Jake Beardslee’s coverage of Bill Maher’s interview of James Carville at LightWave is pretty interesting. Here are a few choice snippets:
Legendary Democratic strategist James Carville did not hold back in mocking the far-left wing of the Democratic Party, calling them “stupid†and “naive†on Bill Maher’s “Club Random†podcast.
and
Carville revisited his criticisms of progressive Democrats later in the program, calling them a burden to the party. He argued that while only 10% of the party actually identified as progressive, they drag the entire party down.
and
“If we could just get the humanities faculty at Amherst [College] to shut the F up, we’d be a lot better off,†Carville said.
I found this the most telling:
Both Carville and Maher went on to voice concerns that President Biden’s age could hurt him in a potential 2024 rematch against Trump.
“He cannot run for president. He’ll look bad in the debates,†Maher said.
I don’t disagree with him but I think it illustrates just how far the Clintonistas are removed from the locus of power in the party. Nancy Pelosi is a progressive. Hakeem Jeffries is a progressive. Katherine Clark is a progressive. Chuck Schumer is more closely aligned with Congressional progressives than he is with centrists. Power is concentrated in the leadership these days.
I agree that progressives have a lot more influence in the party than their numbers would suggest. I think a lot of that is because that section of the part is the richest, whitest, and best educated. Progressive donor groups get a lot of money, which gives them a louder voice.
I think the ship has sailed WRT to Biden not running. The Democrats are tied to that decision now. Had Biden chosen not to run six or twelve months ago, things might be different. But at this point, Democrats have no good choices, so the status quo is what they’ll have to live with for better or worse.
Basically, I think Nate Silver is right here:
https://substack.com/inbox/post/137359899