A former advisor to President Bill Clinton in a Vox interview on Tuesday launched an attack against his party for its leftward shift and for promoting radical ideas at the expense of winning elections.
James Carville said that the Democrats risk losing to President Trump in November if they don't "step up their game".
"It's like we're losing our damn minds", he said in an interview with Vox.
"They've tacked off the damn radar screen", he said, in a criticism of the Democratic Party's shift to the left.
He attacked proposals by Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren for offering free university tuition.
"Democrats talking about free college tuition or debt forgiveness. I'm not here to debate the idea."
"What I can tell you is that people all over this country worked their way through school, sent their kids to school, paid off student loans. They don't want to hear this s**t", he said.
Following the Iowa election on Tuesday, Carville told MSNBC that he was "scared to death" after Sanders won a large portion of the vote.
"Sanders might get 280 electoral votes and win the presidency and maybe we keep the House", Carville told Vox.
"But there's no chance in hell we'll ever win the Senate with Sanders at the top of the party defining it for the public. Eighteen percent of the country elects more than half of our senators. That's the deal, fair or not."
"So long as [Mitch] McConnell runs the Senate, it's game over. There's no chance we'll change the courts, and nothing will happen, and he'll just be sitting up there screaming in the microphone about the revolution."
The Democratic race saw its first vote in Iowa on Tuesday, with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders winning the popular vote and Mayor Pete Buttigieg securing the SED count.
Bernie Sanders has personified much of the leftward shift of the Democratic Party since his run against Hillary Clinton in 2016.
With his strong message in opposition to billionaire donors and his self-described "democratic socialism", Bernie Sanders' lurch toward frontrunner status has put into question the heart and soul of the Democratic Party.