Rahm Emanuel’s humiliation explains the Democrats’ plight

Longtime Democratic hand Rahm Emanuel wants to believe he can win his party’s presidential nomination in 2028.

But deep down, he knows he can’t — and not for lack of self-confidence.

Or self-delusion.

Emanuel has been testing the waters ahead of a possible White House campaign for months.

Politico reported in March that he was “gearing up” for a run — and he’s been making the rounds advocating for a more moderate, plain-spoken Democratic Party ever since.

On Monday, that mission took him to Megyn Kelly’s radio show, where she asked him a series of straightforward questions about gender ideology and policy.

The former chief of staff to Barack Obama dithered when asked if minors should have access to irreversible hormone therapies, but agreed with Kelly that biological boys have no place in girls’ sports.

“Why did all the Democrats bail off of that point?” Kelly asked him. “A couple came out right after the election and they said what you just said, and then they got brow-beaten, and then they started to walk it back.”

“The answer’s in the question,” replied Emanuel, as he showcased his supposed bravado.

“That’s not ever scared me,” he bragged. “I used to say this to President Clinton and President Obama: Sound is not always fury, sometimes it’s just sound. And don’t assume just because somebody’s screaming at you, they represent more than their own voice.”

But just a few moments later he betrayed himself.

When Kelly asked him directly if a man can “become a woman,” Emanuel — after a pause — answered her truthfully: “No.”

“Thank you! That’s so easy,” Kelly exclaimed with delight. “Why don’t more people in your party just say that?”

“Because I’m now going to go into a witness protection plan,” answered Emanuel, laughing nervously.

OK, so maybe he’s a little scared.

The incongruence between Emanuel’s acknowledgement of reality and his subsequent admission of what it would cost him exemplifies the dilemma that continues to haunt the Democratic Party.

Despite President Donald Trump’s relatively soft approval rating, the other team remains historically unpopular.

One recent poll suggested that congressional Democrats are underwater by more than 30%, while another found only 28% of Americans approve of the party itself.

That’s the bad news.

The worse news is that the party is unpopular among different groups, for different reasons.

The independents and working-class Democrats Emanuel is straining to reach resent the radical orthodoxy enforced by the party’s progressive wing.

Meanwhile, the leftists –– the same group of activists, journalists and electeds that have Emanuel shaking in his boots — are convinced that Democrats’ woes stem from their failure to uniformly adhere to that very orthodoxy.

These are the people who are showing up at town hall events to demand their representatives prepare for “violence” and “be willing to get shot.”

They may be fewer in number than the moderates yearning for sanity, but they’re also the ones who show up most reliably to vote in primaries.

And they hold tremendous sway during campaign season, thanks to their disproportionate media representation.

They’re why Zohran Mamdani prevailed in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, and why Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would easily unseat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer if she challenged him in 2028.

With their help she’d make short work of Emanuel, too, if she opted to run for president instead.

Even without his party’s leftward drift, Emanuel’s less-than-stellar reputation would render his political comeback attempt quixotic.

Absolutely no one is clamoring for a slimy operative-turned-failed-Chicago-mayor to take the country’s reins.

As valuable as the still-palpable nostalgia for the Obama years might be in a Democratic primary, there’s not enough clout in the world for Emanuel to borrow that would make up for his own deficiencies as a candidate.

But his flirtation with a presidential bid is less interesting for what it says about him than what it says about his party.

Years out from the start of primary season, the activists are sharpening their knives, aiming to take Emanuel down and make an example of him.

“What a loser,” remarked left-wing journalist Malcolm Harris as he blasted Emanuel’s sit-down with Kelly.

“That is such a bulls–t!” podcaster Jennifer Welch shouted at him, when he panned the party’s focus on “bathroom and locker room” issues earlier this year.

And in a New Republic feature this month — mockingly titled “How Rahm Emanuel Got Trapped in the Bathroom” — Parker Molloy accused him of treating “trans kids” as a “punchline,” and for erroneously believing that Democrats can “win by becoming the party of strategic cruelty.”

Institutionally, the Democratic Party has moved on not just from Rahm Emanuel, but from common sense and political practicality.

So don’t bet on him — or anyone else who openly embraces either notion — becoming the Democrats’ next standard-bearer.

Isaac Schorr is a staff writer at Mediaite.