Are secessionists (of sort) on the rise in Illinois? Or just anti-Chi trash-talk!

It’s one of those perennial political ideas that bop about from time to time amongst the denizens of Springpatch – separate the rural parts of Illinois from Chicago.

Would this be state of Chicago symbol?

Or as these people tend to prefer thinking about it – kick Chicago out of Illinois and onto its keister. Let the “Second City” become the 51^st state of our nation.

THE IDEA ISN’T new. It seems there’s always a bill pondering the concept of separation of the Land of Lincoln. The Washington Post reported this week about the latest effort – which actually has eight state representatives willing to put their names on the measure as co-sponsors.

Not that anybody seriously thinks Illinois is on the verge of separation. Even one of those sponsors – state Rep. Tony McCombie, R-Savanna – admits this is more about the symbolism of separation.

“This is a political bill. As the political arm of the Illinois House Republicans, it is my responsibility to remind Chicago that there is more to Illinois than Chicago,” she told the Capitol Fax newsletter.

As though the roughly 2.6 million people who live in the city proper will quake in their pants at the thought of a city just over 3,000 people sitting in cultural isolation along the Mississippi River across from Iowa doesn’t want to be associated with Chicago.

TO BE HONEST, I suspect most Chicagoans have never heard of Savanna, and probably will mistake it for Savannah, the city in Georgia.

Which is why I honestly believe that if there really was a move underfoot to split up the 12.73 million residents of Illinois into separate states, it would be more in the form of rural Illinois trying to split off into its own region. Or more likely, Chicago deciding that it no longer wants to be associated with the Land of Lincoln.

In reality, nobody’s about to split. Nobody’s going nowhere. This is one of those maneuvers that would provide no real benefit – other than allowing political people to spew all sorts of trash talk!

McCOMBIE: Should we respond to her message?

For one thing, it would turn out to be ridiculously hard to determine exactly where the border ought to be.

DO WE LITERALLY turn 119^th Street to the south (with portions of the border jutting as far out as 138^th Street) into the new Chicago/Illinois state line – something similar along the lines of 106^th Street and State Line Road now being the dividing line between Illinois and Indiana in Chicago.

Would it become the State of Cook, with Chicago as its state capitol? We’d have to wind up picking ourselves a governor. Just envision Rahm Emanuel making a political comeback as governor of the state newly-created by ideologue politicos trying to do so as some sort of political punishment.

“Cook Gov. Rahm Emanuel,” presiding over the Chicago mayor and the other 128 municipalities that comprise the county that makes up almost half of the Illinois population as things currently stand. It almost seems appropo.

Or would the reality of things remain in place, and all the people so eager to kick out Chicago wind up getting a shock of a lifetime in learning that the five surrounding counties (DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry and Will) would realize they have more in common with a state of Chicago than they ever would with a state of rural Illinois.

WHICH WOULD MAKE the newly created state one that comprises about two-thirds of the existing Illinois. At roughly 8 million, the new state of Chicago/Cook/collar counties would be bigger than Indiana (roughly 6.67 million people who see no shame in calling themselves Hoosiers).

Which 'state' able to claim favorite son Lincoln

While the remaining state of Rural Illinois would wind up at about 4 million – falling somewhere between Oregon and Oklahoma in population, and lagging behind Kentucky’s 4.47 million people.

Just envision all those people currently of Southern Illinois becoming the place filled with all the bumpkins that denizens of the “Bluegrass State” shudder in fear that they have living to close to their homes.

Rural Illinoisans might not be ready for that level of isolation. Particularly if they come to realize that for many Chicagoans, their contact with “downstate” is if they have a four-year stint attending a college there – where far too many are eager to rush back to “Sweet Home, Chicago” upon graduation.

  -30-

EXTRA: Happy 182nd!

Once again, Chicago celebrates the anniversary of its incorporation.

It literally has been 182 years since the date that officials officially declared Chicago to be a full-fledged city. One that the state's big-wigs in Southern Illinois (the kind of people who thought Cairo would be a significant city at 20,000 people, instead of shrinking to its current level of barely 2,000) never thought would amount to much. After all, it's so far from the Mississippi River and from what was supposed to be the dominant regional city -- St. Louis.

BUT WE GREW, oh so much. Recovered from the Great Fire of 1871 to the point there was once a time when some people thought Chicago would become the Number One city in the nation, sprouting out even larger than New York.

But that never happened, and in fact we now face a situation where we'll probably shrink to even smaller than Houston some time in the next decade. By the time we reach our city Bicentennial, the Second City will be Number Four in size.

But not in spirit. For I don't care what anyone else says; a part of me will always regard Chicago as the greatest place to live on Planet Earth. And as for anybody who'd leave Chicago for petty partisan political reasons? Well, they deserve to live in a place like Indianapolis (and I don't mean the boulevard)!

