A progressive strategist criticized Obama for prioritizing the interests of the elite.

On Thursday, a strategic thinker criticized former President Barack Obama for prioritizing the interests of the elite over the working class, causing the Democratic Party to cater to the former.

The Hill reported on the existential crisis of progressive lawmakers after the 2024 election of President-elect Donald Trump, and spoke to an anonymous strategist who advised the party to reclaim the populism it allegedly abandoned.

According to the outlet, the person stated that the Democrats' comfort with populism was lost before Trump adopted it, and it likely occurred during Obama's presidency.

"Trump likely adopted the idea because Democrats abandoned it during the Obama era, when they shifted their focus to Silicon Valley funding and Obama sought to win over college-educated voters who find populism distasteful and uninformed."

The strategist added, "We replaced it with a prominent condescension."

After Trump's victory, prominent progressives have criticized the Democratic Party for neglecting the concerns of the working class. In a statement, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said, "It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working-class people would find that the working class has abandoned them."

Now, it is not just the White working class but also Latino and Black workers who are affected.

David Axelrod, a former Obama advisor, stated on CNN that there was a significant decline in working-class support for the Democratic party in the 2024 election.

"He told CNN's Anderson Cooper on November 8 that the only group they won among were people who make more than $100,000 a year, adding, "You can't win national elections that way.""

Axelrod stated, "It is not effective to approach individuals like missionaries and assert, 'We are here to help you become more like us.' This conveys an unintended disdain, which can lead to backlash. However, the party itself has evolved into a sophisticated, suburban, and college-educated gathering, which contributes to the backlash we have observed."

Another Democratic strategist, James Carville, wrote an op-ed in the New York Times confessing that his party has been unsuccessful in addressing economic concerns and that Trump successfully attracted "middle-class and low-income voters" with his economic message.

Carville, who previously predicted Vice President Kamala Harris would win the presidency, wrote Thursday, "We lost for one very simple reason: It was, it is and it always will be the economy, stupid... Mr. Trump, for the first time in his political career, decisively won by seizing a swath of middle-class and low-income voters focused on the economy. Democrats have flat-out lost the economic narrative."