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The People Have Spoken and Now They Must Be Punished
You may be wondering whether your good friend Illiniguy was re-elected to the Illinois General Assembly last Tuesday. Well, I won by eight points against a guy who didn’t do anything in the way of campaigning.
In what was supposed to be a red wave year, even here in the Peoples’ Republic, we managed to reduce our numbers in the House from 45 to 39 out of 118. My margin of victory tells me that there’s a lot of work to do in re-establishing our brand with the voters. After the dust settled, I sent the following message to our surviving members:
After the Bay of Pigs fiasco, John Kennedy famously noted: “Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan.” The recent election has shown us, however, that failure can have just as many fathers as success.
None of what I’m about to say is spoken in a vacuum. Given the results of the election nationwide, it’s obvious that our party is still in the thrall of a personality cult that’s been hung around our necks whether we like it or not. The Democrats have been able to do with Donald Trump what we were never able to do with Mike Madigan. Nor did it help when the top of our ticket followed him around the country shamelessly begging for his endorsement. Even if we wanted to run independently of that, how much worse would it have been last Tuesday when we’d have been labeled as disloyal by the base whose support we so desperately needed?
The most obvious excuse is that we lack the resources to put our message out to the public. But more important than that is the message itself. Regardless of how much money we might have had available to us, the message of those who most loudly banged their spoons on their high chairs became the message that the Democrats used to paint us all as extremists.
When the top of the ticket described Chicago as a hellhole, when the grifters, sycophants and enablers who rammed this ticket down our throats in the primary ran on a platform of absolutism on positions that have been rejected by the overwhelming majority of voters in this state, the cake was baked. Unless we make a concerted effort to moderate our policies and our message toward the middle, where I’m convinced most of the people of Illinois reside, what happened last Tuesday doesn’t constitute the floor for us as a caucus, but the ceiling.
Those grifters, sycophants and enablers who either believed they were on a mission from God or were merely interested in lining their pockets did a great job. JB Pritzker didn’t need to use all the money he spent to get the candidate he wanted; that absolutism became the message that was used to describe us all. We did this to ourselves.
I believe in the old saying “de mortuis nil nisi bonum dicendum est”, but we can’t ignore what could have been done by the current Leadership but was not. (House Minority Leader) Jim Durkin was failed by his circle of trust. A lot of that had to do with his early support of the crew that was running the (Republican Governor candidate) Irvin campaign on cruise control and was more interested in milking the cash cow from its headquarters in Tennessee than actually doing the job it was hired to do. But that wasn’t all. We were failed by the organization that was set up to support our caucus. It got involved in contested primaries instead of putting that money behind uncontested Republican candidates to boost name recognition of those who were certain to be on the general election ballot in November. In a map year, when even incumbents are relatively unknown, that would have been money much better spent. What messaging that did come out of the mother ship was lame. “Such and such voted for his/her own pay raise!” and of course whenever possible “Madigan!”
Those of us who are incumbents and are returning to the General Assembly need to look in the mirror as well. If we were unopposed, did we do enough to support other candidates who needed our help when providing that support might have done some good? In the end, maybe that was too big a lift given what we saw nationwide. However, if we intend to go forward as a unified caucus, we need to think hard about that, because we’re on our own.
The most obnoxious of those grifters, having been forwarded the email intended for caucus consumption only, is already on the warpath against me.
I hope to be able to advance my priorities, and am fortunate to have good relationships with members on the other side of the aisle, especially when it comes to the issue of child welfare. We’ll see. Stay tuned.
Published in Elections
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Liked the post just for the Ed Koch quote in the title.
I didn’t vote for Bailey because he was shoved down my throat. I voted for him and Tom DeVore because they were the only people who consistently and successfully fought back against the lockdown tyranny that terrorized this state. Moms from DuPage County whose kids couldn’t go to school voted for him. Farmers in your district voted for him. I would have voted for a ham sandwich against democrats. And Trump had nothing to do with his victory.
Did you notice that Bailey and Trussell actually spent a lot of time in Chicago, on the south and west sides, in Pilsen and at El stops, talking to businesses in the Loop? I don’t know the last time any republican bothered to spend any time in Chicago.
Read today’s lead editorial in the WSJ. They are wrong about Irvin. He was a fake republican that money couldn’t shove down people’s throats.
Going forward, what are you and the other sane members of the legislature going to do during this veto session to get rid of the SAFE-T act? There are a lot of terrified people living and working in and near Chicago. There was a home invasion near us two nights ago…but we are to do nothing? Barrington police are telling people to let criminals do their thing, lest the victims be prosecuted. How about the broad daylight looting on Oak Street the other day? Businesses in the loop can’t get employees to come back in to the office.
People will vote with their feet. Not everyone can…businesses, farmers. Why no one pays attention to Illinois is beyond me.
And I do hope you can do something about DCFS failures. I remember little AJ Freund. He deserved better.
They already are. Corporations are pulling out in increasing numbers, taking employees with them in some cases.
But I do hope J. B. waddles out in front of the cameras and announces that he is running for President. Anything to get him out of the state.
In-person small and service businesses who have built their clientele here can’t move.
Commodious Maximus will be heading off to either Wisconsin or Florida soon enough. His daughter is already down in Florida for the winter.
Does everyone in the Caucus have TDS? Does TDS blind all of them to what is really happening?
Yes. Or, they’re in on the Combine whether they think they are or not. Knowingly, or as useful idiots.
Timid, incompetent, fake. Increasingly in Illinois, extinct. Good riddance.
