WEBB: Well, I think that the message that has been shaped by the Democratic Party has been shaped toward identity politics. And they've lost the key part of their base. My family history goes back to the Roosevelt Democrats, the people who believed that regardless of any of these identity segments you need to have a voice in quarters of power for those who have no voice. And we've lost that with the Democratic Party.
Q: Are you saying the center's been hollowed out?
WEBB: Well, I don't know about that. The Democrats have not done the kind of self-reflection that they should have starting in the 2010 elections. You've lost white working people. You've lost flyover land. And you saw in this election what happens when people get frustrated enough that they say, "I'm not going take this aristocracy." And I think that's what the Trump message was that echoed so strongly in these flyover communities.
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The above quotations are from Meet the Press interviews during 2017 (Chuck Todd interviewing candidates for 2017-18 races). Click here for other excerpts from Meet the Press interviews during 2017 (Chuck Todd interviewing candidates for 2017-18 races). Click here for other excerpts by James Webb. Click here for a profile of James Webb.
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