Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel warned progressives to refrain from attacking Democrats for not being far enough to the left and focus instead on defeating President Trump.
“Reform is often more effective than revolution,” Emanuel, 60, wrote in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal, taking a shot at Sen. Bernie Sanders.
“Amid the heated rhetoric now blowing through Iowa, Democrats appear to be losing sight of that. Progressivism isn’t a destination — it’s an orientation. Purists are anxious to box some of us out by narrowing the definition, but we all share in the mission of using government’s tools to serve those who have been left behind.”
Emanuel, who was a senior adviser to President Bill Clinton and chief of staff to President Barack Obama, defended his former bosses as some progressives have criticized them for being “insufficiently progressive while in office.”
“Admittedly, today’s landscape is much friendlier for progressive ideas than it was when either Mr. Clinton or Mr. Obama was running for office. Yet, we risk squandering that opportunity fighting pointless battles over whether these successful presidents properly calibrated their agendas to yesterday’s limitations,” he wrote.
Emanuel said the criticism fails to consider that the “revolutionary strategy” pushed by progressives would have failed in 1992 and 2008 when Clinton and Obama won their first elections. He urged them to stick with “reform-oriented strategy” to defeat Trump.
“The country appears poised for the sort of political realignment Clinton and Obama could only dream about,” he wrote. “But to establish a metropolitan majority, progressives need to seize the opportunity with the right candidate and the right approach. As Democrats prepare to vote in caucuses and primaries, let’s apply the lessons of the recent past to the near future. Presidents Clinton and Obama struck major blows for the cause of progressivism. It will be our nominee’s unique responsibility to carry the torch further.”
