Veteran political strategist James Carville suggested that Democrats should embrace “autocracy” ahead of the November election, arguing not everyone should have “a seat at the table.”
“I would always tell people in campaigns: If you want a democracy after the election, you have to have an autocracy before the election,” Carville said during his Friday appearance on Politico’s “Playbook Deep Dive” podcast.
“When I hear people say, ‘We gotta have an inclusive and we gotta listen to everybody,’ no you don’t,” he added in comments highlighted by Mediaite, citing differing skillsets.
Carville, who served as an adviser for former President Clinton, stated that the “shortcomings” of Democratic campaigns sometimes come from having too many voices and perspectives influencing the outcome.
“It’s been always, I think, a shortcoming of Democratic politics that everybody has a seat at the table, and everybody can be heard,” he said in the podcast. “No, not everybody’s skillset is equal.”
The Democratic strategist also discussed his upcoming documentary “Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid,” saying part of being a good campaign operative is having good instincts, a value that is not determined by college grades.
“Campaign skills are not determined so much about where you went to college, what your GPA was and anything else, it is more an instinctive thing that some people have and some people don’t,” he told the host.
The comments came just days after he said he has a “feeling” that Vice President Harris could win the election, now less than six weeks away.
“I don’t like to predict elections. I would just say, this just doesn’t feel like a race that Harris is gonna lose,” Carville said earlier this week on CNN, adding, “But that’s just a feeling. That’s just a feeling.”
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