Democrat Strategist James Carville Calls For Woke Detox Centers, Blames 'Stupid Wokeness' For Democrat Losses In Virginia Photo: James Carville speaks at the annual U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting, June 26, 2017, in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
The Democrats suffered a shocking loss in the elections earlier this week. The DNC was counting on a win in the Virginia governor’s race but Democrat candidate Terry McAuliffe lost to Republican Glenn Youngkin. The Dems also thought they would have an easy win in the New Jersey governor’s race, which went down to the wire. Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy barely eked out a win for reelection over Republican Jack Ciattarelli.
Longtime Democrat strategist James Carville is blaming the Dems’ weak showing on “stupid wokeness.”
Carville was asked about the gubernatorial loss in Virginia — a state President Biden won a year ago by 10 percent — during an interview with “PBS NewsHour.”
“Well, what went wrong is this stupid wokeness,” said Carville, who served as Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign manager in 1992.
“Don’t just look at Virginia and New Jersey,” Carville said. “Look at Long Island, look at Buffalo, look at Minneapolis. Even look at Seattle, Wash. I mean, this ‘defund the police’ lunacy, this ‘take Abraham Lincoln’s name off of schools,’ that — people see that.”
Carville said such policies have a “suppressive effect” across the country, and he suggested that progressive Democrats “need to go to a woke detox center,” The New York Post reported.
“They’re expressing language that people just don’t use. And there’s a backlash and a frustration at that,” Carville said. Suburbanites in Virginia and New Jersey “pulled away” from such “wokeness,” he said.
Twitter was quick to clap back at Carville.
One user pointed out that “wokeness” isn’t new. “But our battle cry to Stay Woke has been around since the 30’s. The first time it was used, was around the trial of the Scottsboro Boys. The Blues singer Huddie Ledbetter… aka Lead Belly, put on wax, for Black folks to stay woke or be mindful of what is happening to us,” Ma’rifatullah (Knowledge in Allah) @RifatullahIn tweeted.
Ma’rifatullah added, “And we have the guy that brought us Bill Clinton, the crime bill and massive Black incarceration, telling us wokeness is annoying people and causing Democrats to lose votes. I guess they are going go back to their messaging of super predators to keep the Whitehouse”.
Veteran journalist Roland Martin, host of the “Roland Martin Unfiltered” daily digital show, tweeted, “Let me be as clear as possible: @JamesCarville doesn’t know what the hell he is talking about. AT ALL. Call me next time @JudyWoodruff. This is total BS. “Carville blames ‘stupid wokeness’ for Democratic losses”
Another Twitter user said that Carville is trying to shut down progressives in favor of conservative Democrats such as Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia. “People like @JamesCarville would have progressives shut up and give away the store to help Manchin keep coal business paycheck and placate the lobbyists, and allow Sinema to curtsey and scrape before Big Pharma, despite the fact that it’s progressives supporting the Biden agenda,” tweeted Larry Middleton – Unapologetically Black @l78lancer.
“There are a lot of reasons that McAuliffe lost VA. But he same kind of invective and despisement that Carville openly displays to progressivism is the same thing that no doubt many voters – especially younger voters – picked up from McAuliffe,” Middleton added.
This isn’t the first time Carville has decried wokeness. Earlier this year, he said wokeness was a problem, Vox reported.
“Wokeness is a problem and everyone knows it. It’s hard to talk to anybody today — and I talk to lots of people in the Democratic Party — who doesn’t say this. But they don’t want to say it out loud,” said Carville.
Carville is also against reparations. On MSNBC’s Morning Joe show in 2020 he said that African American voters aren’t interested in “foolishness” like revolution and socialism. “They’re interested in somebody that’s going to come to them and articulate a vision as to how they fit into this country.”
Politics should be about “coalitions” and tackling issues, Carville said, not about being an “ideologue” or talking about “reparations or any kind of goofy left-wing thing out there.”
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