{"id":888354,"date":"2026-01-27T23:26:35","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T05:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/27\/rahm-emanuel-to-fellow-democrats-admit-mistakes-win-on-economic-issues\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T23:26:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T05:26:35","slug":"rahm-emanuel-to-fellow-democrats-admit-mistakes-win-on-economic-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/27\/rahm-emanuel-to-fellow-democrats-admit-mistakes-win-on-economic-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Rahm Emanuel to fellow Democrats: Admit mistakes, win on economic issues"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>To Rahm Emanuel, a man who has had many roles in the Democratic Party \u2013 most recently, U.S. ambassador to Japan \u2013 the answer to winning the midterm elections sounds simple: \u201cRestore access to the American dream.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At a conversation with reporters on Wednesday hosted by The Christian Science Monitor, Mr. Emanuel didn\u2019t dwell much on threats to democracy, the topic that drove much of Democratic messaging in 2024. Instead, he circled the rising cost of groceries, health care, and housing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe moment the American dream becomes unaffordable and inaccessible is the same moment American democracy becomes unstable,\u201d Mr. Emanuel said.<\/p>\n<div>\n<h2>Why We Wrote This<\/h2>\n<p><span>With an eye on his own possible presidential run, former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel tells a Monitor Breakfast that fellow Democrats need to show voters a viable path for addressing economic issues including affordable health care, education, and housing.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cYou want to stabilize democracy? Make sure that more Americans than just the few and select get access to it,\u201d Mr. Emanuel says, adding that, today, he sees the rich getting richer and the middle class struggling \u2013 and the government making no attempts to rebalance.<\/p>\n<p>As November\u2019s midterms draw nearer, independents are the fastest-growing group of voters, making up a near-majority. The discomfort those voters feel is one of three emotions regarding President Donald Trump that Mr. Emanuel sees in the electorate. The others are anger, among Democrats, and a sense of betrayal, felt by Republicans, including former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/About\/Contact\/Feedback\/About-video-ads\">About video ads<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<iframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/CVs7odM5F2U?si=g3JNjJjY-_gWLSQn?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"fullscreen\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>President Trump promised to be \u201cAmerica first,\u201d yet lately has been focused on expanding U.S. territory and securing a Nobel Peace Prize, says Mr. Emanuel. \u201cWhat Democrats shouldn\u2019t do is walk around saying, \u2018I told you so.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Instead, Democrats need to show a path for change, he says, and admit what they got wrong during their time in power. Democrats need to also earn the support of the unaffiliated voters who make up some 45 percent of the electorate \u2013 something they can work to solidify between this year\u2019s midterms and the 2028 presidential election.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, they have turned against Trump and the Republicans, but they haven\u2019t turned towards you,\u201d Mr. Emanuel says to his party.<\/p>\n<p>The elections this fall will follow a pattern, he says. \u201cThere\u2019s a law of physics when one party controls the microphone and the gavel,\u201d Mr. Emanuel says, insisting the midterms will be a referendum election and that Democrats, as the party out of power, will likely see heavy turnout.<\/p>\n<p>To win, Democrats should be wherever Mr. Trump isn\u2019t, he says. \u201cHe can talk about Greenland; we\u2019re going to talk about groceries. You want to talk about Venezuela? We want to talk about the families that are struggling in Virginia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Emanuel is no stranger to running for office. After serving as a senior adviser to President Bill Clinton, he was a member of Congress before returning to the White House as President Barack Obama\u2019s chief of staff. Next, during eight years as mayor of Chicago, he pushed through education reforms \u2013 raising graduation rates, but also drawing ire from the teachers\u2019 union. Under President Joe Biden, Mr. Emanuel served as ambassador to Japan.<\/p>\n<p>Lately, Mr. Emanuel spends his time crisscrossing the country and making stops in small communities \u2013 recently in Mississippi and soon in Michigan. He speaks mainly about education and affordability as he appears to be exploring a 2028 presidential run.<\/p>\n<p>At Wednesday\u2019s event, part of the long-running Monitor Breakfast gatherings of newsmakers with reporters, he outlined a series of reforms he proposes for Washington, which he says needs to be \u201ccleaned up.\u201d Those include a crackdown on corruption in all branches of government, from receiving gifts to stock trading to family members\u2019 profiting. And he called for mandatory retirement at 75 for people serving in the executive, judicial, and legislative branches, saying he would do so by enacting legislation.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Emanuel, who is 66, says he would not exempt himself from the age limit should he run for president and be elected. If so, he would be a one-term president. Currently, he says, Washington \u201clooks like a bad version of the Politburo, how old everyone is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Globally, Mr. Emanuel says America\u2019s influence is waning, weakened by the leadership of Mr. Trump, who he says \u201cpunches down and kisses up.\u201d While he agrees with Mr. Trump that the United States has long neglected its own backyard in favor of Europe and the Indo-Pacific, he opposes the president\u2019s aggressive foreign policy in Latin America and warns of the consequences of pushing Canada and U.S. allies in the Pacific toward China.<\/p>\n<p>As the ambassador to Japan, Mr. Emanuel participated in a 2023 trilateral summit at Camp David between the U.S., South Korea, and Japan, something he says was \u201cthe worst day in China\u2019s life.\u201d Just recently, South Korea and Japan held a bilateral meeting without the U.S. \u201cThat was a good day for China,\u201d says Mr. Emanuel.<\/p>\n<p>Convincing Japan and the Philippines that they can feel secure about partnership with the U.S. is the first step to making sure America is a permanent power and presence in the Pacific, but that standing is \u201cunder attack\u201d by the Trump administration, he says.<\/p>\n<p>Still, \u201cnothing about China today scares me. What we are not doing at home scares me,\u201d says Mr. Emanuel. \u201cWe\u2019re in a race for the future. We\u2019re not going to do it [with] the worst reading and math skills ever.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The solution? Education, which he describes as a pathway to achieving the American dream and making the nation competitive internationally.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEducation is core to the Democratic Party,\u201d Mr. Emanuel says. \u201cThe party\u2019s lost its edge. We\u2019re known more for opening bathroom doors and closing school doors than anything else.\u201d His quip was a nod to the party\u2019s political difficulties on transgender policies and pandemic school closures.<\/p>\n<p>All in all, Mr. Emanuel is optimistic for Democrats\u2019 chances going forward. \u201cI\u2019d rather have our hand than their hand.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> Sophie Hills <br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.csmonitor.com\/USA\/2026\/0121\/rahm-emanuel-democrats-midterms?icid=rss\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To Rahm Emanuel, a man who has had many roles in the Democratic Party \u2013 most recently, U.S. ambassador to Japan \u2013 the answer to winning the midterm elections sounds simple: \u201cRestore access to the American dream.\u201d At a conversation with reporters on Wednesday hosted by The Christian Science Monitor, Mr. Emanuel didn\u2019t dwell much<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":888355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54590,38940],"tags":[6260,13624],"class_list":["post-888354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-emanuel","category-fellow","tag-emanuel","tag-fellow"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}