James Carville says he’s done with the Democratic Party. The longtime strategist, a fixture of Clinton-era politics, announced his break over a primary election in New York City where two democratic socialists unseated incumbents. Carville’s exit, reported this week, is one of the loudest reactions so far.
But it is far from the only one. Donald Trump is screaming about communists running rampant.
That is the phrase in the report. The mainstream media, by the account of observers familiar with the dynamic, is sighing with relief. They have a storyline, these observers say, that proves they are not biased against Trump after all.
The figure that matters in the current Beltway debate, according to the report, is zero. Zero new policy proposals.
Zero legislative achievements discussed. Zero attention paid to what voters actually want. Instead, the political class is locked in another round of hand-wringing over whether the Democratic Party has “gone off the deep end.” Some observers remember it was just eight years ago when the same thing happened.
A young upstart named Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez unseated New York Rep. Joseph Crowley, a powerful 10-term incumbent and chairman of the House Democratic Caucus. Her win was seen as a crisis for the ages. She and a group of young “woke” women of color, dubbed “the Squad,” were feared to be taking a wrecking ball to everything the old guard held dear.
They were considered too extreme for regular folks. This has happened over and over again, the report notes, when a new generation steps up with different energy and new ideas.
The old guard always freaks out. The panic is predictable. But it is also missing the real story.
The issue of America’s unconditional support for Israel, especially in the wake of Trump’s disastrous war with Iran, is roiling both parties. It is having an effect at the ballot box.
That is the number that should matter to investors and political strategists alike, the report states. Carville’s departure echoes a pattern. When Ocasio-Cortez won in 2018, the same fears were aired.
The same predictions of doom were made. The same media narrative of a party losing its mind took hold. Eight years later, the Squad is still in Congress.
The party did not collapse. The country did not fall apart.
What did happen is that a new generation brought new energy and new ideas. They pushed the conversation on issues like Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. They forced the old guard to confront things they had ignored for years.
The panic, in retrospect, looks like a predictable tantrum from people who did not want to share power. Now it is happening again.
Two democratic socialists in New York City unseated two incumbents. Carville is done. Trump is screaming.
The media has its storyline. And the real issue, the one about unconditional support for Israel and the aftermath of the Iran war, gets pushed aside. The report makes clear that the numbers that should matter are not the ones getting attention.
Zero policy proposals. Zero attention to voters.
Zero substance in the Beltway debate. Meanwhile, a primary election in New York City is treated like a national crisis. Observers familiar with the dynamic say the mainstream media is relieved.
They have a story that proves they are not biased against Trump. They can cover the Democratic Party’s internal fights instead of the administration’s failures.
They can focus on the drama instead of the damage. What is missing from the conversation is what voters actually want. What is missing is any discussion of policy.
What is missing is the fact that the same panic has happened before and turned out to be wrong. The old guard always freaks out. The new generation always gets blamed.
And the real issues, the ones that affect people’s lives, get ignored.
