Longtime Democratic Strategist James Carville let loose on his own party in a scathing op-ed, calling it “constipated,” “leaderless,” and “a cracked-out clown car” that was barreling down the road toward a “civilized civil war.”
Carville has often taken Democrats to task in recent years – particularly with regard to their obsession with “wokeness” — and his column in Monday’s edition of The New York Times was no exception.
“Our party is headed for a civilized civil war. It’s vital that we have it, and even more vital that we delay it,” Carville teased the column in an X post, acknowledging that there had to be some changes made within his party but calling on the people to try to keep it together at least until after the 2026 midterms.
Our party is headed for a civilized civil war. It’s vital that we have it, and even more vital that we delay it. My latest in @nytimes https://t.co/O56YhvtHKY
— James Carville (@JamesCarville) July 21, 2025
“Constipated. Leaderless. Confused. A cracked-out clown car. Divided. These are the words I hear my fellow Democrats using to describe our party as of late. The truth is they’re not wrong: The Democratic Party is in shambles,” Carville wrote.
Carville went on to lay out the divisions made obvious by the rise of Democratic socialists in places like New York City — Queens councilman turned Democratic Mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, for example — and argued that the party would have to face a reckoning of sorts. It needed to happen, he conceded, but said that it should wait until after the 2026 midterm elections.
The solution, Carville claimed, would come in the form of a “savior” — one candidate who could bring about a New Democratic Party that brought both sides together. His assessment was that such “saviors” had arisen before in former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
“The Democratic Party is steamrolling toward a civilized civil war. It’s necessary to have it. It’s even more necessary to delay it. The only thing that can save us now is an actual savior, because a new party can be delivered only by a person — see Barack Obama in 2008 and Bill Clinton in 1992,” he said. “No matter how many podcasts or influencer streams our candidates go on, our new leader won’t arrive until the day after the midterms in November 2026, which marks the unofficial-yet-official beginning of the 2028 presidential primary contest. No new party or candidate has a chance for a breakthrough until that day.”
Whether or not Carville’s message will be well-received by Democrats remains to be seen. If former President Joe Biden’s embattled son Hunter is any indication, the likelihood is that it won’t.
“James Carville hasn’t won a race in 40 f***ing years,” the younger Biden said during a recent interview, sharply criticizing any Democrat who’d conceded that it was time for Joe Biden to bow out. “[David Axelrod] had one success in his political life and that was Barack Obama and that was because of Barack Obama.”
