and promoting popular policies of his own, we cannot unify around his success and momentum. We must reject his scary (to us old school Dem insiders) populism, and instead unify around whatever tired, ineffective themes that will rock the boat the least”.

Nobody should listen to Carville or take him seriously.

If Dems adopt Mamdani’s cheerful populism (not necessarily every one of his exact policies) as the antidote to the corrupt incompetence of the republicans, they will win back the house in a massive blue wave, and the way things are going, winning back the senate becomes more possible every day.

BoRaGard

(6,413 posts)

9. "And we are all going to die anyway. You can take that to the bank." - The CarvGeezer (pundot)

Reply to Celerity (Original post)

Tue Jul 22, 2025, 10:26 AM

7 hrs ago

Montauk6

(9,168 posts)

10. On Today's Schedule

Reply to Celerity (Original post)

Tue Jul 22, 2025, 10:26 AM

7 hrs ago

9:30AM - Chair Yoga
10:15AM - Tai Chi with Omar
11:00AM - Music and Coloring with Wendy
12:30PM - Meditation with Gerhard
1:45PM - Feature Film
2:30PM - New Resident Orientation
3:00PM - Book Club
4:00PM - Bingo with Shirley
4:30PM - Rug Tufting with Chad
7:30PM - Scrabble Night!

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