Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel spoke Monday at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and laid out his thoughts on the Democratic Party and its prospects for taking back national power again, saying that it needs to take a “chill pill” because the return to power won’t happen anytime soon.
“It ain’t gonna happen in 2018,” Emanuel said. “Take a chill pill, man. You gotta be in this for the long haul.”
From the Chicago Tribune:
As he did last month at an event in Washington, D.C., the mayor expanded on what he believes is the road map back to power for his party—putting moderate candidates such as veterans, football players, sheriffs and business people up in Republican districts, picking battles with Republicans, exploiting wedges within the GOP and fighting attempts to redistrict Congress on partisan grounds.
But this time, he didn’t hold back on his frustration with some of his fellow Democrats.
“Winning’s everything,” he said. “If you don’t win, you can’t make the public policy. I say that because it is hard for people in our party to accept that principle. Sometimes, you’ve just got to win, OK? Our party likes to be right, even if they lose.”
He added, “I don’t go to moral victory speeches. I can’t stand them. I’ve never lost an election. It’s about winning, because if you win, you then have the power to go do what has to get done.
“If you lose, you can write the book about what happened—great, that’s really exciting!” he said sarcastically.
Tuh.
Have you seen the news coming out of Chicago lately? Is that what Emanuel considers winning?
Didn’t the Department of Justice just report that Chicago police “have violated the constitutional rights of residents for years, permitting racial bias against blacks, using excessive force and shooting people who did not pose immediate threats,” and that police tactics have endangered civilians and officers, caused avoidable injuries and deaths, and helped complicate an already contentious relationship between officers and the community? Is that what Emanuel considers winning?
Haven’t school closures in the Chicago Public School system been an issue? Is that winning?
And what about his handling of the Laquan McDonald case? Was that a win, too, Mr. Mayor?
He claims that he goes in and gets done what needs to be done, but if the current state of his city is any evidence, he has a lot more work to do.
Maybe Rahm Emanuel really is winning, though—winning on the crushed backs of black people.
Read more at the Chicago Tribune.