Affordability Versus Wealth

Could the message we have been preaching finally be resonating?

Readers of this Substack know for the last 17 days, I have been pounding on the 2026 election and beyond is about not necessarily “affordability” as has been the topic of conversation for the last two years (2024 for Trump and 2025 for the off-year D’s), but “wealth.” Affordability covers in a nice veneer for the things people want to package to us as easy answers. Wealth, on the other hand, requires a different way of thinking. It requires thought. It requires structures. It requires work. It will sustain. It gives rather than takes.

I have wondered if the “wealth message” was going to resonate. I think it is.

Yesterday, Rahm Emanuel, the perfect foil of the brash, foul mouthed, sharp elbowed elected, showed the centrist part of the party still has a life. He wrote a piece in the Wall Street Journal. Emanuel is the inspiration for the character of Josh Liman in the West Wing. He is definitely someone people like or hate. The fact he writes in the WSJ is enough for many D’s to say, “he is a DINO.” T-Rexes everyone- they were DINOs too.

Regardless of your feelings of him personally, he is colorful. His brother is too. He too is an inspiration of another television character- Ari Gold from Entourage. Why I am commenting on the opinion piece is I typically do not read the self serving PR tested pieces from electeds published in a newspaper, let alone the Journal, but something said to me, “take a look.” If anyone, I thought, would write about the shift we have been talking about, it would be Rahm, or “Rahmbo,” as he was known as.

I read it. I was rewarded. Zero use of the word “affordability.” Interestingly, the word “wealth” appeared twice. Here is the wording, and it sounds eerily familiar:

“We need to be more about opportunities and responsibilities and less about rights and guarantees. The American dream—the expectation that each generation should do better than the last—should become our North Star. Beyond focusing on economic rather than social issues, we need to unveil a new moral compact. It should be simple: If you work hard, play by the rules, and know right from wrong, you earn a shot at climbing the economic ladder. Not a guarantee, but an opportunity. For Generation Z, this would be novel…

All of which is to say that Democrats face a unique opportunity to renew their brand. People today believe that the system is rigged because . . . it is. The system is too geared toward preserving wealth for those who already have it, to the detriment of creating wealth for those who don’t (emphasis added).”

There you have it. Time yesterday elevated our concerns about Altadena with a cover story. Then you get the piece in the Journal about “wealth,” “opportunity,” and the “American Dream,” things we have been hammering on in the past few weeks.

Centrists with sharp elbows? Centrists willing to fight back with a message of transformation instead of blame, giving instead of taking? Centrists are usually thought of as milquetoast mealy-mouthed examples of politicians. Rahm is different. He is polarizing. He is the archetype of who can start the shift.

Thank you Rahm for putting “wealth” in the ether. Elevate. Push the easy answers to the harder of doing the right thing. Give, do not take. Power takes from those who are corrupted by it. Power gives for those who are true to the intent of it.

Rahm, if you are looking for some help, always here to commiserate. Let’s go!