So here's some video snippets about our wonderful city; from the Burnham Plan that set our city's image to the river/great lake combination that are the reason our city is where it is, down to a National Geographic take on our city. And even a bit of phony Chicago history that far too many people take as serious scholarship. Enjoy!

  -30-

Chicago makes 1st Amazon.com cut, but does that mean one makes the team

I wonder if Chicago, along with places such as St. Louis, Detroit and Gary, Ind., felt the same way I did some nearly four decades ago when I actually tried to make the baseball team back in high school.

Could the one-time Michael Reese Hospital on the South Side become the site of Amazon.com corporate dream?

I still remember the day a bunch of us would-be ballplayers were lined up outside a coach’s office, checking out the list to see which of us were still in the running to be on the team and which of us just weren’t deemed worthy enough to play.

FOR THE RECORD, I didn’t make the cut (which really wasn’t surprising, since I was never much of a ballplayer in my youth).

Which means perhaps I can identify with what is going through the mindset of some of the other Midwestern U.S. states that learned Thursday that Amazon.com’s dreams of building a second corporate headquarters do not include them.

Chicago learned that it is among the 20 municipalities still under consideration, as is Indianapolis. But the other places that had hoped they could get an economic boost learned they were out of the running.

Detroit’s rejection had many observers somewhat surprised. It was speculated that Amazon.com might find it a challenge to be a part of the revitalization of a major city – which would put that city’s officials in eternal indebtedness to their corporate priorities.

THE ONE REJECTION that caught my eye was that of St. Louis. Since that was the bid that had the endorsement of Gov. Bruce Rauner, who supposedly also was backing the Illinois-based bid of the Chicago area – which officially says there are 10 possible sites within the city or suburbs that Amazon.com could choose from.

Which means we’re not setting up the chance of an Illinois political civil war, with a governor trying to figure out whether his best interests involve supporting his state’s major city or the portion of another state’s major metropolitan area that happens to fall within Illinois’ borders.

Sears used to be retail giant; could structure regain significance by becoming part of Amazon.com complex downtown?

There are those who wonder if Rauner secretly would have rather seen a St. Louis bid prevail because he could take some credit amongst Southern Illinois voters while undermining the Chicago interests he sees as his politically partisan enemy.

The fact that Chicago made the cut means Mayor Rahm Emanuel was able to boast of “Chicago’s great strengths, access to talent, transportation, higher education, affordability and quality of life, which are the keys to growth and prosperity.”

WHETHER THOSE ISSUES will remain relevant as Chicago now has to go up against 19 other municipalities (three of which are the District of Columbia and nearby suburbs in both Virginia and Maryland) will remain to be seen.

As I recall from several decades ago, there were still several somewhat talented ballplayers who made that first cut, but wound up not making the roster when springtime came around and the baseball season began.

Personally, I wonder if the fact the city hasn’t united behind one single location may be a factor that goes against us (although I know the conservative ideologues amongst us are determined to believe that it will be Chicago’s Democratic leanings that will harm our city’s bid in the end).

Oak Brook campus that used to train McDonald's managers could become part of Amazon

If we can’t even decide where it should be, why should we expect Amazon.com officials to be capable of picking a place. Maybe they really will want proximity to the nation’s capital city, or a spot in Atlanta, Austin (as in Texas) or Boston for the headquarters campus they want to supplement the existing facilities in Seattle, Wash.

BUT FOR THE time being, Chicago can still dream about the possibility of a downtown complex that might even incorporate part of the formerly-known-as Sears Tower. Or maybe the old Michael Reese Hospital, or the suburban Oak Brook campus that once served McDonald’s.

U.S. Steel still dominant presence in Gary, Ind.

Unlike St. Louis or Detroit, who now will have to move on to other projects to dream about as a way of revitalizing their communities and creating jobs.

Or a place like Gary, which although Hoosier-based is close enough to the Illinois/Indiana border that Chicago could dream of some spillover benefits.

But instead will now have to set new ambitions for their existence, just as many a failed athlete has had to accept the fact he wasn’t good enough to make the team.

  -30-

Only 364 more days to Ill. Bicentennial, so I’m contemplating a journey

I know it’s a month early to be making New Year’s resolutions, but the fact that Illinois is now officially beginning the process of celebrating our state’s 200 years of existence makes me want to make one.

I hope to see (finally) the red dots at Ill. extremus

In my case, I want to make trips sometime during 2018 to Galena and Cairo.

NOW I’M SURE many who are reading this are wondering how rattled is my brain. What could possibly make me think those small cities at the far northwest and southernmost tips of Illinois are worth seeing?

It’s just that in my case, I have spent years making a joke out of the fact that I have never actually seen either of those Illinois municipalities. I’m a Chicago native who was educated in Bloomington and also lived and worked in Springfield.

And in my duties as a reporter-type person, I have visited much of the state of Illinois – which is in its own way a unique place.

