Tiger Beat on the Potomac (thanks Charlie!) morning email thingie has shaken me to the core of my being:
“FIRST IN PLAYBOOK: “Rahm Wants to Run. Yes, For the Presidency” — a marmalade-dropper from JMart to start your day.
“Rahm Emanuel “has been as visible as any other Democrat” since returning from his stint as ambassador to Japan, writes POLITICO’s Jonathan Martin in his just-published column, and blatantly has 2028 in his sights. “Name the political podcast and Emanuel has likely been on it or will be shortly,” JMart notes. “He immediately snagged a CNN contract and regular Washington Post column … He’s also hitting the lecture circuit, appearing for paid and gratis gigs … and later this month will make his first stop on a service academy tour when he speaks at West Point.”
“The message: JMart has even seen the outline of a Rahm stump speech, with education — and a stern message for the left — at its heart. “I am done with the discussion of locker rooms,” Emmanuel told a D.C. conference last month, highlighting low achievement in kids’ reading skills. “I am done with the discussion of bathrooms … We better start having a conversation about the classroom.” And yes, the crowd lapped it up.”
The gist of Rahm’s argument is left-wing positions —like trans rights, and that’s what he was dog-whistling there— are not popular with the public, and Dim-o-crats should distance themselves. He’s a hippie-puncher of the first order. And please, never forget Emanuel is the genius who killed Dr. Dean’s 50-state solution.
Rahm thinks that voters hold a handful of core positions, and that the goal of politicians is to meet them where they are; I don’t think this is true: we can smell a phony who shifts positions like the breeze on a beach. (Hi Gavin!)
It’s not that politicians see where voters are and should try to move toward them, it’s the other way around. Pols need to pull voters towards themselves. If you have some core positions and beliefs, your job is to convince others to join you. That’s the whole point of politics (and advertising/branding/marketing, come to think of it). Bernie might be an asshole, but no one doubts what he thinks and where he stands; that’s his appeal and why he engenders such loyalty. (Don’t come @ me, bros!)
More broadly, I believe the problem is that the blown-dry, capped teeth, audibly tan (H/T Fran Lebotwitz) consultant class doesn’t like to do the hard work to convince voters to come to their candidate. And our existential crisis right at the moment is that we cannot see what our leaders actually believe, what they are willing to fight for.
Emanuel’s solution to the crisis is to stand for NOTHING.
Anyway, Rahm wants to be the Democratic candidate and his strategy is to shift positions to Republican-Lite, and we can smell him for the cynical and power-mad that phony he is. We long for authenticity, and he’s authentically bad news.
Published with permission of Mock Paper Scissors.
