Last month, Rep. Jim Cooper from Tennessee became the 29th House Democrat to announce retirement this cycle. Redistricting had split Cooper’s former district, which was basically the city of Nashville, into three new districts, each of which is less favorable to Democrats.

Yesterday, Cooper gave an interview to Nashville Scene in which he warned that the Democratic Party in his home state was facing extinction. According to Cooper, that’s partly the fault of progressives who are more interested in telling other people what to think than they are in winning elections. [emphasis added]

As usual, Democrats are not alert to future dangers. The biggest danger we face in an off-year election after we won the White House is the 100-year trend toward the other party. Redistricting is small potatoes compared to that historical trend.

Our party needs to improve its management capabilities. We do not anticipate and organize and plan…

What Tennessee Democrats need is a strategy to win. We’re addicted to telling other people what to think. You can’t really win many elections if you’re that self-righteous.

It’s important to be in communication with your constituents, not to be their boss. You’re their representative. We’ve got to get this formula right. The Democratic Party in Tennessee is basically facing extinction. We’ve been on a long downhill slide for a long time. Tennessee has fewer statewide elected offices than I think any other state, and now the only path upward will be through Memphis, which is not nearly as successful as Nashville. That fits Republican strategy very well. Their intent is to ghettoize the state Democratic Party.

He is not wrong about that. And of course one of the places where some progressives assume they ought to be able to tell people what to think is in public schools. That’s one reason education and parental control became such an issue in Virginia last year. It turns out that “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach” isn’t a winning message.

As for what Cooper, who is 67-years-old, plans to do next, he said he planned to keep working in some private capacity “until the day I die.” “It’s important to make money. It’s important to be productive,” he said. As for his regrets, he has a couple. One of them was not pushing into journalism and founding his own news site:

I don’t know if you’re familiar with Roll Call, Politico or The Hill. Do you know what they sold Politico for a few months ago?

I think it was in the billions.

It was $1 billion. Now, to a German company, and they might not know what they’re doing. But oh my God. These insider rags have a lot of value. When I came [to Washington] it was only Roll Call. Politico and The Hill didn’t exist. I should have continued my trend of founding publications. That was a big missed opportunity. I also didn’t invent spinner hubcaps, which is one of my eternal regrets. That would have been cool and easy to do.

Spinning hubcaps would indeed be a cool thing to have on your resume.

I had no idea that spinning rims were still a thing…. pic.twitter.com/1anpePlUoT

— big john (@fahkin_a) June 18, 2016