Ambassador Rahm Emanuel is urging Democrats to adapt to President Trump’s success rather than carry on with what’s failing to move voters. Saying on “The View” that he’s “in training” for a presidential run, the call for change will distinguish him from a field miring its messages in the past.

“Why do Democrats have a problem?” Mr. Emanuel asked last week on the Bulwark podcast. “Because we’re punks.” He said that Democrats “talk down to people” and “get caught up in a set of issues that aren’t relevant.”

Mr. Emanuel cited “transgender and sports.” He called it “crazy” that Democrats are “arguing about bathrooms and locker rooms and not the classroom” when America has “the worst reading scores and math scores in 30 years.” 

Education was a winner for Democrats back in the days when Mr. Emanuel was a congressman, President Obama’s chief of staff, and Chicago’s mayor. With Mr. Trump aiming to eliminate the Department of Education, the case for a federal role in schools would take local concerns national. 

Mr. Emanuel told Democrats to “sit down, shut up, and … learn something.” Other Democrats are sure they know enough, he said, and that stopping Mr. Trump is the only issue Americans care about, ignoring his strengths.

Mr. Emanuel criticized Democratic leaders for “sitting around telling everybody how to live their lives.” He said they “don’t know how the world works,” and a CNN survey released last week backed the assertion. 

The CNN poll, conducted with SSRS research, suggests just 16 percent of Americans think that Democrats represent “strong leadership.” Forty percent said the same for Republicans, who also had a seven-point lead on who represents “change.”

CNN’s pollster, Harry Enten, noted that the GOP had also “eliminated” the double-digit advantage Democrats held “for decades” on which was “the party of the middle class.” But the answer from most Democrats is to do more of what has failed to halt their freefall.

Take the acronym TACO, for “Trump Always Chickens Out.” It delights partisans but branding a foe as a delicious food is folly. That the White House spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, has been dubbed “Taco Belle” illustrates that the word, not what it stands for, is sticking.

Charging that Mr. Trump is a coward also conflicts with Democratic charges that he’s a “strongman” and the memory of his defiance after an assassination attempt. Besides, Democrats argue that his habit of hurling schoolyard insults disqualifies the president. Employing the same tactic sacrifices that moral high ground.

Governor Walz of Minnesota, who may run in 2028, spoke at the South Carolina Democratic Party convention on May 31. He urged his party to “bully” Mr. Trump and get “meaner,” while saying that bullying indicates weakness and cruelty.

Another potential Democratic presidential candidate, Governor Moore of Maryland, walked the same circle in his keynote speech at South Carolina. He allowed that Mr. Trump had implemented his agenda fast and denigrated it as “impatience,” before prodding Democrats to emulate that negative trait, too. 

Mr. Moore repeated the claim that Mr. Trump aims to “dismantle democracy,” though that argument fell short in 2024. In June’s Washington Post poll, voters in key swing states said they trusted Mr. Trump to do a better job against “threats to democracy” than President Biden, by 44 percent to 33 percent.

Other polls show similar results, but Democrats show no signs of doing the “soul searching” that Mr. Walz suggested they do on CNN in April. Again and again, party leaders say they hear voters, but their focus on fringe issues shows they don’t really hear them.

Democratic leaders, Mr. Emanuel said, have “run this car straight into a wall.” It’s as if their political GPS insists on mapping the most difficult routes, zooming past voters who might otherwise go along for the ride. 

Winning either chamber of Congress in next year’s midterm elections will signal to Democrats that they don’t need to change. Fall short, however, and expect Mr. Emanuel to seize his moment, positioning himself as the only Democrat who knows what issues resonate — and how the world works, too.