Now for those who think the downstate (as in “not Chicago-area”) portions of Illinois are too radically different from us to take seriously, I’d say get real.

This flag will fly across Illinois

CHICAGOANS HAVE MORE in common with places like Peoria or Rockford or East St. Louis than we do overly-haughty Noo Yawkers who forget that Staten Island is more true to their image than Manhattan, or snooty Bostonians who think they have a monopoly on our American history (although I confess I enjoyed Boston the one time I visited it).

But the joke is that Galena and Cairo are the only two places of significance across Illinois that I’ve never had an excuse to be in – although I was close to Cairo on occasions when I had to visit the state corrections facility in Tamms (about 12 miles to the north of Illinois’ southern tip).

From the sesquicentennial of '68

I feel like I ought to complete the journey and say I’ve seen all of my home state. Life doesn’t go on forever.

And in a year when we’re supposed to be highlighting our state’s history, I can’t envision a better time to do so.

I KNOW SOME people will joke that Galena (about 3,200 population) is nothing but a batch of antiques shops, although it has a prime location near the Mississippi River (and is the one-time home of a future U.S. president Ulysses Grant, just like the Hyde Park neighborhood is for Barack Obama) and probably is something close to the vision of Illinois that the state’s founders had back on Dec. 3, 1818 – the date upon which Illinois officially became a state in its own right within the United States. Chicago’s post-Fire development is something no one ever would have dreamed of).

While I also know from experience whenever I’ve told Southern Illinois natives I’d like to see Cairo, they look at me like I’m nuts.

Largely because Cairo is the city they have fled out of their own racial hang-ups. Cairo, the city right at the point where the Ohio River converges with the Mississippi River to flow southward to New Orleans and into the Gulf of Mexico. A point I truly would be curious to see, even though I’m sure it will forevermore make me wonder why Cairo’s prime spot never developed into a major Midwestern city.

Which one should I check out first?

Cairo is a place that at its peak a century ago had a 20,000 population with black people living in segregated communities nearby. But it is now a city of about 2,600 people with an overwhelming majority of them being African-American.

NOT THAT I’M bad-mouthing Southern Illinois – heck, there are Chicago neighborhoods (particularly on the South Side) that used to be lily-white but where “white flight” was so thorough that the locals now have no clue white people ever existed there.

So these are thoughts I’m having as I contemplate Illinois’ intent to lead up to the actual state Bicentennial date next December. Those celebrations are kicking off with ceremonies Monday to be held at McCormick Place and at municipal buildings across the state.

Are these suggested sites?

There will be a noon-hour flag raising ceremony across Illinois where a specially-designed Bicentennial flag will take place. Let’s hope that this ceremony, and the assorted proclamations that municipalities have been approving in acknowledgement, aren’t the extent to which most people pay tribute.

For as one proclamation read, “Illinois Bicentennial is a once-in-a-lifetime invitation to fall in love with Illinois all over again, and together we can inspire pride in Illinois and show the world what makes this state so great.”

  -30-

EXTRA: The moment arrives!!!

This is the sight we're all hoping to see. I didn't make the sojourn to Southern Illinois, or to anywhere else in the nation where it would be possible to see a total eclipse.

But this was what I saw on television just moments ago, and my understanding is that those people locally who made the trip downstate will see something similar in about an hour.

 -30-

Missing out on the eclipse yet again; yet I think I’ll survive the moment

Maybe I’m just not adventurous enough, but I’m not amongst the many thousands of people whom the greater Carbondale metropolitan area is counting on to provide an economic jolt on Monday.
 

Theoretically, this is the ideal image people will see

All those out-of-towners who are showing up in Southern Illinois in hopes of finding a spot where when the solar eclipse occurs, they’ll be able to see the scarce site of the Sun being totally blocked out by the Moon.

ADMITTEDLY, THAT EVENT will only last for a few moments. The darkened sky will disappear within minutes, and daylight will return to all of us on Monday.

If it doesn’t, then of course we will have experienced a catastrophic event that likely will wipe out all life in existence on this planet. We’ll have far bigger concerns than whether the dark will go away.

Anyway, I didn’t try to make the trip to the land known to the locals as Egypt – largely because I think that trip is ridiculously long. Illinois is a much larger state than people usually credit it for; some 500 miles north to south and 350 miles east to west.

Consider all the Chicago-area people who chose to attend college at the University of Illinois and who think the trip to Urbana is one deep into the Land of Lincoln. Then consider that drive isn’t even the half-way point to places like Carbondale and Murphysboro.

IT’S A DAY-long trip to get there, and a day-long event to drive back. And if you think that flight somehow saves you time, a plane to St. Louis puts you about a three-hour drive away from the optimum sites to see the darkened skies.

Did you buy? Or find a freebie pair?

