Rahm Emanuel: The Road Back to Power for Democrats
Don't worry. I'm a lifelong Democrat, I am well educated, especially in the domain of social studies, American History and government, which I taught to high school students for a couple of decades, and I'm an active, observant, contributing volunteer. I have an opinion about what Democrats need to do that is developed out of all of that, from the grass roots level of the party. I'm not an "I told you so" kind of guy, but there are times when I'm on the record and I've been caught being right when the pundits and prognosticators got it wrong.
I realize there are a lot of Democrats who don't like, and don't trust Rahm Emanuel. But let's take this at face value. This is a guy who has been immersed in the workings of Democratic party politics in what is a core Democratic party culture. And the fact of the matter is that he didn't get where he is now by either being perfect, or without some knowledge, discernment and some expertise in how Democratic party politics operate. He chaired the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that led to flipping the House and Senate with more Democrats than have been elected during the 21st century. He's an insider from both the Obama and Clinton administrations. And that gives his advice to Democrats a huge amount of credibility.
From where I sit, his analysis, and his remedy, resonate with me because I have observed a lot of what he addresses. His experience includes mistakes he's made and solutions he's found to problems that work. Politicians like Emanuel are not always popular, because they see solutions and take action that, while it resolves the problem at hand, sometimes don't make a lot of people happy.
"Democrats Have Been Blind to the Rising Sea of Disillusionment"
Tracing a disenchantment with establishment politics which dates back to the Iraq War, and the banking crisis, both during the Bush Administration, Emanuel points out that Trump seized on the disillusionment, a moment Democrats somehow missed. Democrats, he says, abandoned their disestablishment credentials during the pandemic, and "enthusiastically morphed into the establishment."
This isn't a warning unique to Emanuel. There are plenty of others who have been warning about Democrats not seeming to be able to control the narrative, missing the message to the working class and losing working class and minority voters along the margins. That's what the exit polling data is showing, too. Democrats, shuttering schools and the economy during the pandemic, got caught in a dialogue with ourselves over "pronouns, bathroom access, renaming schools and adopted terms such as care economy and Latinx, to win over voters."
That did not work.
"Democrats have been here before," he says. "The road back out of the wilderness begins with messages and messengers that meet the moment."
Wow, did he nail that! Just prior to the election, in an interview with David Pakman, political scientist Rachel Bitecofer, answering the question as to whether the Harris-Walz ticket had a chance to eke out a narrow win when the polls were showing a razor thin race said much the same thing. It was possible, but the biggest problem was, first of all, getting control of their messaging and focusing on the perceived issues that were causing voter discontent and anxiety, and the other problem, finding a way to saturate the electorate with that message effectively, in time to affect the outcome of the election.
Here's the problem. The price of gasoline and groceries was rising, due to the inflation that was essentially due to a lot of post-pandemic reasons, including the increased prosperity as the pandemic lifted, the supply chain issues, global market adjustments and increasing wages. Democrats know that the solutions to these problems are long term economic policy, and that there's little a President can do that will cause a noticeable, immediate drop. But the messaging doesn't connect their solutions, which were practical, workable, reasonable and effective in bringing down inflation, with how that will affect prices of gasoline and groceries in the long run. And the sound bytes about this policy or that legislation doesn't get into the minds of voters.
What Emanuel is saying is connecting with the voters in a simple, but effective way wins the election. Then, after we're in, we can do anything we want to do with bathrooms, renaming things, a 'care economy' and anything else that needs attention. And that puts a high level of importance on finding a way to saturate the electorate with the party's clear, simple message. We just keep thinking that mainstream media is fairly representing our side when it is obviously not doing that at all.
Peel Off Trump's Populist Veneer
It did not take long, after the 2016 election, for the majority of the electorate to realize that Trump was inept, incompetent and unable to serve as President of the United States. He promised to drain the swamp, but all he did was dig it deeper.
"Far from draining it," says Emanuel, "Trump and his administration will soon be bathing in it."
Everything he is going to do will reveal him as a plutocrat, says Emanuel, and that needs to be the main point of Democratic party messaging, to make sure that enough voters along those same, narrow, close margins that won him the election this time see him for what he is, and vote that way when they have a chance. Look at his tax and tarriff proposals, and the plans to get rid of all kinds of regulations for the powerful billionaire class. None of that will benefit the working class, in fact, it will cost the working class and Democrats need to make sure voters are aware of this.
"With everyone from Big Oil and Big Pharma lining up for their share of the spoils," he says, "we will need to be strategic in how we strip away Trump's populist veneer. By returning to our roots as the voice of the middle class, we can unite both moderates and progressives in a fight against the well-heeled and the well-connected."
