The road back to power for Democrats / By Rahm Emanuel

[reACTIONary]

https://wapo.st/3Bvqfu4 No paywall, but you might have to register your email

.... the Democratic Party has been blind to the rising sea of disillusionment. In today’s America, aspiration and ambition have been supplanted by anger and animosity. Talk about missing the moment.

Meanwhile, our language and priorities have reinforced the “aloof elite” stereotype. With inflation stinging, school absenteeism skyrocketing and students’ academic scores plummeting, Democrats consumed themselves in debates over pronouns, bathroom access and renaming schools and adopted terms such as “care economy” and “Latinx” to win over voters. It was a hermetically sealed conversation with ourselves, and we appeared much as we sounded: distant and detached.

(Maybe a prototype for the new "what's next" forum.)

[FarPoint]

1. I don't have any confidence in Rahm....

Not relevant to me anyway.

[displacedvermoter]

2. Rahm Emanuel

Last edited Tue Dec 17, 2024, 11:06 AM - Edit history (1)

Who turned a blind eye to police violence against his constituents in Chicago and guided the Obama Administration as chief of staff being rude and confrontational, especially when it came to the Democratic Party's progressive flank.

Having to listen to lectures from the likes of him and Carville for the next few years could be one of the worst parts of the election loss.

[Lonestarblue]

3. I understand people's resistance to Emanuel, but he is right about voters' anger.

In my opinion, we should not just dismiss the message because of the messenger. The Democratic Party has an image problem. We need to change that.

In thinking about the name for a new forum about ideas for improving the Party, how about “People First”? Our image is an elitist party, one that isn’t necessarily true hut has been amplified by the media and Republicans.

[lees1975]

13. We need to have a way to do more saturation with the message, which is one of the reasons we have the image.

Everytime I turn on the television, and news is on it, it's Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump. And if anyone thinks he has the image of a scumbag, convicted felon, insurrectionist, and is senile and demented, guess again. He's been cleaned up and presented as something legitimate. I've even engaged in a conversation with someone who insisted he is not almost 80 years old. That's how bad this is.

Some of the grumbling here illustrates the problem. We're muttering about Rahm Emmanuel. We don't like Carville. Well, but that's part of the problem. We have all of these purity demands when it comes to issues, and we lay that all up front and then gripe and complain when those who are telling us to skip the purity crap and get down to the bottom line point out what we need to do.

[displacedvermoter]

14. Not muttering about Carville or Emanuel

I am yelling about them. Emanuel, as mayor of Chicago, was part of the coverup of the police department's violence against the Black community. He advocated for a Social Security agreement with the Republicans when Obama's chief of staff that were harmful to older citizens so he could claim a pragmatic win. Fortunately the GOP House was already crazy and turned down the deal. Emanuel showed nothing but contempt for anyone he disagreed with, particularly the progressive branch of the Party, people he now expects to take his words of wisdom to heart.

Carville has contempt for women in the Party, calls them preachy and whiney. He is a hired political gun who has in the past worked for slimy Eastern European interests and the guidance he provides is that of a mercenary.

Overlooking this kinda crap is part of the problem, I would say. We continue to be wedded to leadership that won elections in decades past, and are very reluctant to give up their high profile positions, and the perks.

And scolding, they love to scold, the thing they claim to hate so much about AOL and everyone else they feel are too liberal.

[Blue_Tires]

21. Voters' anger about women's rights? Equality for people of color?

Sorry, there's no way to "address" that anger....

People need to realize that even if everything was going perfectly, the GOP would still invent something for white folks to rage about -- That's how they operate and what we should be doing to counter it is tapping into the rage of our own Dem voters...

[Bleacher Creature]

4. People should always trust advice from Rahm Emanuel

You just need to remember to the the OPPOSITE of what he says.

[choie]

16. Well done!

[Raven123]

5. Don't see a solution in this snippet. Did he have suggestions?

He could just show everyone how it’s done. He is still a Democrat. Right? Doesn’t need permission to start a movement.