So I’ll pass, although for what it’s worth, my father and step-mother are amongst those people making the sojourn to Southern Illinois. They even managed to get free pairs of the special dark-lensed glasses that you’re supposed to use to protect your eyes when you look directly into the sun.

Yes, it seems the Adler Planetarium made glasses available without charge – which probably burns the toast, so to speak of those individuals who turned to Amazon.com and shelled out as much as 12 bucks for a pair of cardboard shades that make them look like Biff’s sidekick in the “Back to the Future” film.

Or those people who turned to Wal-mart, which advertised on their website that the normal price was $19.99, but that they were discounting them to $9.99 – and as of Saturday were completely sold out.

Biff and his buddies

MAYBE PART OF the reason I’m not up for this excuse for a road trip is that I have to confess to having been around for the last time that the moon blocked the view of the sun back in 1979.

Yet I honestly have only the vaguest recollections of that event having occurred. I certainly don’t remember the sky suddenly darkening as though the Sun ceased to exist!

I honestly believe that many people who make the trip are going to be seriously disappointed by what they see. I only hope they build in some time to their extended weekend so they can check out some of the uniqueness of Southern Illinois so as to make their drive there and back home worthwhile.

Personally, I’m more inclined to think the unique sight could come from right here in Chicago, where we’re not going to see a total eclipse – we’re at the wrong angle so all we’re going to see is a partial one.

I’M STILL TRYING to figure out if it’s worth my trying to take some image – since I’ll be the first to admit to not being worth much as a photographer and that the “camera” I’d be using is a cheap one that usually comes up with passable images on occasions where there are optimal natural lighting conditions.

Watching the eclipse near where I-57 and 70 intersect?

Yet by its very definition, a total eclipse is going to block out all the light.

Which is why I’m sure there will be many millions of people who will be sticking their cell phones in the sky hoping to capture an image that will wind up being blurred and unidentifiable.

Kind of like all those “selfies” that get taken of people supposedly with a celebrity – only the thumb conveniently covers up the prime spot that would have been interesting.

  -30-

Dem ‘top of the ticket’ that 99 percent of voters likely know nothing about

The jokes already are starting up about gubernatorial hopeful Ameya Pawar’s choice for a lieutenant governor running mate – he picked a mayor from the southernmost tip of Illinois.

 

PAWAR: Went far beyond Sout' Side for running mate

Which certainly gives a geographical sense of balance; an alderman from the 47^th Ward up on the Northwest Side of the city and a mayor from the town where both Kentucky and Missouri lie on the other side of the rivers that create Cairo’s location.

BUT JUST AS most people don’t have a clue who Pawar is (the first Indian-American individual to serve in the City Council), I suspect most are going to be equally clueless about Tyrone Coleman – who is in his second term as Cairo mayor and also cites that he used to be a full-time Baptist minister (he's now an interim minister of a different congregation) and is founder of a community organization that serves young people as being amongst his credentials.

Although the Internet already is buzzing with the snide remarks of some who point out that Coleman is one of those African-American individuals who cites his religious faith as justification for snubbing (to put it mildly) gay people.

Which could be a factor that tanks this particular ticket amongst the kinds of people who vote in Democratic primaries. Although I’m sure others will look at this non-white ticket and be skeptical of its chances for succeeding.

It will be interesting to see just how many people do wind up casting votes for Pawar/Coleman – since I’m not kidding when I say that many would-be voters are not aware of the pair, who had their first public appearance Tuesday night at the German/American Cultural Center near Pawar’s home neighborhood.

 

Will we get a Coleman/Stratton ...

IT SEEMS THAT many people are thinking of this as the J.B. Pritzker/Chris Kennedy campaign, with those aware enough to want to have a third option focusing their attention of Daniel Biss – the one-time math teacher from Evanston who serves in the General Assembly and is willing to openly criticize Dem leadership.

Which could be the reason that Pawar felt compelled to publicly name a running mate. It creates the impression that his campaign has something resembling a full structure and ought to be taken seriously.

Compared to everybody else except for Pritzker, who as of yet have not paired up with anyone for the second spot within Illinois government.

 

... debate for lieutenant governor?

Biss’ big move for Tuesday was to announce his “The Road Forward” tour that is meant to be a 2,000 mile trip across the state so he can meet with people everywhere.

A NICE GESTURE, to be sure. But there are those same snide Internet commenters who are saying that Pawar has just one-upped Biss and shown himself to be the guy whom voters ought to focus their attention upon if they absolutely can’t stomach the thought of voting for either Kennedy or Pritzker.

Could this be what gives Pawar’s campaign chances a jolt of attention – even if just for a few days?

He is the guy who has been going about this campaign continuously offering up what he calls his own “New Deal” of ways to improve the quality of life in Illinois. Although I really doubt anybody thinks he’s the Second Coming of FDR.

They’re probably not thinking of him much at all. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to learn if down in the land of Southern Illinois, Tuesday’s announcement by Pawar about Coleman was the first time they ever acknowledged his existence.

