Two columns precipitated by Democratic consultant James Carville’s new campaign against “wokeness.” (Links to full pieces embedded in headlines.)
Carville may not be entirely right about the Louisiana special election (April 26): When even a liberal Democratic congressional district rejects divisive, leftist culture wars, it may be evidence that the Democratic Party should move back toward the center.
Or maybe not. Sometimes a local race is just local.
National pundits paid little attention, but the arguably less “progressive” of two Democratic candidates won an April 24 runoff for the southern Louisiana congressional seat vacated by former U.S. Rep. Cedric Richmond, who took a job in the Biden White House. State Sen. Troy Carter defeated state Sen. Karen Peterson, 55% to 45%, despite being massively outspent by left-wing activist groups such as the pro-abortion EMILY’s List, which backed Peterson with a $1.8 million outlay. Peterson also touted endorsements from national left-wingers such as U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
Pithy as ever, legendary political strategist James Carville gave his assessment of the race to Times-Picayune reporter Tyler Bridges.
“Voters voted against wokeness,” said Carville. “They just did. Woke did very, very poorly.”….
GOP should awake to Carville’s case against wokeness (April 28):
Legendary Democratic political strategist James Carville is on a mission against “wokeness,” but it is conservatives who can learn the most from his efforts.
Carville began on Monday by saying that the election of the more temperamentally moderate Democrat Troy Carter in last weekend’s Louisiana special congressional election showed that “voters voted against wokeness.” He elaborated in a Vox interview in which he broadened his critique beyond Louisiana, saying that Democrats have suffered nationally because “wokeness is a problem” and that in woke progressivism, “there’s too much jargon and there’s too much esoterica, and it turns people off.”
As often happens, Carville is correct. Yet the more Carville spoke, the more apparent it became that his criticism was more with Democratic “messaging” than with Democratic substance. Still, whether Carville agrees or not, so much of the substance of today’s political Left is so antithetical to Middle American thinking that mere messaging won’t suffice to hide its political unattractiveness….
