Rahm Emanuel Is Not the Fucking Future of the Democratic Party

No, Democrats are not clamoring for more bigotry and triangulation

Yesterday the Bezos-owned Vichy Washington Post published a typically craven call for cravenness by touting the virtues of transphobia and racism as a campaign strategy for Democrats. In the usual bloodless and banal horse race prose, journalist Naftali Bendavid furrows his brow, collects his paycheck, and (even-handedly!) recommends that Democrats line up to go on conservative venues to declare their enthusiasm for targeting trans athletes and immigrants. The article waxes nostalgic for the great triangulator Bill Clinton and his high profile attack on rap artist Sister Souljah, in which he twisted her words in order to reassure white voters that Democrats can engage in fear-mongering racism too.

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The article does acknowledge that Ted Nugent (who interviewed Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro) is in fact a rabid antisemite and that Charlie Kirk (who California Governor Gavin Newsom interviewed on his podcast) is a rabid Islamophobe and racist. It skips lightly over that thing where Rham Emanuel covered up a vicious racist police murder.

But these are all side-issues, as far as the Washington Post is concerned. The main point is that Democratic approval numbers are low, and that the best way to raise them is through a program of (balanced) hatred and (not particularly balanced!) sniffing around the asshole of assholes like Charlie Kirk and Ted Nugent. We need to “meet voters where they are” transphobic Massachusetts rep Seth Moulton opined—by which he means that we need to court transphobic voters and insult trans people, because Moulton doesn’t think the latter are actually people whose votes you should care about.

So, this is an empirical question. Are Democratic approval numbers low because Democrats have not been sufficiently solicitous of transphobes like Charlie Kirk and racists like Rahm Emanuel?

And there is an empirical answer. That answer is no.

Analyst and pollster G. Elliott Morris pointed out last month that Democratic poll numbers are terrible because Democrats are more willing to criticize their own party than Republicans. Most notably, the left of the Democratic party is enraged at Democrats because party leaders like Gavin Newsom keep doing shit like getting chummy with Chalie Kirk and attacking trans people. These are voters who will most likely vote for Democrats in the midterms (which is why Democrats are leading Republicans on the generic ballot!) But they are sick of “liberal” papers like the Washington Post promoting “liberal” leaders who love racism and transphobia and want the Democratic party to be MAGA-lite with slightly less orange leadership.

In part, the anger at Democrats is coming from the left. But there’s also anger across the ideological spectrum at Democrat’s unwillingness to fight and fight hard. Democratic Senators have been complaining for months that they’ve been receiving a barrage of calls demanding that they do more to oppose Republicans.

They’ve also faced constituent rage in town halls—and not just in blue states. Senator Ruben Gallego—a centrist squish from Arizona who has consistently voted for Trump nominees and who co-sponsored Republican’s viciously anti-immigrant Laken Riley act—was told by constituents to “fight dirtier” and “get in the mud” to battle Republicans.

Democrats have actually heard that message, which is in part why Gallego has been voting against more nominees, and why Democrats are coalescing around an aggressive fight against Republican mid-term gerrymandering.

Democrats also want to win, and for many that does mean they want leaders to reach across party lines and win some moderate votes. But does that mean elevating racist murder-enabling Rahm Emanuel so that he can make transphobic jokes and sneer at LGBT people with Megyn Kelly? How is that antifascist? How is that inclusive? How is that fighting against Trump’s vicious anti trans ban on service members? Trump’s withdrawing funds from schools and hospitals which provide gender affirming care; are Rahm and Newsom contesting that by spewing vile bigotry? Or are they in fact helping Trump in his fascist takeover?

Jeff Bezos has decided he likes Trump and wants Trump to rule us like a king. He wants his paper to find ways to get its liberal readers on board with Trumpism. And so you get articles like this one, which suggest that the best path for Democrats is for them to become more Trumpy. Hate trans people. Hate immigrants. Treat repulsive, cartoonish bigots like Ted Nugent and Charlie Kirk as if they are serious, valuable interlocutors. For Jeff Bezos and his stable of bland centrist chuds, the best way to fight Hitler is to agree with the Nazis on the common-sense proposition that those Jews can’t really be trusted.

I do not believe that Democrats actually want Bezos-approved, brow-furrowing moderate transphobes for their leaders. I do not believe Democrats can fight Trump’s fascist bigotry by cosigning just the right amount of bigotry to appeal to white supremacist ghouls like Megyn Kelly or Ted Nugent. I do not think that we should listen to Democratic “strategist” Neil Oxman when he says that abortion—an issue affecting everyone with a uterus, and anyone who might sleep with someone with a uterus—is a niche culture-war issue.

Democrats want their leaders to fucking fight. Bezos does not want Democrats to fight. He wants them to crawl on their bellies and lick the boots of oligarchs and bigots. Rahm, Newsom, Moulton, Oxman, and all their spineless fash-curious brethren should be embarrassed to get Bezos’ seal of quisling approval. They are not embarrassed because they have no shame—but the rest of us should ridicule them relentlessly, and give our votes to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, or JB Pritzker, or Tim Walz, or some other 2028 candidate who is willing to actually fight for fascism’s victims, rather than fighting to be the fascist victimizer.