BUT THEN AGAIN, the fact that Pawar may be able to take the majority of votes in Cairo may not mean much. Because Cairo is a shrinking community – largely due to the historic racial hang-ups of area residents.

 

BISS: Is he now lagging behind Pawar?

The one-time city of some 20,000 people had, in 2016, an estimated population of 2,359 – with 69.62 percent of its population being African-American. Much of the white population of Southern Illinois fled the city long ago and is content to let it rot – similar to the attitudes felt by some Chicagoans toward select South and West side neighborhoods.

So maybe Coleman has a life experience (he was born-and-raised in Cairo, left for 10 years to serve in the military, and says he was shocked by how decrepit his home city had become during his absence) that some in Chicago can identify with.

For those of you not quite sure of Cairo's location

At the very least, Chicagoans may finally figure out the local pronunciation of the municipality named for the Egyptian city on the River Nile. Because it sure ain’t “KY-ro.”

  -30-

Should Chicago focus guv attention on St. Louis suburbs, Southern Illinois?

In a certain sense, there’s a logic to the notion that the rural third of Illinois will decide the Democratic primary for governor in next year’s election cycle – even though the bulk of votes in that primary will be cast in the urban Chicago-area majority of the state.

Gubernatorial hopeful J.B. Pritzker meets with St. Louis-area Dems who now endorse his political bid.. Photograph provided by Pritzker

When our Chicago politicos get all wrapped up in petty infighting, it can very well be the less urbane elements of Illinois that wind up deciding who gets to call themselves “da Winnah” on Election Night!

SO IT’S NOT absurd that J.B. Pritzker, the billionaire whose family fortune originates from the Hyatt Hotels chain, is making a big deal of the fact that he got the political support this week of the Democratic Party organization of St. Clair County.

For those of you Chicagoans who don’t know of anything beyond your own ward or suburban township (and may not even know what ward number or township name you reside in), St. Clair is one of two counties on the Mississippi River that are part of the St. Louis metropolitan area.

It is an area, along with neighboring Madison County, that can lean Democrat, and could be significant in turning out a significant number of votes. Unlike many other Southern Illinois counties where there are so few people living there that the number of ballots cast aren’t enough to boost the vote total – even if you win!

Which is the problem with the line of thinking of those who prefer candidate Chris Kennedy. They were claiming on various Internet sites that some 20 Southern Illinois Democratic organizations prefer the “Son of Bobby” to J.B. – but many of those counties in recent elections have shown a willingness to back Republicans and may wind up being in the Rauner camp come November 2018.

DAIBER: Wishing he had St. Clair support

PRITZKER WANTS US to think he’s the guy who can dominate the rural vote, while also taking a portion of the urban Illinois vote, to be the successful candidate next year. The sooner he can be perceived as the winner, the quicker he can began focusing on ripping Rauner, rather than bashing fellow Democrats – whose support he’s going to need once the primary election is over.

There is some history in the not-distant past indicating that people in places like Peoria and East St. Louis can determine the outcome.

There was the 1998 election cycle in which three Chicago-based candidates slugged it out for the city vote, while former Congressman Glenn Poshard of Southern Illinois managed to win by dominating the rural vote. Of course, that produced a whole lot of bitter urban voters who either sat out the general election – or actually cast votes for Republican George Ryan (who actually won the north lakefront wards of Chicago that year).

POSHARD: Won primary w/ rural strategy

Then there was 2002, the cycle that saw Rod Blagojevich rise from an anonymous member of Congress to the state’s governor.

BLAGOJEVICH ACTUALLY FINISHED third in Cook County in the Democratic primary behind former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas and former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris, but won so many rural counties by such large margins (where people were voting against whomever they perceived was the Chicago favorite) that he won.

He then went on to defeat Jim Ryan in the general election that year because of the perception that 26 years of Republicans as governor was long enough.

Could Pritzker be having similar thoughts in hoping that voters next November come to believe four years is long enough for Bruce Rauner and they vote against his re-election – no matter how many millions of HIS own dollars he pumps into his GOP campaign?

There is one bit of significance in that Pritzker’s move may be meant to discourage those people who prefer the idea of Bob Daiber (“Who??!?”) as the Democratic nominee for governor.

DAIBER IS THE regional superintendent of schools for Madison County, and he’s hoping that as the lone non-Chicago-area resident running for governor, he can appeal to the non-urban population. He wants to win the Democratic primary via the Glenn Poshard route.

KENNEDY: Some still think he's in the running

What is the significance that the largest county Democratic organization for Southern Illinois is backing Pritzker rather than Daiber? Could it be that the St. Clair Dems are showing a lack of support for Daiber because they think he’s just too unfunded compared to the millions that Pritzker could put into his own campaign to take seriously.

