Top Democrats Shift Tone On Trans Issue Ahead of 2028

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The question was simple and direct. Surprisingly, so was the answer – especially coming from a seasoned politician.

Question: “Can a man become a woman?”

Answer: “No.”

Polling shows a substantial majority of Americans agree with this assessment – which stands to reason considering it isn’t so much an “assessment” as it is a cold, hard fact. So it wasn’t the answer itself that raised eyebrows, it was who it came from – namely Rahm Emanuel, a Democrat luminary who was appearing on Megyn Kelly‘s Sirius XM show.

A senior advisor to Bill Clinton, White House chief of staff for Barack Obama, a former congressman, mayor of Chicago, and U.S. ambassador to Japan, Emanuel is no mere party functionary. He is an insider’s insider. And by denying a key tenet of current Democratic orthodoxy, he committed partisan blasphemy.

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“Now I’m going to have to go into the witness protection program,” he quickly joked.

Emanuel was only half kidding.

As Democrats continue sifting through the ashes of last November’s defeat at the polls, a handful of prominent people are starting to openly admit the party has veered too far left on social matters – with calamitous electoral consequences.

Emanuel is one of the encyclopedia-long list of Democrats mulling a White House bid in 2028. He’s also among the crop of potential early birds who are slowly but steadily starting to distance themselves from transgender-associated positions – such as biological men competing in women’s sports.

Consider what another prominent Democrat (and possible 2028 candidate) said about a related topic while visiting South Carolina last week.

“We’ve got … to get back to talking like real human beings,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said during a recent visit to Columbia, S.C. “It’s a little bit of the advocacy speak and it was meant for the right reasons, it was meant to decrease stigma, but we don’t decrease stigma by changing words, we decrease stigma by changing hearts and when we start changing and sanitizing our language, things have less meaning.”

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California congressman Ro Khanna and governor Gavin Newsom have also made similar “non-political” swings through South Carolina of late. Newsom previously caught holy hell from progressives when he said on a podcast it was “deeply unfair” for women athletes to compete against men who identify as female.

“Democrats are in the proverbial Catch-22,” a GOP-affiliated South Carolina political strategist told us. “On the one hand, they clearly see the writing on the wall. They know that if they want to win future elections, they must distance themselves from idiotic ideas that commonsense folks rejected a long time ago. But if they make the switch too soon—before rank-and-file Democratic activists accept the need for change—they risk getting the cart before the horse.”

Which explains why top-tier Democrats are taking only baby steps away from positions that are DOA with a significant swath of voters.

So, what’s holding them up?

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“They’re scared shitless of infuriating Gen Z women,” a Washington D.C.-based pollster explained. “Young women between the ages of 18 and 30 are the engine that powers the progressive movement. They are militantly committed to their beliefs. They view any form of compromise or softening of stance as a betrayal. And Hell hath no fury like a young Democratic woman voter scorned. That’s why many Democrats who are interested in running for president are so tepid in calling out radical positions that are the kiss of death politically. Yet those same likely candidates don’t want a rerun of ‘Kamala is for They/Them; President Trump is for you’ in 2028. It’s a real mess for Democrats.”

Kelly touched on that during her interview with Emanuel.

“Why don’t more people in your party just say that?” she asked about his negative reply to men becoming women.

How Democrats answer that question will determine when – and if – they return to political relevancy.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

J. Mark Powell is an award-winning former TV journalist, government communications veteran, and a political consultant. He is also an author and an avid Civil War enthusiast. Got a tip or a story idea for Mark? Email him at mark@fitsnews.com.

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