(Julianna Frieman, Headline USA) CNN’s Abby Phillip warned the “activist class” of Democrat elites against tuning out the different opinions of the American people Monday in a speech at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics.
The NewsNight host said Democrat “elites increasingly talk only to each other,” suggesting they must burst their own bubbles to avoid another election loss like Vice President Kamala Harris’s defeat by President-elect Donald Trump.
“I have observed that elites increasingly talk only to each other and come to believe that because there is consensus among them that that consensus is shared broadly and there are not enough voices that are confident enough to disagree and to present alternatives. And we as a society need to find better ways to uplift divergent voices. Otherwise, we will be victims of groupthink,” Phillip said. “And there is an activist class, and this is particularly acute in the Democratic Party right now, there is an activist class in the Democratic Party that is multiracial, multiethnic. It is diverse, but it’s an activist class. And so, because of that, they don’t they’re not able to see outside of that.”
Phillip said Democrats must “break out” of their radical echo chambers — but said the problem is not as simple as ideology.
“Democrats are in that place now where they have to break out of it. And I think it is a real problem. It’s not as simple as wokeness or whatever,” she said. “It’s about people who are being incentivized to think about issues in a particular way. And usually, it’s that light switches either on or off. There’s no nuance because they, they’re activists, like they’re paid to kind of be in this lane and if you’re somewhere in between, then what’s the point? But most people are not in one lane or another.”
The CNN host called on Democrats to have the courage to vocalize divergent opinions so they can stop hemorrhaging support from key voting blocs.
“There needs to be more courage among people to speak out and to voice diverging opinions,” Phillip said. “Otherwise, you know, I think it’s a real issue, and it’s not just the Ivy League. I think it’s elitism in general.”
Julianna Frieman is a freelance writer published by the Daily Caller, Headline USA, The Federalist, and The American Spectator. Follow her on Twitter at @JuliannaFrieman.
