Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville did not mince words when he unloaded on his party’s far-left insurgency Thursday.
“We get subjugated by some of the more outspoken people who, by the way, [are] not even Democrats,” Carville said during a video news conference.
“I wish they’d take the word Democrat out of their name. I have no idea why the democratic socialists — if you hate the Democratic Party so much, well, then don’t use our goddamn name. Go think of your own name.”
He was one of several speakers at a media event promoting the Promise To America, a set of principles created in part by two moderate House lawmakers, Reps. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., and Adam Gray, D-Calif., as their party experiences a civil war over its identity and agenda.
The Promise To America is about celebrating “capitalism, safety, fiscal responsibility, effective government, common purpose, and patriotism,” according to its website.
It’s the latest bid by moderate and pragmatic members of the left to distance themselves from the socialist wave that’s already toppled several establishment-backed Democrats.
The intraparty feud has also become a central campaign talking point for Republicans, who have argued that Democrats will try to push a far-left vision of the country beyond what most Americans want if they win the midterms in November.
Carville said during the news conference it was “just common sense.”
“That’s so often what people are forgetting in politics. And for the life of me, I hope … that we do things like this that are popular, are actually helpful, that can help the country. Who’s not for lower crime? I mean, everybody is, but we just need to restate it,” he said.
He maintained that “80% of Democrats really want” what the Promise To America is promoting and criticized the far-left for drowning out those moderate voices.
But just 10 House Democrats have signed onto the pledge so far, which Republicans have argued is evidence that the far-left is really capturing its party. Out of the litany of Democrats running for the House, just five are signatories.
Suozzi argued, however, “We only want 10 members of Congress because we don’t want to make it only about Washington. That’s why we’re going out to the state and local officials.”
Those who have not signed on include House Democrats’ senior leaders, who have said little on the socialist insurgency.
But Gray and Suozzi dismissed the notion that they were not getting enough support from their leaders when asked by Fox News Digital.
“I think the leadership is being very supportive,” Suozzi said of his own experience. “They have a lot to balance. They’ve got the whole country to worry about.”
Gray said, “The efforts on the cable news networks and everything else to nationalize our politics all the time, pretend that, you know, somebody in some big city represents all of us is absurd. … It’s a distraction, this idea that somehow some leader somewhere is supposed to win my district.”
