this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2025
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[–] oakey66@lemmy.world 162 points 1 day ago (4 children)

James Carville is a person nobody should take advice from ever again.

[–] very_well_lost@lemmy.world 83 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Carville needs to 'strategically retreat' back into whatever Louisiana snake hole he slithered out of.

[–] Eldritch@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] Turret3857@infosec.pub 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I dont think people give early family guy enough credit for shitting on conservatives

[–] nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Speaking of, If you don't watch American Dad I'd highly recommend. Been my favorite show from MacFarlane for a while now.

[–] Turret3857@infosec.pub 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I love all of Seth's stuff honestly, I started watching The Orville recently and its fantastic. American dad is good too.

[–] Alwaysnownevernotme@lemmy.world 2 points 17 hours ago

The Ollie North song lives rent free in my head.

[–] RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works -4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Carville took a governor from a backwater state and got him into the Whitehouse despite his opponent being one of the most popular Presidents at the time.

Carville isn’t stupid he’s just wrong in this case

[–] very_well_lost@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (2 children)

You're, right he did. In 1992.

As far as I can tell, his political strategy has not evolved even a little over the past 3 decades, as he continues to push unpopular 'compromise candidates' and continues to tell people to 'sit down and shut up' whenever they suggest maybe the Democrats should chase some reforms that benefit the working class rather than simply appeasing the Wall Street paymasters.

I don't know if stubbornly sticking to the same failing strategy for 30 years makes you 'stupid', but it certainly doesn't make you smart.

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

To add to that, even though he helped get Clinton elected, Clinton's main accomplishment was making the Democrats more useless to the people as a result. Third way Democrats have been an abysmal failure from a progress perspective. Some of Clinton's "main accomplishments" were helping demolish the welfare state, and increasing the incarceration rate.

Obama, in retrospect, can be viewed as a third-way Democrat as well, and the primary policy accomplishment his presidency produced is a Republican think-tanked, half-measure healthcare policy that was largely a gift to the insurance companies even at the onset and has since been left out in the field to be continually picked at by vultures.

I was wondering this morning why Democrats don't seem to really have effective policy think-tanks like the Republicans do and then I thought maybe they just use the same ones.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Policy think-tanks cost money. Since the owner class has all the money, all the think-tanks serve the owner class.

[–] RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works -2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Are you being serious? There are absolutely democrat leaning think tanks.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

This:

all the think-tanks serve the owner class.

and this:

There are absolutely democrat leaning think tanks.

aren't the contradiction that you think they are.

[–] RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works -1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

You need to pay closer attention to who controlled Congress under Clinton. Most of what you list as Clinton’s accomplishments were bills introduced by a conservative run Congress.

If you are unaware of what the democratic think tanks are you should address that.

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Sure, he had a congress of the opposite party for some / most of his terms. You know who else had that? Nearly every president ever elected to office.

It makes it ever the more important to use what little time you have to push your agenda through, to veto things you disagree with, and sit your court appointees.

EDIT:

I also realized I left this "point" unaddressed:

If you are unaware of what the democratic think tanks are you should address that.

Dude, I've been a bigger political news person for 20+ years than most people bother being. I can name organizations like "the Heritage Foundation" and the "Cato Institute" without a reference. You know why? Because these think-tanks are effective. Note my original comment. I said "effective policy think-tanks". Would you consider democratic think tanks effective when Obama with a sweeping mandate from the people unlike anything else I've seen in my lifetime wound up producing a copycat plan of a Republican governor?

Sure, they may exist, but if they do they're not what I'd term "effective" and me looking up their names isn't going to make them that way.

[–] RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works -1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That isn’t true? Post WW-II to 1992 it was controlled by the democrats.

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago (1 children)
[–] RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works -2 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

37 times since 1857 means most Presidents did not have an opposing Congress. Your premise is built on an incorrect notion namely that what Clinton was facing was common when as your link shows that wasn’t the case. Furthermore Clinton is the first POTUS to confront a GOP that us unwilling to compromise in many/most situations.

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

Using your logic, Reagan's legacy was actually whatever Democrats wanted then because he had a divided government as well.

Yes, Clinton had to deal with Newt Gingrich, but as you're getting an abject lesson in daily these days, the president has and has always had a large amount of power. He could've used that for good, instead he used it to help Republicans dismantle welfare, pass "tough on crime" laws, and get his dick sucked in the Oval.