[choie]

17. Yeah, his suggestion is

choose me for the head of the DNC. Period.

[Omnipresent]

6. Yes, we were dwelling in a bubble..

Now, trump gets his bubble and in 2 years it goes

[sop]

7. Never associated Rahm Emanuel with a "Man the barricades" type of political activism.

[Blue_Tires]

20. Exactly

If Rahm was in Congress he'd be the first Dem trying to find "common ground" with the angry orange idiot and his apartheid errand boy...

[reACTIONary]

24. Here is Rahm, in 1978, Manning the bracades....

... battling Illinois nazis.

https://wapo.st/3Dwi7tK

This is a frame from a news video. The video is on line. He's telling a reporter to get lost. He was a lot more polite back then.

[Autumn]

8. Rahm Emanuel. I haven't heard the term latinx in 4 or 5 years

Alrighty then.

[AllaN01Bear]

9. stick to core vallues . soial security . infastructre. helping our citizens and so forth. add new ones as we go along.

[bucolic_frolic]

10. Internet and cell phones were our path to side gigs, entrepreneurship, equity, health care

Surprise, success is more difficult than clicking a mouse, there's hard work and strategy, and bills to be paid along the way. They were angry at eggs, gas, inflation, and health care subsidies, ignored the wage hikes they enjoyed, and now they hate everything so they want more guns.

[Paladin]

11. As if I'll pay attention to a piece of shit like Emanuel. (nt)

[ms liberty]

12. Rahm Emanuel. Blech.

[lees1975]

18. Well, like him or not,

he was Director of White House political affairs and advisor to President Clinton, member of Congress and Chair of the House Democratic Congress, the chair of the Democratic campaign committee that got the largest number of Democrats in the house this century, White House Chief of Staff under Obama, Mayor of Chicago and now Ambassador to Japan. All of those things make him an expert in Democratic party politics and if you read the Post article, though brief, he's right on target.

[Blue_Tires]

19. Seriously, that's the LAST person we need to fucking hear from

So many Monday morning quarterbacks and so many shitty hot takes nobody asked for 😒

[reACTIONary]

22. To quote a previous response..

... he was Director of White House political affairs and advisor to President Clinton, member of Congress and Chair of the House Democratic Congress, the chair of the Democratic campaign committee that got the largest number of Democrats in the house this century, White House Chief of Staff under Obama, Mayor of Chicago and now Ambassador to Japan. All of those things make him an expert in Democratic party politics.....

Given his experience and record, this isn't Monday morning quarterbacking - he's actually a quarterback and has scored a few goals.

So what's so wrong with the guy?

[lees1975]

23. Nothing really.

He's made some moves and decisions that weren't popular with the party line big shots. He's too practical when it comes to winning elections, which means that influential people's pet projects don't always get the attention they think they deserve.

And yeah, he's a bit of an opportunist. But it's difficult to be as successful in politics as he's been and not be somewhat that way. I don't have a problem with the guy, it takes being where he's been to have the kind of experience to know what works and what doesn't and if you read his comments, you'll see what it is that makes him the expert.

[Blue_Tires]

26. Besides being a reptilian scumbag?

And before you start, I realize the party NEEDS reptilian scumbags to be successful... But like 99.99999952% percent of the post-election hot takes, ol' Rahm is just as incorrect, cliche and intellectually bankrupt as the rest of them.

I've gone blue in the face trying to explain what went wrong and where we go from here -- But my name isn't Rahm so nobody wants to have that conversation with me.

[Blue_Tires]

25. I already know Rahm's resume

The funny part is even when he was Obama's CoS he was still despised her on DU -- Check the archives and see for yourself.

Oh, but NOW everyone wants to take his word as the gospel all of a sudden? 🤨

[CousinIT]

27. Rahm Emanuel?

NO.