After months of soul-searching, Democratic Party strategist James Carville wrote a New York Times op-ed about how he was wrong in predicting the results of the 2024 presidential election.
He honestly thought Kamala Harris would win the contest and, like all in his party, was devastated by the final results.
To Party officials, the election did not make sense. They had done all the wokest things, repeated all the latest politically correct clichés and virtue signaled on all the most explosive issues. The race should not have even been competitive.
It’s About the Economy
However, these progressive issues did not seem to resonate in the real world. Mr. Carville’s conclusion was to revert to an old political dogma that reflects his leftist leanings. He concludes that the problem with the election is that “it was, it is and it always will be [about] the economy, stupid.”
When all else fails, true leftists turn any problems into economic ones. They believe people are only motivated by money and self-interest. History is a constant class struggle to transfer resources to “the oppressed” so that they get their fair share. Address only these concerns, and winning elections will result.
Like a good leftist, Mr. Carville will not admit error. He believes the Biden administration was doing great by delivering a good economy, inflation notwithstanding.
However, the problem in 2024 was the messaging. The Democrats could not present the good news in ways that were “persuasive,” “memorable” or “entirely focused on the issues that affect Americans’ everyday lives.” Staying laser-focused on the economy will save the Democrats, he thinks.
Losing Focus
By calling for more economic focus, Mr. Carville leaves aside the culture war issues that he dismisses as a distraction from the Party’s lost economic narrative.
Eternal and Natural Law: The Foundation of Morals and Law
He cannot admit that a significant part of the loss can also be attributed to non-economic issues. Voters rejected wokism, the socialist economic policies that provoked inflation, immigration, transgenderism and abortion.
The disconnect of the Democratic Party with what is happening in society extends far beyond economic dissatisfaction. The loss was not because it failed to focus on economic issues but also because it focused too much on these other issues. Voters felt these leftist agendas were being stuffed down their throats. Companies forced into ESG mandates said they had enough and wanted out.
Making Everything Economic
While dismissing these issues as secondary, Mr. Carville is unwilling to let a good crisis go to waste. The left has long adopted these hot-button social issues as its own. Its activists resonate with abortion, same-sex “marriage,” and the LGBTQ agenda. Any retreat on these issues looks a lot like defeat.
The inveterate 80-year-old activist again adopts a leftist solution. He suggests the Democrats must frame the moral issues as economic problems. It is all a matter of the right messaging.
“Let’s make Roe v. Wade an economic messaging issue,” Mr. Carville writes, “and force them [the Republicans] to block our attempt to codify it into law.”
Conflicting Worldviews
He is not changing the battle but only its packaging. His philosophical materialist worldview reduced to matter in constant evolution without purpose or God. All political fights are the eternal struggle between the oppressors and the oppressed.
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This view is contrasted with a Western philosophical outlook that takes into consideration the good, true and beautiful. It deals with economic issues but in function of what Russell Kirk called those “permanent things” such as those norms of courage, duty, honor, justice, and charity that owe their existence and authority not to messaging or politicians—but to God Himself.
Indeed, this election had strong economic dimensions. However, voters’ dissatisfaction also included many of these more profound issues that need to be addressed.
Mr. Carville’s proposed strategy represents nothing new. His new perspective is worn boilerplate that excites no one. In typical leftist fashion, nothing really changed.
Indeed, Mr. Carville was, is and always will be a leftist.
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