Rahm Emanuel: Democrats 'lost the plot' with woke activism
Rahm Emanuel criticizes Democratic Party for prioritizing race and gender activism over middle-class values, as he eyes potential 2028 presidential run.
Potential 2028 presidential candidate Rahm Emanuel has launched a scathing critique of his own party, accusing Democrats of having "lost the plot" by prioritizing woke activism over middle-class values. In an interview on 'The Fifth Column' podcast, Emanuel listed what he sees as strategic missteps: from using the term 'Latinx' to advocating to defund the police and bringing cultural wars into schools.
"Nobody seems to be calling the whistle on this," Emanuel stated, questioning why the party focuses on bathroom and locker room access rather than classroom excellence. The former Chicago mayor also criticized how some transgender policies might undermine the premise of Title IX, the law ensuring equal athletic opportunities for women.
Emanuel, who served as U.S. ambassador to Japan from 2022 to 2025, joins other Democratic figures who have publicly distanced the party from the excesses of the woke era. Strategist James Carville has called for abandoning "performative woke politics," while Senator John Fetterman declared he's "not woke," and liberal think tanks have recommended avoiding terms like 'heteronormative' and 'microaggression'.
The peak of this trend came in 2024, when President Joe Biden proclaimed Easter Sunday as 'Transgender Day of Visibility' and Kamala Harris defended taxpayer-funded sex change surgeries. Donald Trump's campaign capitalized on these issues in ads featuring Harris supporting late-term abortion and transgender athletes in women's sports, highlighting the cultural divisions Emanuel now seeks to address.
