‘I Was Wrong’ James Carville Humbles Himself After Predicting Kamala Harris Victory As He Urges Dems To ‘Go Big, Go Populist’
Screenshot via Politicon
James Carville admitted in an op-ed that he was “wrong” about Vice President Kamala Harris’s chances against President-elect Donald Trump, and it’s all because he didn’t listen to his own advice.
“We lost for one very simple reason: It was, it is, and it always will be the economy, stupid,” Carville wrote in a Thursday op-ed for The New York Times. The line references Carville’s famous “it’s the economy, stupid” declaration the political strategist made in 1992 while advising former President Bill Clinton.
Carville, who has been vocally critical of some of the Harris campaign’s perceived missteps, argued Democrats should be completely focused on retooling their messaging rather than taking “solace” in small victories.
“I thought Kamala Harris would win. I was wrong. While I’m sure we Democrats can argue that the loss wasn’t a landslide or take a little solace in our House performance, the most important thing for us now is to face that we were wrong and take action on the prevailing ‘why,'” Carville wrote.
He argued that Trump “decisively won” the election by focusing on the economy and inflation concerns and by “seizing a swath of middle-class and low-income voters focused on the economy.” Democrats, according to Carville, “have flat-out lost the economic narrative.”
Among Carville’s recommendations for his party are not focusing on Trump as an individual or criticizing his MAGA movement.
“We have got to stop making Mr. Trump himself our main focus; he can’t be elected again. Furthermore, it’s clear many Americans do not give a rat’s tail about Mr. Trump’s indictments — even if they are justified — or about his antidemocratic impulses or about social issues if they cannot provide for themselves or their families,” he wrote.
Democrats, he added, should focus on opposing specific Trump economic policies like tax cuts and “slapstick tariffs.” The party should also, according to Carville, push for a $15 minimum wage and bipartisan immigration reform that focuses on keeping skilled and productive workers in the United States, rather than going through the cost of deporting them.
The next presidential candidate, he argued, will also need to be as sharply focused on the economy and someone who can come across well on a podcast. Carville declared it’s time for Democrats to “go big” and “go populist.”
“This year the Democratic Party leadership must convene and publish a creative, popular and bold economic agenda and proactively take back our economic turf,” Carville wrote. “Go big, go populist, stick to economic progress and force them to oppose what they cannot be for. In unison.”
