Return With Us Now To Those Thrilling Days…

Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel takes to the pages of the Wall Street Journal with an op-ed warning them that Democrats’ objective should be defeating President Donald Trump in November rather than tearing the Democratic Party apart:

Reform is often more effective than revolution. Amid the heated rhetoric now blowing through Iowa, Democrats appear to be losing sight of that. Progressivism isn’t a destination—it’s an orientation. Purists are anxious to box some of us out by narrowing the definition, but we all share in the mission of using government’s tools to serve those who have been left behind. The next nine months will present our raucous coalition a rare opportunity to establish a new Democratic “metropolitan majority” that could last for years. We can’t afford to let internecine disagreements about how to reach our common goals get in the way.

Let’s pause right there. I think his head is right but his heart is wrong. Is it really true that “we all share in the mission of using government’s tools to serve those who have been left behind”? Or is Mayor Emanuel engaging in a bout of nostalgia?

He continues:

In recent months both Presidents Clinton and Obama have come under withering criticism—not from conservatives but from Democrats arguing they were insufficiently progressive while in office. Set aside the unforced error of attacking fellow Democrats at a moment when retiring Donald Trump ought to be our singular goal. The underlying critique fundamentally misunderstands how we should judge any given leader’s stewardship of our agenda.

He apparently has not been paying attention as one former Democratic mainstay after another has been “cancelled”, as they call it, for grave infractions of the still unwritten code. The best way of gauging the discontent is by the results. The technocrats and the connected are getting rich; the left behind are still left behind.

Here’s his head talking:

Regardless, the coming campaign is bound to be difficult. In the past century, only four presidents lost bids for re-election. Herbert Hoover, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush were all burdened by recession. Mr. Trump’s consistently low job approval suggests he is uniquely vulnerable. But with unemployment hovering near record lows, the Democratic nominee will need both substance and style that contrast well with Mr. Trump’s conflict and chaos.

and here’s his heart:

The country appears poised for the sort of political realignment Messrs. Clinton and Obama could only dream about. Many suburban women, for instance, regret empowering a president who ended up tearing children from their parents at the border. But to establish a metropolitan majority, progressives need to seize the opportunity with the right candidate and the right approach.

Right now it all seems to come back to the Dirty Harry question: “Feel lucky, punk?”

I think that Mayor Emanuel is kidding himself. As I said in the previous post, this time really is different. Today’s reformers are of a different stamp than those of 10 or 20 or 30 years ago. They won’t settle for gradualism. They want to overturn the whole system now.