Newsflash: Chicago is a hellhole. The absolutist extremists are the ones insisting that women have penises too, that whiteness is a disease to be mitigated, that our children need more identitarian indoctrination instead of rigorous education, that taxes are too low, and that criminals are treated too harshly in our state.
But yes, more moderation. You suck. That’s the reason we lost seats and your race was closer than it should have been. That’s the reason people are leaving for places like TX, TN, or FL. The descent down the slippery slope that remains picks up speed, faster and faster. I’m getting out come spring. No matter what.
Whelp, y’all left town early, I see.
[Snip]
Illinois is on the fast track to eliminating cash bail and we are the ones who need to moderate our policies?
We are becoming a Robin Williams punchline. Thank you very much, you’re on your own, good night.
Galling, isn’t it? Moderation is the poison we’ve been fed since the 90’s when IL was still a decent state. Where has it gotten us?
It’s fascinating. Democrats have moved so far Left they are almost off the map. Republicans are pretty much where they have been since 1980. But WE are the extremists?!?!?!?
That’s not hyperbole. That’s a demonstrative fact.
Hey we’re on Emergency Declaration No. 36, because the legislature is content to let him go.
The following is from the Pew Foundation. In 1994 the median Dem and median Rep were pretty close. By 2017 the median Rep has moved slightly to the Right. The median Dem is Far Left and they are farther left today than they were in 2017.
Fifty-seven percent voted for the top of the ticket in the primary. Fifteen percent voted for Ken Griffin’s cell-tower lackey. But good luck with those relationships across the aisle, because the base you so desperately need is going to move away.
Come back, Steve, and talk to us. You dropped this molotov cocktail. Let’s have a conversation. My gas tax is about to go back up again, but pointing that out must make me a grifter on the warpath, too.
Hey, quit sending all of your refugees to my state of Indiana. Pretty soon, whenever Republicans talk about controlling the border, they will be talking about the border between Indiana and Illinois. Geez.
Chicago is a hellhole.
Forget it Jake. It’s Illinois.
On the bright side, my 16 yo (’24 will be his first vote!!! I have two years to get him on the right path) asked who I would vote for, Ron or Don. Told him I voted for Don twice and would vote for him again IF he is the nominee but my primary vote is for Ron assuming he runs.
Stay strong in Springfield IlliniGuy! ILLinois conservatives are few and sometimes not so mighty (mainly due to Combine a**holes like Irvin) but we never lose the faith in our beautiful state!
Get ready for Ed G. With all the family and such we still have in Chicago, and with MI and WI also teetering, IN in the place we need to be in order to get some sanity while being close enough for a half day drive back to my parents if needed.
Probably somewhere north of Indy, unless any Hoosiers here have recommendations for a transplant like me.
Smart move. Illinois is rapidly heading towards insolvency. The debt per tax payer is $57,000. The debt is raising and the number of tax payers is falling!
Carmel is the highest income city in the state of Indiana, I think. Carmel is a suburb on the northern border of Indianapolis. The housing is more expensive. But some people think it’s worth it. I live in Indianapolis, which I think is fine. Zionsville is a nice community, north west of Indianapolis. Fisher is north east of Indy, also a nice community.
Some people like the hills of Southern Indiana. There’s Bloomington, the city where Indiana University is located. But the downside is that you will run into more lefties in Bloomington. But you have those in the Indianapolis metro area (which includes all of those suburbs I mentioned) too. Marion county, which contains Indianapolis votes Democrat. The counties surrounding Indianapolis vote light red Republican. If you want to live in a deep red Republican county, I suggest you look at David Leip’s US Election Atlas.
Hope that was helpful. I admit, I’ve only live in Indiana for 14 years and all of those years in the same house. So, I am not a real estate expert by any means.
I was born and raised in Southern California. I left for Colorado about 25 years ago, only to move to Indiana years later. I have frequent conversations with a friend of mine who is a political junkie like me and still lives in Southern California.
We talk about how much the political terrain of California has changed since I left. The last midterm election that I participated in while still living in California was the 1994 midterm election, the one that made Newt Gingrich speaker of the house, the one that gave the GOP the house majority for the first time in 40 years.
That same election gave Republicans a majority in the state assembly, which is the lower house of the California state legislature, 41 seats for the GOP and 39 seats for the Democrats. That was 1994.
Last week it looks like the voters of California elected a state assembly consisting of 17 Republicans and 63 Democrats. That’s a pretty dramatic drop in Republican representation. Hope that makes you feel better in the sense that you aren’t alone.
I was told by many sources that Chicago is “MAGA Country”. Did the corporate media lie to me?
Trump got a whopping 24 percent of the vote in Cook county, which is where Chicago is located. Sounds like MAGA Country to me. If you only lose by 1.1 million votes, it’s MAGA country, right?
How about Goshen, Indiana. Not far from Chicago (2 hours?), right on the Michigan border (so that’s accessible) and, due to a large number of Mennonites/Amish in the area, blessed with some of the best pies on God’s green earth.
Actually my section of SW side Chicago isn’t too bad. Yet. I’ve seen how these things go in a few other formerly “not too bad” neighborhoods. This seems to be a one way ratchet. Too bad, this used to be a nice place to live.
My dining room table is a masterpiece built in and bought from an Amish market in that area about 25 years ago. Will last probably 100 more too. I’m not opposed if I can get good internet on which to work from home.
https://www.highspeedinternet.com/in/goshen
Consider Mishawaka or Nappanee. Both are better than Goshen.
Noted, I’ll check them out.
Illiniguy, I know you don’t control the state, but your prescription is what we’ve had and it doesnt work. Maybe nothing will anymore. I don’t know, and I don’t care anymore. It’s just time to leave. So I apologize for my outburst. Good luck.