Veteran Democratic Party strategist James Carville argued that President-elect Donald Trump’s decisive sway with male voters is proof that the party needs to overhaul its messaging.
Earlier this year, Carville made headlines when he warned that “preachy females” and “feminine” woke messaging from Democrats were driving away male voters. After Trump’s victory, Carville has said Democrats have the “stench” of wokeness.
PBS host Christiane Amanpour asked Carville about his past comments on Wednesday’s “Amanpour and Co.”
“Last spring you said, you know, ‘A suspicion of mine is that there are too many preachy females dominating the culture of the Democratic Party,’” the PBS host said. “Do you stand by that? ‘Females?’”
Veteran Democratic Party strategist James Carville has been warning repeatedly that Democrats need to ditch identity-politics based messaging, warning that it alienates voters, and now that the election has passed, he says the numbers proved him right. (PBS)
“Well, would you look at our male vote?” Carville said. “Would somebody just take a look at how we did with males and how we did with non-White males and tell me that the Democrats don’t have a messaging problem, that the message comes across as too feminine?”
Carville continued, “There is not a person in the world that I’ve talked to that doubts that I’m right, right now. I mean, I say provocative things to get a provocative reaction. Is somebody really going to tell me we don’t have a problem with male voters?”
Amanpour, who is also a CNN International anchor, acknowledged Democrats poor performance with male voters, but asked what the party can do going forward.
“We could certainly shovel the entire identity politics about 50 feet into the ground and bury it. I mean, you can start by doing things like that,” he said.
Political commentator James Carville ahead of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, US, on Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024. There are about 50,000 people coming to Chicago during convention week, with expectations they will fill its hotels, bars and restaurants. Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
He also argued that Democrats were not allowed to talk about the Biden-Harris administration successfully cracking down on crime because the “woke-police would not allow that.”
“You can change your language around. You know, don’t use coded language. Like I said, it’s going to take one cycle before we can wash this smell off of our shirt, but I think there’s a good chance that if we act correctly, it will be gone by ’26 and gone-gone by ’28,” Carville said. “But please don’t let anybody infer to me that we did well with males because we did not.”