[–] RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works -2 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

No it would not. It would mean some of the things he gets credit or blame for also belong to the democrats such as the 1983 tax cut that proved the notion of the Laffer curve held some truth or the 1985 one which turned out to be bad because they neglected to cut spending and taxes at the same time. Some of POTUS’ policies are theirs alone such as the sale of TOW missiles to Iran by the Reagan White House but much/most should be shared by Congress.

Are you under the impression that you are in a position to be teaching anyone anything regarding this subject? You shouldn’t as I don’t think you have been correct in any point you have made this far and you seemingly have a terrible grasp on the history of that time.

To be clear here you have already provided a link that completely undid the claim you made previously and you seemed to not be aware of that fact. Im not learning anything from you here so you should dial back the attitude.

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

the 1983 tax cut that proved the notion of the Laffer curve held some truth

Are you kidding me? You actually think trickle down works?

Now I get why you're such a fan of ineffective Democratic shit, you're in the .00001% of "Republican-lite" voters in the country they're looking to please at the cost of the rest of the electorate.

[–] RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works -1 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

The Laffer curve has nothing to do with trickle down. The fact you bring up trickle down shows how little you understand about this subject.

I think the statement behind the Laffer curve, that there's a point where taxes are set so high that you will see an increase in tax revenue by keeping it beneath that point, was proven to be likely true in 1983. That is when the tax cut passed by the democrats was matched with the corresponding spending cut and the government took in more tax revenue.

You aren't proving that you have any understanding of common political concepts.

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 3 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

The laffer curve absolutely does have to do with trickle down. It's the pseudoscience backing for lowering the top tax rates. It starts off with the lie that that'll actually result in an increase of revenue, even when that's laughably untrue -- which is evidenced by the fact that the government has never been as broke as when it has continued to pursue this disastrous form of tax policy.

The thing about the Laffer curve is that...yes obviously you cannot tax 100% of everyone's paycheck and expect that the economy will grow, and yes obviously taxing everyone 0% will result in 0 revenue...these obvious things are obvious. But the rates in between have fairly straightforwardly predictable effects on revenue, and even adding a tax bracket where you take 100% of the income above a certain level is not one of the ends of the laffer curve, because the effective tax rate for those earners is still not 100%...because tax brackets exist.

One implication of the Laffer curve is that increasing tax rates beyond a certain point is counter-productive for raising further tax revenue. Particularly in the United States, conservatives have used the Laffer curve to argue that lower taxes may increase tax revenue.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffer_curve

[–] grue@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Think about where Clinton getting elected for the first time falls on that chart, vs. where we are now.

[–] RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works -4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What relevance does this have to James Carville?

Worth noting almost the totality of the increase of productivity from the late 1970s- present are tied to technological improvements in the factory. The worker hasn’t become more productive the machines have which is why it is important for the workers to own the means of production as it avoids this payment issue.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The relevancy it has is his strategy was successful when the US was still riding on the coattails of the New Deal and Great Society and was still perceived as being relatively egalitarian. But as inequality and worker exploitation got worse and worse and worse and worse AND WORSE, electing third-way neoliberal fuckwads doesn't work quite so well anymore!

[–] RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works 0 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

That’s a massive stretch given these things happened 14 years before Carville was running Clinton’s campaign.

[–] grue@lemmy.world 4 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

The point is not that the problem started with Clinton (because it obviously didn't); the point is that Clinton running on "third way" neoliberalism was still a viable strategy because the effects weren't being widely felt yet.

[–] RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works 0 points 23 hours ago

Which is also not true and doesn’t align with the economic history of the late 1970-early 1980s in the USA.

Why do you keep misusing the term “third way”? Are you under the impression that neoliberalism and fascist economics are intertwined?

[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Dude hasn't been correct about how to win elections since 30 years ago, and hasn't been correct about policy ever.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 5 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

And then he won because he was running Bill "I don't literally hate black and gay people" Clinton against a proven liar who tanked the economy, in an America that cared about those things.

[–] Alwaysnownevernotme@lemmy.world 3 points 17 hours ago

Also Ross Perot with a steel chair

[–] ploot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 40 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The Democrats seem to have come up with two strategies so far: either (1) wait and hope someone does something, or (2) play dead and hope someone does something.

[–] AshMan85@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

You forgot collect donations

I don't usually take advice from fucking fossils. Sanders is the exception.

Seriously, Carville is fucking 80, hasn't he been myopically dictating the direction of this useless fucking party long enough?