NEW ORLEANS—Lying on a couch in 1992, a phone to his ear, James Carville uttered a line about the U.S. electorate that has followed him to this day: “It’s the economy, stupid.”He was future President Bill Clinton’s campaign manager at the time, when unemployment was hovering above 7% and healthcare costs were a persistent worry.

Carville is often better known today as a commentator with sometimes controversial takes. In a video posted Sunday, he used a crude metaphor to slam Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens for her stunning decision to endorse the Republican Senate candidate in Michigan. Carville said the GOP would view Stevens like a “used condom.”The Wall Street Journal called Carville to ask him about his comments. “The video speaks for itself,” he said.

The line Carville remains most famous for is the one that he uttered 34 years ago, even as he wishes people would focus more on corruption. The 82-year-old sat down with the Journal last week to talk about the economy, election and his views on Democratic Socialists. Questions and answers are edited for length and clarity: Where did “It’s the economy, stupid” come from?

There are a lot of smart people that work on presidential campaigns, and we had a lot, a lot of highly educated people. That was more for the campaign than it was for the public. It was never an ad. It was in a documentary. And it was to say, all right, let’s take a deep breath here. We’re about change. And the “economy, stupid,” was: Don’t be so smart. Let’s dumb this goddamn thing down a little bit.

The one I think has really kind of changed [is] “don’t forget healthcare.”If you ask someone how many times in a focus group they’ve heard, “I’m one disease away from bankruptcy,” it would be a million. They don’t have a hard dividing line between the economy and healthcare, it’s kind of meshed into one thing now.

On a recent podcast, you said you had come to detest this famous line. To what extent is that the case?

To the extent that people use that quote to say that nothing else matters but the economy, I think is unfortunate. I was pretty sure when I said that to say it in context. Every time I hear somebody say, “Oh, no one cares about corruption, they just care about the cost of living,” I think it’s insane. The fact that that quote would inspire somebody to make such an idiotic observation, I’m sorry, I’m sorry they did. Compared with 1992, is the economy still the top issue for most voters?

People’s standard of living is always dominant and always has been, and it’s never not going to be. But that doesn’t mean that people don’t care about somebody stealing. Which is the way this gets interpreted by some people. It’s always been a paramount issue in politics anywhere. People’s economic satisfaction is highly determinative of election outcomes when it relates to incumbents. I don’t think it varies. It obviously matters more in bad economic times. The worse of times the more people think about it. What do you make of the frustration among young people and their interest in Democratic socialism?

People who that at some level are capitalists, certainly includes myself, we’ve got to do a serious reckoning here. Because the system is not producing, it’s really not producing very well for most young people. Go back to the two commodities that’s been drilled in their head that they should aspire to is homeownership and a four-year college degree. From where I sit it looks like it’s getting more expensive by the day. Has your opinion on the appeal of the DSA changed?

The only thing I would say to them, they hate the Democratic Party. Why use our name? Think of your own name. I mean honestly, if it’s so bad and so corrupt. The Clintons and the Obamas and Franklin Roosevelt drug us all in a ditch—well, don’t use that name. What are your midterm predictions?

I really try to spend as little time as I can trying to predict election outcomes. I do what I can to affect them. But I think you’d have to be hibernating not to see this is going to be a favorable Democratic year. The difference between 227 seats and 247 seats is all the difference in the world. We’re just going to have to be patient like everybody else and see what the scope of this is. What do you think the Democrats’ plan is right now on the economy?

Get out of Iran. That’s plan number one. I think they’re going to do things like vote to raise the minimum wage; they’re going to vote to do away with the tax cuts [on] incomes over half a million dollars a year. They’re going to vote to open more rural hospitals. That’s all going to get vetoed. I think the first thing they should do is pass a ban on stock trading by members of Congress. It’s easy, you can do it right away. It shows people. You want to get off on the right foot. It’s an easy vote. It’s hugely popular. Is the federal deficit important?

One day people decided the deficit didn’t matter. So this fiscal year, I think I’m right, the federal government has got $5.4 trillion in receipts and $7.4 trillion in outlays. That means we are spending, in one year, two trillion more than we’re taking in. These things are not a problem until they become a problem, and then it’s too late. And I don’t know. I can certainly see big deficits, that’s what you’re supposed to run during the pandemic. That’s why they exist. I think it’s just going to blow up on us. What other issues do you think people aren’t paying enough attention to?

Inequality and corruption. There’s nothing bigger. To me, I don’t see it, it’s hard to see it get better. Inequality and corruption, just, it’s everything. Of course, the people who are on the wrong side of that understand that the corruption is driving the inequality, and they will tell you that time and time again.