The Democratic Party Still Hates the Left

The Democratic Party is terrified of even small liberal reforms and will not abide left leaning democrats thwarting their plans for austerity and neoliberal orthodoxy.

By Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report

“I would rather the Republicans keep the House by five than the Democrats win by five, because if that happens, they’re hostage to the DSA. Hakeem cannot move. There’s no place for him to go.” – James Carville

Polls indicate that democrats can win control of the House of Representatives in the November 3, 2026 mid-term elections. If accurate, left leaning democrats may win some of those seats and those victories would mean that voters are looking for progressive change. But James Carville, eminence grise of conservative democrats, wants to disempower them and their voters before any of them even get to Washington. So great is his antipathy that he would prefer a republican victory to giving the left any opportunity to give Democratic Party voters what they want.

Carville had famously said of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), “I wish they’d take the word Democrat out of their name. I have no idea why the democratic socialists — if you hate the Democratic Party so much, well, then don’t use our godd*mn. Go think of your own name.” The tantrum may have been silly but the intent was deadly serious. The Democratic Party will not permit any possibility of change, and even small reforms have been declared off limits. Just in case there was any confusion, Carville said so in public in a conversation with right winger Bill Kristol.

James Carville was a strategist in Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign and was among those who developed “triangulation,” a fancy word describing the betrayal of everything that Democratic Party voters wanted. Clinton solidified the support of the Democratic Party’s “big tent” while he dismantled the right to seek public assistance that was first guaranteed by Franklin Roosevelt 60 years earlier. His “reforms” pushed millions of poor people further into poverty, as he also deregulated financial services which brought about the 2008 great recession and bank bailouts nearly 20 years after his first term as president. Clinton deregulated the media and the end result is that a handful of corporations control everything we read and watch. Everything from popular culture to the quality of news reporting has suffered ever since. His Crime Bill sent thousands of Black people to prison while he largely maintained the support of Black voters despite the damage done by him and the collaborationists among the Democratic Party Black misleaders. Carville’s finger prints are all over these policies which proved to be disastrous for millions of people.