Address the Issues of Crime and Immigration, Even If We Can See There's Not a Problem
The fact of the matter is that whether or not it is accurate, voters have been led to believe that Democrats are soft on crime, and we want a completely open border. Neither of those things are true, in fact, the crime rate is down considerably. But Trump has succeeded in creating a much different perspective, and Democrats have not done anything to reverse that perspective. The President, in fact, issued an executive order doing what a bipartisan border bill would have done when Republicans in Congress followed Trump's orders to make sure the border policy was left for him to run on as a political issue. I knew it. Reporters on MSNBC talked about it.
What Emanuel is advocating here is more than just something that looks political. It needs to be something people can see, and feel, and understand that it is a serious attempt to resolve a problem that is a major concern.
"Trump was successful on these issues because his words tapped the public's frustration," said Emanuel. "Ours communicated permissiveness."
He is exactly right. This is one of the reasons why Rahm Emanuel is controversial. When he was mayor of Chicago, the public perception was that the city was spending money extravagantly, especially on its school district. And the facts confirmed this to be the case. It wasn't popular, but with declining enrollments, and in some cases, crumbling buildings requiring huge expenditures of capital to repair, the decision was made to start closing schools and merging student populations. In spite of the criticism, especially from the teacher's union, the closed schools resolved the city's budget problems at the time, and did not result in the academic crash that was predicted.
Note that Emanuel was Chicago's last mayor to be re-elected. After he closed some declining, crumbling schools.
Recruit and Run Candidates for the Mid-Terms Who Aren't Career Politicians
Well, he would know. His efforts in 2006 and 2008, as the Democratic party's Congressional Campaign Chairman, produced results, including the biggest flip in Congress from red to blue this century. He points to candidates during 2024, running for congressional seats from New York and California, who aren't conventional politicians, who flipped seats this time around, helping Democrats add one seat to their house delegation in spite of losing the White House.
"In 2206, 2008 and 2018, we recruited and ran candidates whose biographies communicated authenticity. They were war veterans, sheriffs, small business owners and former football players. Crucially, they weren't career politicians," he says.
And I'll add, that they won in all of those years.
"If Democrats are to make the most of the next election, they must ready their message and messengers, abandon failed orthodoxies, and embrace strategies with a record of delivering seats, success and real prosperity," he concludes.
Yeah, So What's the Point?
Well, the point is that, 1.) He's right, and 2.)There are plenty of Democrats who see this and take this seriously who are saying almost exactly the same thing.
I think the theme of "abandon failed orthodoxies" can be applied to every single point that has been made here. We've lost the free press, it no longer exists in the world of corporate billionaire controlled media for profit. We don't need "out own outlet, like Fox News is for the GOP," as is the solution that is often proposed, what we needed to do, when we had majorities in both houses and the White House, was to pass legislation that would have protected the free press, and broken up the gigantic billionaire corporations that own media networks. That means getting rid of the damned filibuster in the Senate, packing the damned Supreme Court and passing legislation defining and defending constitutional free press, ruled on by a court that understands how essential it is to the preservation of Democracy.
And I'll add this to the rest of it. We cannot affort to be irresolute in the face of direct threats to American Constitutional Democracy, like Donald Trump's insurrection. If that danger materializes into the dissolution of the American Republic, as many of our political scientists, experts, and many Americans, think that it very well could, then the failure of Merrick Garland to take hold of a Congressional investigation and turn it into guilty verdicts then history will blame President Biden for allowing it to happen, along with Trump being blamed for carrying it out.
Rahm Emanuel has to be regarded, not only as one of the more successful Democrats in electoral politics in recent history, but also as an expert in the behind-the-scenes kind of organization, political knowledge and skill required to chair congressional party campaigns, and serve as one of the chief advisors to two of the more successful Democrats to serve as President of the United States. And it's not possible to serve in those kind of positions, along with municipal government and Congress, without making a few enemies along the way.
As I said up front, I'm a lifelong Democrat. During a relatively short part of this election cycle, we experienced panic, and then confusion and disorder, following the first Presidential debate, the aftermath of which was having the President, and the party's nominee, step down just three months before an election. The loss of the White House, and control of the Senate, while razor thin, as the polls predicted, has left the party in a bad spot, still trying to cope with the loss while at the same time preparing for an existential threat to democracy to materialize. So what Rahm Emanuel has to say is important to consider, if we ever want to think about the possibility of a recovery.
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