During a recent interview with Bill Maher, Democratic strategist James Carville tried to blame the “Woke Progressives” for the failures of the Democratic Party. Maybe he’s right, but they aren’t the only group that’s causing trouble from within the Democratic machine. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more.
Transcript:
*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
Mike Papantonio: During a recent interview with Bill Maher, Democratic strategist, James Carville tried to blame the woke progressives for the failures of the Democratic Party. Maybe he’s right, but they aren’t the only group that’s causing trouble within the Democratic machine. Wow. You know, this interview was amazing. Matter of fact, this is the quote, I find the left to be annoying, Carville said. In the western, in the western far left is habitually the most stupid, these are his words, the most stupid, naive people you could imagine. And they come up with these really goofy constructs. And it’s all about feeling good about yourself. He says, these people basically are overeducated, snowflake, dopes. That’s what he’s saying. And he’s saying it’s killing the Democratic party because he says it’s only about 10%, 10 or 11% of the party that does that. This is a guy that’s been Democrat since he could walk and he’s having to say this. What’s your take?
Farron Cousins: Um, look, I don’t agree with him on the whole woke thing is killing the left. I think the woke thing is overblown, definitely by the right. And I think it’s overblown by people like Carville and definitely Bill Maher because Bill Maher has come out against these people. And I think it’s because they don’t watch his show. So he’s mad that he’s not getting those ratings. But I think one of the bigger problems with the Democratic party today is people like Carville himself, these old holdovers that still think that, look, I’m smarter than everybody else. I know what’s going on. This guy won Bill Clinton two elections because Ross Perot came in and diluted the Republican vote. He’s not the brilliant mastermind he wants people to think he is.
Mike Papantonio: Would you call him a blue Democrat? I mean, just a blue dog Democrat, basically.
Farron Cousins: He’s definitely a vote blue no matter who type guy.
Mike Papantonio: Yeah. Well, I mean, he goes on to say, Bill Maher picks up and he says, look, I’m so worried about the woke that liberals are bringing back communism. That’s how far Maher goes. Now, you may say he’s doing this because he’s mad. There’s never been a better voice for Democrats than Bill Maher and Carville. So I don’t think in my, as I look at this, I don’t think you can just look at it and say, this is aberrational. I don’t think you can say, this is just two guys off. I think they’re seeing something that we see, I mean, we talk about this from time to time, but they’re just really vocal about it. And after this, there’s more than this. They’re like in a jihad and they’re saying that the 10 or 11% of the Democrats that describe their self as, they call ’em snowflake, snowflake woke, woke Democrats, that they’re killing the party. And that in turn, they’re killing democracy. What’s your take?
Farron Cousins: I definitely do not think they’re killing democracy. I think a lot of it has to do with kind of over-exaggerating to a degree the identity politics. That’s what they’re trying to say, I think.
Mike Papantonio: Kinda what we talked about last week.
Farron Cousins: Yeah. I think you and I do a better job of talking about that than these guys did. I think they totally went off the deep end because, hey, it’s a part of your party you don’t like. And look, you don’t have to like everybody, you wanna badmouth them, you have the right to do that. But what really, what it comes down to is kind of like, when we talked about the Gavin Newsom story. Gavin Newsom says, I have to appoint a black woman. And then even Barbara Lee is like, that is like super offensive. Why?
Mike Papantonio: That is the stupidest thing. Every time you.
Farron Cousins: But that’s what, then they say, oh, well that’s because that’s woke. And then it goes into this whole thing. But it’s identity.
Mike Papantonio: Are you tired of seeing racist? That everything that happens, you’re a racist. Every criticism. You realize we do a show on Harris.
Farron Cousins: Oh yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah.
Mike Papantonio: We do a show on Harris. Oh, you’re racist. Really? I mean, that is like low hanging fruit. That’s for people who don’t even think. They’re afraid to listen to what we’re saying and analyze. These guys basically are saying the same thing.
Farron Cousins: They’re just not saying it as well, I think, as us.