Voting for the “hometown boy” (or in this case, the guy from the neighboring county) only goes so far. Those people who are suffering from the political infighting now taking place within Illinois state government are most concerned with wanting to win.

Supporting the local favorite doesn't feel good if it results on Election Day of 2019 with your preferred candidate sitting in an anonymous seat buried in the middle of political spectators – rather than taking the oath of office and preparing to dance that night with his spouse at the Inaugural ball!

  -30-

Orientals?!?

It's good to see that Rep. Mike Bost, R-Ill., is trying to talk down the outburst that got him into rhetorical trouble this week, because I'm still trying to figure out exactly what point he thinks he was trying to make.

What is it about town halls that Bost ...

Bost, it seems, is in the same category as Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., who has come under fire from local constituents of his DuPage County-based district for not really wanting to show up for "town hall" type gatherings.

BOST, WHO REPRESENTS Southern Illinois, tries offering up similar explanations as Roskam as to how such sessions usually turn into shouting matches and don't result in the spread of information.

But Bost managed to come up with colorful-enough coloquialisms to manage to get himself some national attention -- something that Roskam never managed to do for himself.

As Bost put it, "You know the cleansing that the Orientals used to do where you'd put one person out in front and 900 people yell at them? That's not what we need. We need to have meetings with people that are productive."

Huh?

BOST HAS SINCE said he had no malicious intent and "regrets" that his words distracted from the point he was trying to make -- one that I'd actually agree with. Those "town hall" forums rarely are worth anything, because in many cases they're so heavily staged by their organizers to create the impression of a discussion without anything actually being said.

Which, to me, makes it seem like pols such as Roskam and Bost are not competent enough to control their message, so they'd rather stay in circumstances where they could get away with saying nothing.

Perhaps they're merely following that old maxiom; "If you can't say something nice about somebody, don't say anything at all."

I'm sure Bost wants to think of this issue as resolved so we can now move on. But I'm still trying to figure out the point of his imagery -- and not only because I didn't think anybody still used the word "Orientals" instead of "Asians."

... and Roskam seem to despise?

DOES HE REALLY envision himself as having a batch of crazed zealots jabbering away at him in a language he can't comprehend and probably thinks is little more than jibberish?

Bost's aides have since said he was referrring to the moments during the Cultural Revolution of China in which non-Communists were subjected to harassment and intimidation as part of the effort by the Maoist government to erase societal traces of the opposition.

Does this make Bost some sort of ideal model, while his Southern Illinois constituents are the equivalent of the mindless Communists who were trying to brainwash those amongst themselves who hadn't yet fallen for the Cult of Chairman Mao?!?

I'd hate to think Bost thinks that little of the people he represents. It's probably just a poor choice of words from someone who's inclined to exaggerate and over-react to many things. Is he also the guy who yells and screams at the aide who managed to put the wrong mixture of creme and sugar in his coffee?

WE DO KNOW from Bost's days in the Illinois General Assembly that he is capable of outbursts. Remember back to 2011 when he was the state representative from Murphysboro who started shouting, screaming and throwing papers all over the place because he was upset that he was being asked to vote on a plan to overhaul state pensions and was going to have to rely on the analysis provided by Illinois House Republicans, rather than being able to read the bill himself.

"These damn bills that come out of here all the damn time, come out here at the last second," Bost shouted back then. Yes, you can find video of the moment on YouTube, if you care to look it up for yourself.

Bost was able to use the public attention he gained from that moment in Springfield to elevate himself to his present post on Capitol Hill. It may turn out that the nonsensical level of his latest rant will fly over the heads of many would-be voters. Some may even come out publicly and try to defend Bost; claiming any criticism of him is from overly-sensitive individuals.

Is there really something unique about Southern Illinois constituents?

Except, perhaps, for those who now are being compared to Communist zealots, when back last November they were amongst the few people in Illinois who solidly backed Donald J. Trump's presidential aspirations against Hillary Clinton. Any connection?

  -30-

Reality usually worse than imagination. Campaigning against Chicago just the same old partisan political nonsense?

There’s nothing new about a local political person trying to score points for themselves by trying to portray Chicago as a rat hole.

Rauner allies ad could have found a real Chicago school in bad shape if they tried

The city does comprise only about one-quarter of Illinois’ overall population (about two-thirds if one includes the entire metro area), and there are those who figure getting all the rural Illinois people all riled up can create a large mass of support for themselves.

BUT SOMETIMES, IT just comes across a little too stupid to be believed, and I want to believe that the people of Southern Illinois who are being hit with the latest such use of this tactic by Gov. Bruce Rauner will be intelligent enough to see through this.

At stake is a television spot put together by Rauner backers who are airing it on stations in the Cape Girardeau, Mo./Paducah, Ky. and Carbondale television market. It’s intent is to claim that local state legislators who are Democrats are really nothing more than lackeys of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago.

