Veteran Democratic Party strategist James Carville warned on Thursday that Democrats need to acknowledge how they took part in the decades-long betrayal of white, working-class voters.
Since the Democratic Party’s historic loss in November, many have been trying to chart a path forward to reclaiming their coalition.
While some have doubled-down on controversial far-left identity politics, some have worked to reclaim working-class men they alienated in recent years, particularly white men.
On the Politics War Room podcast, hosts Carville and Al Hunt addressed a comment from a listener, who suggested that rather than being reconciliation, MAGA supporters deserve to be “beaten badly at the voting booth and then told just to suck it up.”
“Oh God, who doesn’t have that instinct?” Carville responded, but nonetheless warned that politics comes down to winning elections, and that means persuading voters.
“It is not the most satisfying way, but what in the end are we trying to do? We’re trying to do one thing, win elections.” He proceeded to warn against the “temptation that says ‘I can’t believe how godd–n stupid you were.”
While he said he has no temptation for the “corporate a—wipes” who voted for Trump to become richer, the strategist nicknamed the Ragin’ Cajun expressed some sympathy for working-class whites he says have been betrayed by both parties.
“I have an iota of sympathy for somebody whose life hadn’t turned out right,” he said. “The brilliant thing about MAGA is it gives you an explanation other than yourself of why your life didn’t turn out the way you wanted it, and we should say to these people ‘We kind of understand what you were trying to say but you were betrayed.’”
“Let’s also face it, Democrats acted like these people didn’t exist alright? They just did, and don’t come back and say-We acted like working-class, particularly working-class non-college whites were not part of our too-cool-for-school group,” he continued. “There were some real high-end people that kind of bought in to that s—.”
He returned to the listener’s question and reasserted his point that it’s better to reconcile with working-class white voters, even if he understands being frustrated with them.
“I can see it, but the best thing to do is not punch him in the mouth but to say, ‘You know man I could hear where you’re coming from you just got betrayed, and we betrayed you somewhat, and we now have learned our lesson,’” he said.
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