Mike Papantonio: They’re not saying it as kindly as we’re saying it right now. They call the left these, they call the liberal left silly, goofy, behind times and self-defeating. I mean, so there you go. And so whether, I have a prediction. I think you’re gonna hear a lot more of this as we move into 2024. I saw today that you have Mayorkas saying, Biden’s told me to build the fence on the border. Okay. I mean, you see, you’re seeing reaction to that kind of thing. And now build a fence on the border, you’re hearing the administration talking about what a mistake was defunding the police. You’re seeing all these things that happened during that big woke movement kind of reverse itself. And I think this is the leading edge of it. What’s Trump gonna, what do you think Trump’s reaction’s gonna be when he sees that Biden is demanding that we build a fence? That we build at least two, three miles of fence, and he has sold the fence he has put out to bid the fence that Trump put up. How ridiculous does that look? But it’s driven, you see, according to these guys, it’s driven by that 10 or 11% who are just frigging goofy. You know? That’s the argument. And I think we’re gonna see it a lot more.
Farron Cousins: Well, I think on the other side of that too, when we say look at the problems with the Democratic party today, the problems with the Democratic party are not because of identity politics. They make stupid mistakes on that. Sure. The problems with the Democratic party is that they’re tied at the hip with the corporations and they’re letting the weapons manufacturers call the shots. And they’re letting Wall Street call the shot.
Mike Papantonio: Right. That’s what I, that’s what Ukraine is about it.
Farron Cousins: So, we’ve got much bigger fish to fry than people who are woke or self-described woke. We’ve got real problems that are preventing actual progress. And that’s that corporate tie that the party has strongly.
Mike Papantonio: But they’re ignoring that.
Farron Cousins: Yes.
Mike Papantonio: And they’re saying, no, it’s these freaks on the liberal left who are overeducated, who think too much, and it’s all self-serving. It’s kind of a message that I’m smarter than you. I’m better than you. It’s virtue signaling that these guys are actually talking about.
Farron Cousins: Oh, and there’s plenty of virtue signaling. Don’t get me wrong. And we talk about that too, because that’s also wrong and more importantly, it’s demeaning to the voters themselves.
Mike Papantonio: I’ll tell you this much, Farron, one thing that infuriates me, and I’ll just tell you, put it on the table, I don’t think there’s anybody that does more hits, more videos that attacks the crazy right than you do. And you’re smart about it. You’re intelligent, it’s an intelligent analysis. But when you do one story, when you do one story where you talk about Biden or Harris or something that the woke liberals are off about, you’re a villain. What do you make of that?
Farron Cousins: That goes back to the whole tribalism thing. Right. Our side can do no wrong. And even though we agree with you on 99.9% of things, we are willing to crucify you for that 0.1% where we disagree.
Mike Papantonio: Cenk, my friend Cenk and your friend is going through it constantly. He says something. And now we’re gonna see Maher going through it. We’re gonna see Carville going through it. Now, I think they kind of probably could have used better words, but I’ve told you this, and I’ll say it again. I think you’re the best progressive commentator in the business. And it just really causes me a lot of angst when you do one or two stories where you’re trying to say, open your frigging eyes, you dope. Listen to what we’re saying and they go crazy.
Farron Cousins: Yeah.
Mike Papantonio: Farron Cousins, thank you for joining me. Okay.
Farron Cousins: Thank you.
Mike Papantonio: That’s all this week, but all these segments are gonna be posted right here on this channel in coming weeks. So make sure you subscribe. I’m Mike Papantonio, and this has been America’s Lawyer, where we tell you the stories that corporate media won’t tell you, they can’t tell you because their advertisers don’t allow for it. They’ll pull the money back, or the political connections don’t allow for it because they’re either too Democrat or they’re too Republican. They’re too divided by tribalism. We don’t worry about that on this show. If we insult you, so be it. If you want to unsubscribe, so be it. We tell the story as we see it. Hopefully, we’ll see you next week.