Because we’re all supposed to realize that Madigan is the root of all evil in Illinois, particularly since he actually lives within the city of Chicago proper (near Midway Airport, to be exact).

This particular television spot includes one moment that brings up “Bailout for Chicago Public Schools” and uses a stock photo image of one of the most decrepit buildings one can envision.

WINDOWS ALL SMASHED up, Doors broken. It’s a wonder the place hasn’t been condemned!

As though that is what has become of the Chicago Public Schools and that is what Madigan and allies are willing to waste state funds on trying to save.

The only problem is that the image comes from the Shutterstock.com website and is described as being an “abandoned office or school building.” And as the Capitol Fax newsletter out of Springfield points out, a look at an alternate image of the same building shows the mountain range off in the background.

 

MADIGAN: Why not just put horns, forked tail on him?

This image meant to depict the Chicago Public Schools in all their decrepit-ness may not actually be a school, and it certainly isn’t from anywhere in the city. The only thing we have close to mountains in Chicago are the landfills of old containing all the garbage our grandparents’ generation accumulated during their lifetimes.

WHICH GIVES THIS particular advertising spot the stink of all that garbage. It’s as nonsensical as Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump’s revoking of the Washington Post’s credentials to cover his campaign on the grounds their coverage is “phony and dishonest.”

It’s really pathetic to use such an image, because of the same fact I always bring up whenever a reporter-type person gets accused of exaggerating facts in a news story. They deserve our ridicule because they’re lazy.

Reality always turns out to be more absurd than anything they could possibly make up. They could have found a real school in decrepit condition and used that image. Of course, that would have required them to do some extra work. And work is just so hard!

Of course, we in Chicago will never see this particular television spot. It wasn’t meant for us, and we’ve never given any thought to the specific legislators (John Bradley of Marion, Gary Forby of Benton and Brandon Phelps of Harrisburg) who are supposedly Madigan’s lackeys.

RAUNER: Will demonization strategy work?

BUT THIS IS part of the Rauner strategy of trying to cut into the sizable Democratic caucus of the General Assembly that has shown the will to stand up to all the anti-labor union rhetoric the governor has spewed in the name of “reform.”

Maybe he thinks he can succeed where other Republican politicos have failed – in trying to demonize the Madigan name as the very image of Chicago that many of them just do not comprehend. It’s on such a larger scale than anything they ever envisioned for their own lives.

Which makes this ad more of the same nonsense, and perhaps the root of the real problem – we’d rather complain about each other than try to work to resolve the real problems that exist.

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Is Rauner losing the rest of Illinois’ support? Or nothing but Dem fantasy?

Gov. Bruce Rauner’s efforts to keep real political power (and not just bear the title) is dependent largely on the idea of keeping the rest of Illinois united and thinking the problems our state faces are due to excess influence by Chicago.

So what should we think of the new poll by Southern Illinois University’s political institute named for former Sen. Paul Simon? It’s the one that says the southernmost region of the state doesn’t think very highly of Rauner, nor the performance of Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill.

I’M SURE THERE are Democratic partisans who are going to put the overly-simplistic vision out there that says the people are rejecting Rauner, and that he may be causing harm to his GOP allies.

That’s just a little too easy to be accepted. Although I would think Rauner ought to have his concerns about how well-liked he truly is in the parts of Illinois outside of metro Chicago – particularly those southernmost counties where the nearest city of any size isn’t Chicago or St. Louis; but Memphis, Tenn.

For the record, the Paul Simon Institute did a poll of people in 18 counties; finding that 50.7 percent disapprove of the governor’s performance. Only 37.4 percent think the governor has done an acceptable job.

It also seems that only 15 percent of people think Illinois as a whole is doing the right thing in the way it operates these days.

AS FOR KIRK, only 30.4 percent approve of his stint in Washington, while 46.6 percent have no opinion of the man – even though he has been in the Senate for five years now.

Not exactly solid numbers for a political party that wants to believe its hard line stance in refusing to put together a state constitutionally-mandated budget is somehow an act of financial responsibility – and not reckless disregard for the people of Illinois.

Although historically, Southern Illinois was a region that leaned toward the Democratic Party. There were all those coal miners in the region known as “Egypt” who were inclined to think of the labor unions as their allies – and the others who just thought of Republicans as the party of country club-types.

 

There truly is a part of Illinois apart from Chicago, and it's known as Egypt

Then again, the southern states used to be hard-core Democrat because they were still bitter about the Republicans being the “Party of Lincoln.” Those states are now the basis of the modern-day GOP, and are the ones who think there’s nothing ridiculous about the stalemate that prevents Congress from naming a new speaker of the House of Representatives.

BUT SOUTHERN ILLINOIS has changed to Republican-leaning as well. The past couple of decades saw many of the old Democratic Party legislators in Springfield get dumped for Republicans. I can remember a political observer who said the change was because “Southern Illinoisans realized the Democrats don’t care about them anymore.”

