CHICAGO — James Carville, the Democratic Party’s favorite scold on the dangers of ideological purity and straying too far from pocketbook issues, shuffled to the microphone Tuesday morning while Connecticut’s delegates to the party’s national convention finished their scrambled eggs and coffee.
Introduced by Gov. Ned Lamont as the “Ragin’ Cajun,” Carville was dressed as though playing a character: Purple LSU ball cap on his famously bald head; faded and stained jeans; a baggy purple, yellow and gray NOLA hoodie. He turns 80 in October.
Carville was the strategist who helped elect Bill Clinton in 1992, a Catholic Louisianan working with a bespectacled Jewish pollster from New Haven named Stan Greenberg, whose reams of data was translated by Carville into an organizing principle that fit on a bumper sticker: “It’s the economy, stupid.”
Greenberg is married to U.S. Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, who was elected to Congress in 1990, two years before Clinton’s win. Greenberg still analyzes data, and DeLauro said the two men still consult with one another.
“The two guys talk every day,” DeLauro said. “Oh God, I tell them they’re like two old ladies. They just chat with one another.”
Being cantankerous is a brand, as evidenced by the in-your-face titles of Carville’s books, including the one he wrote with Greenberg on the 20th anniversary of Clinton’s election as a challenge to Democrats: “It’s the Middle Class, Stupid!”
On Tuesday, Carville simplified politics into two camps, albeit while refraining from explicitly calling anyone stupid: Those who favor organizing political parties around the higher purpose of litmus-test politics, even if it means losing; and those who believe parties exist for one reason: to win elections.
“That’s why we’re here, OK?” he said.
In Carville’s world, that means a degree of tolerance, patience and perhaps a bit of philosophical flexibility.
“If you’re a Democrat, let me bring some news to you: You are in a coalition. Everyone in here is in a coalition,” Carville said. “If you think you’re in a coalition and you’re totally happy, I got news for you: You’re not in a coalition.”
Carville said that means being at peace with U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, a young leftist from a safely blue district, and U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who managed to be reelected in 2018 in a state Donald J. Trump won by an astonishing 42 percentage points.
Ocasio-Cortez spoke Monday night at the convention. Manchin, who has declared himself an independent while remaining a member of the Senate Democratic caucus, did not.
“I don’t want to kick anybody out of our coalition. I want other people to be part of our coalition,” Carville said. “If I wanted to be in a cult, I’d be a Republican.”
Elected Democrats in the audience were in agreement with Carville.
“He’s an enormously successful operative, and he understands that it’s a game of addition, not a game of subtraction,” said U.S. Rep. Jim Himes, a Democrat who represents the former GOP stronghold of Fairfield County.
Himes, U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy and other Connecticut Democrats have preached to varying degrees about the necessity of expanding the party’s appeal, even on foundational issues like reproductive rights. The party is solidly in favor of abortion rights, but Murphy has said that doesn’t preclude acknowledging differences.
Himes said he favors offering respect, not just acknowledgement.
“Can you respect somebody who, out of deep religious belief, has a different view than you do? The answer to that is — you better, out of civility,” Himes said. “That doesn’t necessarily mean the party is going to waver one iota from its commitment to allowing individual women to make their decisions.”
As judged by presidential returns in two elections in which Donald J. Trump was the Republican presidential nominee, Himes’ 4th Congressional District is the safest Democratic seat in Connecticut. Himes says that is an illusion, a reaction to the district’s revulsion with Trump.
Himes said his two Republican predecessors, Chris Shays and Stewart McKinney, were social liberals and fiscal centrists — not too different from his politics.
“The district hasn’t changed all that much. The district responds very poorly to authoritarianism, to MAGA authoritarianism. It responds very poorly to extremism” of any stripe, Himes said. “I keep telling my colleagues, the moment the Republicans become the party of Mitt Romney and John McCain again, the 4th District is going to be really hard.”
William Tong, the Connecticut attorney general, said his colleagues in other Democratic states long have observed: “The blue states are not as blue as the red states are red.”
In other words, he said, Democrats have to win elections by appealing to more than their base.
“You need to listen to people who know how to win elections, and people like James know how to win elections,” said Sean Scanlon, the Connecticut’s state comptroller. “What he was talking about this morning is we are a big-tent party, and there’s a lot of different opinions within that party.”
Danbury Mayor Roberto Alves said Carville was telling the party’s activists to focus on the presidential race, even if it means putting off some debates for another day.
“We have a very serious choice in front of us — and that is Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump,” Alves said.
Carville mocked the standard line that every election is the most important.
“We stand on the precipice. Generations looking forward will depend on the very decision that we make today. Our country is on the cusp between good and disaster,” Carville said, rolling his eyes. Then he got serious. “You know, a broken clock is right twice a day. That happens to be right now.”
This story was originally published by the Connecticut Mirror.