James Carville Says ‘Identity Left’ Was a ‘Giant Mistake’ for Democrats: ‘No One Likes the Word Woke Anymore’

Screenshot via Politicon

Democratic strategist James Carville blasted his party’s move towards the “identity left” when discussing Vice President Kamala Harris’s flip flop on past policy positions.

Carville spoke with Intelligencer ahead of Tuesday’s debate between Harris and former President Donald Trump and he defended Harris changing some of her positions since moving to the top of the Democratic Party ticket, like backing off support for banning fracking.

“The truth of the matter is that, for some reason in 2020, people just kind of lost it. And it was all really — I don’t want to say dumb, but just not very smart stuff. And everybody has kind of dropped it. No one likes the word ‘woke’ anymore, so I won’t use it. But the whole identity left — no one wants to talk about it anymore, for good reason. It was a giant mistake,” Carville said.

The former Bill Clinton advisor has long been a critic of the more “woke” corners of his own party. He’s blamed “stupid wokeness” for Democratic election losses and long ripped “woke elites” in his party.

Carville argued the “woke” in the Democratic Party has never represented more than a small minority.

“I think it was bad political consultants, but I don’t know where people started taking this stuff seriously. And at its height, it was 15% of the Democratic Party, 8% of the country,” he said.

Harris addressed some of her changed policy positions in her one sit-down interview since becoming the Democratic Party’s nominee. Carville also defended Harris against critics saying she’s been too press shy and avoided hard questions on policy from reporters.

“I mean, honestly, what is she supposed to do? Just say, ‘You know, I’m going to sit there for two hours?’ I mean, she’s got plenty of time left,” Carville said. “She had to put an entire campaign together, pick a vice-president, plan a convention, raise money, and then you got a bunch of: ‘Why don’t you talk to me? Come talk to me!’ She’s doing a 90-minute debate. I’m sure she’s going to do stuff after that.”