There also is the fact that places like Cairo, Metropolis and Eldorado are very inclined to think that Chicago is an alien land (Jackson, Miss., is closer to those municipalities than is the Second City). Making them susceptible to the Rauner message.

So it wasn’t a shock that all those Southern Illinois counties threw their support to Rauner in last year’s election cycle. That they were more than willing to think of former Gov. Pat Quinn as just a Chicago guy – even though Rauner himself is a Cook County guy who also has a place to live in downtown Chicago.

But should it be a shock that Rauner hasn’t exactly kept the support of Southern Illinois? Which is necessary because Chicago and the inner suburbs of Cook County are nearly half of Illinois’ population.

FOR RAUNER TO achieve the strength necessary to get away with defying a Democrat-dominated Legislature, he needs to have all of Illinois united against the city (which, by itself, is about 22 percent of the state’s people).

If Southern Illinois were to throw its lot in with Chicago metro (which when you include all the suburbs accounts for about two-thirds of the people), it could make for a miserable mess for the remainder of the Rauner term – and could mean people anxiously awaiting 2018 as their chance to “Dump Bruce!”

Where Illinois becomes one with Missouri and Kentucky

Then again, this poll could mean merely that people are disgusted enough to vote “No!!!” without really knowing what “Yes” is for. As the institute’s director says, “Voters here have been in a bad mood, and they continue to be.”

Which is probably the best for our society as a whole – we don’t really want to be a state that silences anyone who has the gall to speak out against the status quo. Particularly when our status quo is one that can’t fulfill basic obligations like a state budget.

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EXTRA: Is state’s budget battle about to devolve into Chicago vs. rural Ill. brawl? Yes, if Rauner gets his way

It’s no secret that Gov. Bruce Rauner is prepared to play partisan politics hardball in his effort to force the General Assembly into giving approval to at least a few of the anti-organized labor measures he views as essential to benefit business interests in Illinois.

But for someone who claims he’s being revolutionary and shaking up the way things are being done in this state, his tactics seem so retro. So repetitive of the past.

HOW ELSE TO view the appearances the governor made Monday in Marion and Belleville? Both of which are Southern Illinois communities whose legislators are of the Democratic Party persuasion.

They are part of the majority that is so large that Democrats can literally ignore Rauner’s rhetoric. They can override anything the governor chooses to veto – which ultimately puts the power of government in the hands of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and state Senate President John Cullerton, both Chicago Democrats.

So how does Rauner try to overcome a Legislature that is stacked against him? By trying to change this from Democrat vs. Republican to Chicago vs. the rest of the state.

Trying to make it so that those non-Chicago area communities that have Democratic Party representation will bolt from following their legislative leaders and choose to back him instead.

TURNING THIS INTO an urban vs. rural brawl could work amongst some people. After all, much of the reason that former Gov. Pat Quinn didn’t get re-election was the perception among some Illinoisans that they wanted a rural-oriented leadership within state government.

But if that attitude had truly been prevalent in 2014, then Rauner never would have won the Republican primary to begin with.

Which is why I believe that if Rauner is truly to be successful, he’s going to have to be more broad-based in his appeal than to be the governor of rural Illinois. And I don’t think tactics like the ones he used on Monday are going to accomplish that.

Rauner made a point of criticizing the local legislators in Marion and Bellville (a St. Louis-area suburb) to, “stand up for taxpayers instead of Speaker Madigan and President Cullerton.”

AMONG THOSE WHO came under criticism Monday were state Sens. Gary Forby of Benton, Bill Haine of Alton and James Claybourne of Belleville, along with state Reps. John Bradley of Marion, Brandon Phelps of Harrisburg, Jay Hoffman of Swansea, Jerry Costello of Smithson and Daniel Beiser of Alton. Not exactly like-minded, identical communities.

Yet all the rhetoric is generic. The Southern Illinois and St. Louis-area legislators are being treated as an anonymous lump by the Rauner backers.

Which sounds so much like the accusations that Raunerites are making about the same legislators – that they’re acting like generic Chicago-type pols. I have always found that line of logic to be so laughable.

Unless Rauner really believes that the only way for them to think independently is for them to behave in lock-step unison with the business-oriented thought process he’s trying to impose on all of Illinois.

SO RAUNER IS trying to split the Democratic caucuses in the Legislature based on geography – hoping to isolate Chicago and its inner suburbs which account for about 45 percent of the state’s population and which has made it clear on many occasions that it has no support for the trash that Rauner talks.

Which may be the strength that legislators in opposition to Rauner may have to being able to remain firm to their principles and not be forced to give in to the guv.

There are a lot of people who have their own ideas about what constitutes reform, and they all have a right to be taken into account.

The sooner the governor realizes that fact and the notion that is way is not the only way to achieve reform (and a balanced budget), the sooner the nonsense talk will come to an end at the Statehouse in Springfield.

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