Former Democrat Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel Criticizes Woke Agenda
Former Democrat Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel recently appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher and criticized the Democrats’ woke agenda.
During the show, Emanuel addressed the low approval rating of current Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, attributing it to Democratic policies that have led to high crime rates. He pointed out that stores like CVS and Walgreens have resorted to locking everything behind glass due to safety concerns in the city. Emanuel emphasized that the top priorities for every mayor should be “Safe streets, strong schools, stable finances.”
He received a round of applause from the audience when he stated, “I don’t want to hear another word about the locker room. I don’t want to hear another word about the bathroom. You better start focusing on the classroom.”
Adding a touch of humor, Emanuel quipped, “If I’d known that I could have said the word ‘they’ and got in the girl’s bathroom, I would have done it!”
Emanuel was joined on the panel by liberal pundit Fareed Zakaria, who echoed his sentiments by calling it a “huge Democratic Party problem.” Zakaria highlighted that Democrat-run cities are poorly managed, have high costs of living, and prioritize woke education and soft on crime policies.
Key Points from the Discussion:
Maher: I read that the current Mayor of Chicago has an approval rating of 6.6%… What’s going on in Chicago?
Emanuel: Look, and then you got mayors, like the mayor of San Francisco and other cities that are doing well. So, I would say, look, there is a general rule; I had this when I was mayor: Safe streets, strong schools, stable finances. Focus on those three things, and your city is going to be fine. We’ve gone through five years where people became way too permissive in culture. They were all— which is why everything’s locked up at Walgreens and CVS, and that is a disaster.
Zakaria: This is a huge Democratic Party Problem. If you look at democratic cities, they are terribly run. They have incredibly high taxes. It is impossible to build so the cost of housing… cost of housing is crazy in places like New York and Chicago. If you look at democratic states, you know, look, you go look at New York versus Florida. Okay? Roughly the same population. The budget of New York State is twice that of Florida. What do they have, streets paved with gold? I live in New York. I pay the highest taxes in New York. You get nothing for it. And I think that is the image people have of the Democratic Party, lots of taxes, lots of regulation, but nothing gets done.
It is evident from the discussion that there is a growing concern over the direction of Democratic policies, particularly in major cities like Chicago. The emphasis on woke culture, permissiveness, and neglect of core issues like education and public safety has raised alarms among both politicians and pundits alike.
