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1/ Today Rahm Emanuel officially ends his disastrous term as Chicago mayor, a thread.
2/ Emanuel's departure caps 8 years of governance that treated Chicago's working-class residents and communities of color as roadblocks in his plan to build a glitzy "world-class city."
3/ He will no doubt continue his rebranding tour as he takes to national outlets to brag about how his tenure—embracing corporate-friendly policies, attacking unions, taking a law-and-order approach to crime—is an example all other Democrats should follow in the run-up to 2020.
4/ But those of us who lived in Chicago while he was mayor will remember him for the public mental health clinics he shut down, the 50 public schools he closed predominantly in neighborhoods of color...
5/ the tax breaks he lavished on corporate giants while raising regressive taxes and fees on the city's poorest residents, the video of Laquan McDonald's execution by Chicago police his office helped cover up, the segregated violence that continued unabated during his reign...
6/ and for how he locked community groups and neighborhood leaders out from decision making in favor of the rich and politically powerful.
7/ Far from a model of success, Emanuel's time as mayor was an abject failure—a fact best summed up by the city's 2019 elections which served as a direct repudiation of his approach to governance.
8/ He's being replaced by a new mayor who ran far from Emanuel's record and has promised a new era of progressive government. And while there are legitimate questions as to how committed Mayor Lightfoot is to achieving this future...
9/ the incoming city council includes a surge of newly-elected progressive aldermen, including 6 democratic socialists who are already calling for huge new taxes on the rich to fund social programs. That's about as far from Emanuel's neoliberal vision of politics as you can get.
10/ Emanuel's new job as a professional pundit will likely serve him better than being in charge of America's third-largest city. After all, he often seemed in open contempt of its residents, which is not a good way to practice democracy.
11/ But after two terms, his time as mayor is done, and it's thanks in large part to the city's dedicated activist community, which has grown larger, smarter and better organized under Emanuel. That may ultimately go down as the most positive aspect of his legacy.
12/ And it's these energized activists who will help to ensure that Rahm Emanuel's political career remains relegated to the dustbin of history. End of thread. thenation.com/article/rahm-e…
