The Prof G Pod with Scott Galloway
Raging Moderates: The Death of the American Dream (feat. Rahm Emanuel)
Tue, 27 May 2025
Scott and Jessica sit down with Rahm Emanuel—former Chicago mayor, Obama Chief of Staff, and U.S. Ambassador to Japan—for an unfiltered conversation about the Democratic Party at a crossroads. They cover everything from Biden’s health and GOP tax cuts to rising antisemitism, the education crisis, and the growing struggles facing young men. Plus, Rahm weighs in on 2028—and whether he’s seriously considering a run. Follow Jessica Tarlov, @JessicaTarlov. Follow Prof G, @profgalloway. Follow Raging Moderates, @RagingModeratesPod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: What are the key issues facing the Democratic Party today?
And I think one of the things we have to realize is we're not, I think you've talked, both of you have talked about this, we're not in a zero-sum game that somehow if you're helping young men, it comes at the expense of young women. But the crisis that is now a flashing red light, not a yellow light, is these young men aimless. And I mean, you can hear it in their voice.
And if we don't in some way interject ourselves and start doing different things rather than the same thing, we're going to pay a huge price and they're going to pay a huge price. So I looked at this mentoring program. I would look at summer jobs after school and then I would, I'm a firm believer that it's got to be across the board, universal national service for six months.
Everybody's got to do it. Nobody gets to cut out of it just because you're going to go to college or med school. Forget about it.
So you're talking like somebody that has a plan or at least some plans that we should be thinking about for the future of the party, for the country and all of us. And you've joked that you're in training for 2028, but you don't know if you'll make the Olympics. What does that training look like for you? Are you thinking about running for president?
Are you thinking about running for governor if Pritzker takes the plunge himself?
Yeah. So just here's how I think about it. There's a lot of people, rightfully, on the other end of the pool whose entire existence is fighting Donald Trump. And there's a lot to fight. And I don't belittle it. If I'm right, this election in 2026 is a referendum. 2028 is a choice, not a referendum.
And I'm going to spend my time, as I have both writing pieces, et cetera, on education, on national service. I've already done certain things on national security and ideas about how to make the American dream affordable. I don't think it's an accident that the moment the American dream became out of reach, it was less affordable. It was exactly the time in which our politics became unstable.
They're connected. And so if I think I have something to offer that others don't, I'll take that plunge. But I am going to spend my time now thinking, writing about what I think are the big issues that we have to address. That gets to the topic of lost men. That gets to the topic of rethinking our educational system. There's nothing... partisan about reinventing high school.
You know, I happen to be for free community college. President Obama took our program advocating nationally, but that's not the only road to the same destination. And if I think I got something that other people aren't talking about and a way to talk about it, then I'll dive into the deep end. But I'm going to spend my time articulating that, thinking about that, talking to people.
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Chapter 2: How does Biden's health impact his presidency?
And I don't know if we can solve it overnight. And I don't think we can. I think it's going to take a long time. It's going to take a long time to get here. But you can't have a situation where people are using their 401k, which is supposed to be for their retirement, to make up for their paycheck, not covering their costs.
Healthcare, they spend more time arguing with their bureaucrat than they do talking to the doctor. And we have young couples sitting at their parents' home down in the basement and can't find a home. And unless we fix that, The rest of it is going to come apart. And second, on a very crass political level, if we put that at the core,
A, it will shunt out this week in woke and will look like we're fighting exactly for the people and against the exact interests that have been giving people the shaft for years. So to me, that's the core thing. That's where I'm actually spending my time. And I think it's going to take us a long time.
And the reason we disappointed people and they got disappointed in the Democrats, not only for these tangential issues, but we lost connection with what they expect from us. We were always the defender of what comes under inclusive economy, that more and more people would have a shot at just the basics.
Own a home, save for your retirement, save for your kids' education, afford your health care, and take a three-week vacation. And none of that is affordable unless you're well-off. And you shouldn't be comfortable if you're well-off that the rest of the country isn't comfortable. So that's my core thing of what the party needs to do.
And we get all caught up in, you know, not only tangential issues, but overthinking. You look and you just, you know, as I used to do when I was a mayor and I was doing this when I used to do Congress on your corner. You go to down Target, you walk down the aisles. You go to Walmart. I used to call them Target town halls or Walmart walk-ins.
And people that would stop to, you know, other people say, oh, hi, Mr. Mayor or whatever. But people would stop and talk to you. This is not... complicated. Solving it is, but understanding people want somebody there that will get in there in the morning, roll up their sleeves, and the one thing they're going to focus on like a laser is making sure they have a shot.
And what survived Bill Clinton and Barack Obama through every presidency has ups and downs, is that at the core, the public knew who they were working for and who they were working against. And we've abandoned it. And guess what? They got us read right. We're dead to rights, man. We got caught off on bathrooms and Latinx and making people, you couldn't use that language.
You're doing that cultural approach. And people couldn't figure out how to get a down payment on the home. They had to pick which child goes to college and which one doesn't and postpones it. They were taking money that they knew in their gut was supposed to be for retirement, but they couldn't make the bills. They were taking another 401k and paying penalties.
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