James Carville on Woke Politics: ‘English Faculty at Amherst Has too Much Power’ in Democrat Party

James Carville speaks onstage during the 2019 Politicon at Music City Center on October 26
Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Politicon

Appearing Thursday on Conversations with Bill Kristol, veteran Democrat strategist James Carville weighed in on the Democrat Party’s embrace of identity politics and wokeism, quipping: “the English faculty at Amherst has too much power in this party.”

A transcript is as follows: 

BILL KRISTOL: You mentioned defund the police, you mentioned identity politics, cancel culture, whatever you want to call these things, but how worried are you about that complex of issues? Some of the attacks may be unfair, some may be fair, but the Democrats, parts of the Democratic party coalition, giving enough oxygen to that stuff that allows Republicans to just scream and yell about it for two years or four years and really have an effect. You think it did have an effect 2020, certainly down ballot, right? The police stuff?

JAMES CARVILLE: It did. It is the thing that I’m most worried about. And because, first of all, who they are. I don’t know of anybody, and I talked to, I live in New Orleans, okay? It’s no secret. I don’t know of a single person that thinks of themselves as a “person of color.” I really don’t. I had Ruben Gallego, who’s a Democratic congressman from Arizona, and we did much better in Arizona than we did in Texas or Florida, and he said, “I’ve never heard anybody use the word LatinX.” And that’s just not the way people talk. It’s not what they — It’s just not the way. When people hear that — And it’s a little different because when you’re in the middle of it, you hear it so much it doesn’t stand out.

When you’re out in the rest of the country — It was like the janitor at Smith College. That story. I give Tom the credit for running the story, but there is a feeling — And I got to tell you, I’m a supportive, ardent Democrat, passion and everything, but the English faculty at Amherst has too much power in this party. They really do. And they come up with all of these different things and when people see that, they don’t like it because it’s not what their life is. I think Biden does a — Congratulations, he stays out of that.

[H/T conversationswithbillkristol.org]

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.