Monday marked Rahm Emanuel’s official last day as mayor of Chicago, and America’s third-largest city is better off for it.

After eight years in office, Emanuel secured his legacy as a neoliberal archetype for urban governance and is leaving behind a city mired in a vast array of crises, spanning public education, gun violence, debt, police brutality, housing, and economic inequality. Yet rather than take responsibility for his disastrous reign in Chicago, he has embarked on a rebranding tour to make over his public image. The mainstream media is, unsurprisingly, complicit in this rehabilitation. We shouldn’t be fooled.

On Tuesday, the Atlantic announced that Emanuel had taken a new position as a contributing editor at the magazine. This announcement coincided with Emanuel’s debut story for his new job, “It’s Time to Hold American Elites Accountable for Their Abuses.”