Carville Proposes A Democratic Campaign of “Economic Rage” and “Economic Populism”

In a recent op-ed for the New York Times, Ragin Cajun-Democratic Party Consultant James Carville proposed that Democratic candidates run midterm campaigns based on “economic rage and populism.”

In a moment when Democratic candidates swept to victory across the country in the November elections and swing voters are finally wising up to the Trump-Fascist-Project 2025 abuses like taking innocent people off the streets and in court without due process, economically crippling tariffs, the widespread grifting, illegal orders to strafe people on the open seas for supposedly carrying drugs, erecting a White House ballroom while people struggle to purchase groceries, pardoning domestic terrorists and, in an inexplicable twist, drug dealers, and budget cutbacks that are increasing health insurance rates, starving people, and killing them here and all around the world, Carville says the time is now for Democrats to turn up the rage and campaign on a populist program that will appeal to the great majority of the American People.

Saying it was “economic pain” that propelled Democratic victories, earlier this month, Carville wrote:

“Zohran Mamdani, Abigail Spanberger, Mikie Sherrill — even down-ballot Georgia Democrats — all won with soaring margins because the people are pissed. And the people always point their anger at the party in charge. Rent is out of control. Young people can’t afford homes or pay student debt. We’re living through the greatest economic inequality since the Roaring Twenties.

President Trump has done nothing to curb the cost of what it requires to take even a breath in America today, the centerpiece promise of his 2024 campaign. The people are revolting, and they have been for some time.

This offers Democrats the greatest gift you can have in American politics: a second chance. I am now an 81-year-old man and I know that in the minds of many, I carry the torch from a so-called centrist political era. Yet it is abundantly clear even to me that the Democratic Party must now run on the most populist economic platform since the Great Depression.

It is time for Democrats to embrace a sweeping, aggressive, unvarnished, unapologetic and altogether unmistakable platform of pure economic rage. This is our only way out of the abyss.

Just as we did in 2018 and even in 2022, it’s all but certain that Democrats will turn out urban and suburban voters in the midterms, specifically the kind of people who vote regularly. At this point, it’s a damn near guarantee for our party, and we must continue to surge these voters. What we must also do is build a platform that helps us permanently uproot the Republican advantage in more rural regions. This can be done only with good old-fashioned economic populism, both in message and measure.”

Among the economic populist programs Carville proposes in his op-ed are:

• Raising the minimum wage to $20.00 an hour.
• Free college tuition. On a side note, that should also include paid apprenticeship programs for the blue and green collar positions of the present and future. Please check out Third Way’s paper on the need for Apprenticeship Universities.
• Expanding rural broadband as a public utility.
• Universal Child Care.

While there are probably more proposals that should make its way into an economic populist agenda like expansion of clean energy green collar jobs, home ownership assistance grants, expansion of Medicaid and Medicare, and Universal Pre-K, Carville, in offering a “simple plan” that would resonate with the American People noted:

“If you’re a student of history, the French Revolution is in the American wind. While the stock market soars, Mr. Trump and decades of corrupt and morally bankrupt Republican economic agendas have splintered the very heart of the American economy. The few are getting vastly richer while a crushing tide drowns the many. Yet even as Mr. Trump’s approval sinks to a low point of his second term, Republicans continue to place their faith in an economy built on pillars of sand, while the people scrape by day after day. This can change. It’s time we as a party do, too.”

Finally, Carville, like he has in previous writings and appearances, harkens back to his 1992 slogan “It’s the economy stupid,” by strongly recommending that Democrats remain laser focused on the economic populist message and channel the people’s rage with what Trump and his Project 2025 Billionaires First minions have done to it rather than also including cultural overtures with it. He writes:

“For this to work, we can’t get sidetracked on our message. The Republican Party’s greatest weapon has always been its uncanny ability to turn us against one another. It cannot be said enough: The era of performative woke politics from 2020 to 2024 has left a lasting stain on our brand, particularly with rural voters and male voters. The term “Latinx” was despised even by many Latino people. Calling folks “BIPOC” should have never been a thing. “Defund the police” was a terrible idea. Polling shows that nearly 70 percent of Americans think the Democratic Party is “out of touch” and that it is more interested in social issues than economic ones.

We can no longer be a party with a whiff of moral absolutism. We can correct this only by looking toward the future, always, in every situation possible, and pivoting to a form of economic rage as our response.”

Commenting on Carvilles op-ed, Democratic Candidate Consultant Rachel Bitecofer responded to Blog for Arizona:

“I’m glad to see Carville agrees with me.”

Third Way Senior Communications Director Kate deGruyter also commented to Blog for Arizona, writing:

“I’m skeptical that after four years of Trump, Americans in the middle who determine majorities are going to be looking for a raging populist from the left. His advice is hard to square with the pragmatic, results-oriented approach that Governors-elect Spanberger and Sherrill used to win double-digit victories. Voters in focus groups we conducted from those states made clear that it wasn’t their anger but the candidates’ steadiness, values that reflect their own, and appeal as a ‘different kind of Democrat’ that cut through.”

Tim Miller of the Bulwark also heaped praise on Carville in the below video presentation.

Both Bitecofer and deGruyter are right in their praise and questioning of Carville’s op-ed.

Democratic Candidates who are able to channel voter anger with their economic situation and present a Happy Warrior-Optimistic-Aspirational vision for the country with a populist-progressive program that lifts people up and moves the country foirward while being strong on public safety, border security, Democracy, and civil rights for all, can offer a compellig and winning campaign message.

Check out Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear’s op-ed in the Washington Post.

Or Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego’s comments on the subject.

Or former Chicago Mayor, Congressman, White House Chief of Staff, and Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuels calls to renew the American Dream.

These individuals are presenting a vision of America very similar to what Carville is advocating with a positive tone.

That is a sure winner in 2026, 2028, and beyond.