Don't Let the Tent Flap Hit You on the Way Out, James

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Democratic Party loudmouth, James Carvville, who likes to be known as the "Ragin' Cajun," got himself in the news this week by spewing another buttload of his elitist crap on a podcast.  The former adviser to Bill Clinton became famous more than thirty years ago for sticking a small, handwritten sign in an office window that reminded us what the 1992 presidential election was really about.  Carville's famous message:  "It's the economy, stupid!"

The man's instincts were good.  He could see the future and smelled blood in the water, and his man, Bill Clinton, went on to defeat incumbent President George H.W. Bush that November.   

But today James Carville is older, 81, and he has that cranky old man thing going on.   The danged kids better get the hell off his yard!  While James undoubtedly still has a large, steaming pile of political knowledge under his chrome dome, even he should be able to sense that the times they are a changin'  and his hard-forged worldview no longer overlaps perfectly with political reality.

James Carville is currently cranked over the fact that a Democratic Socialist Mayor of New York City endorsed three candidates for Congress  in last week's state Democratic primary, and all three won, with two defeating incumbent Demcrats who were backed by the state's political machine.  Two of the candidates also identified as "Democratic Socialist."

Dag nabbit, James ain't having none of the democracy stuff that don't go his way!  Instead of cheering on the new and dynamic next generation of political leaders, James Carville thinks his party and country would be better served in the Democratic Party had itself a "schism," or split into two pieces with his people, the real Democrats, remaining Democrats, and the Socialist Democrats going to a different tent and forming their own party apparatus.  He suggests the "Democrats" negotiate the terms of a schism with the Democratic Socialists in the party.   I suggest he take a chill pill and go fishing.

Carville noted that the Democratic Party had always been known as a coalition, a "Big Tent" party, but added:  "There's just some shit I can't be in the same tent with."  So he wants the new blood, the young people who are actually winning, to leave HIS tent.  Barring that, James says he's out.

Well, James, I'm an old man, less than three years younger than you, and it's my tent, too.    I like the youthful enthusiasm, energy, new ideas.  It's time for you and me to stand aside and give them room to organize and lead.  I'm damned glad to see the young folks doing their work in OUR tent because without their energy and focus on the future, our party will simply decay, like our bodies, and become just so much dust in the wind.

James, if you are too calcified to change with the times, then by all means go someplace and do what you need to do, but don't expect me to tag along in your quest to keep the world from changing.  We both know that a "socialist" is not a "communist," so quit trying to parrot Donald Trump and accept the fact that much of the New Deal, the Fair Deal, Great Society, and New Testament were socialist endeavors, and that they each helped to make America a more tolerant, caring, stronger, and better nation.

I like social security and I'm glad I have that socialist benefit.  I like Medicare, federally insured bank deposits, publicly funded roads, hospitals, and schools.  i use public utilities every day - electricity and water, and I still avail myself of the US Postal Service - and use the programs of the local senior center that is funded, at least in part, but our government.  So much of my life, and yours, James, is provided with the aid of a government that is funded by all of us - it's a socialist operation and young people from Democratic and Republican households are recognizing that there is nothing wrong or immoral about people taking care of each other under the auspices of government.

I like seeing OUR money spent on meeting the needs of people, and I don't like seeing it spent on supporting genocide or wars that defy commonsense or explanation - or grand ballrooms!

And James, I also like seeing young winners pump new life into OUR Big Tent!  I like that a bunch!