Of
course, there also are those who will say the reason Illinois has become so f***ed
up is because of Bruce Rauner himself.
SO
YES, I find it sort of amusing to learn of the governor’s latest re-election campaign
ad – the one called “Unholy Union” that portrays a clergyman presiding over the
“wedding” of Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan and his “bride,” J.B.
Pritzker.
With
said clergyman ending the service by proclaiming “Illinois f***ed” (with the
beep blipping out the use of the obscenity). Implying that a vote for J.B. instead
of Bruce come Nov. 6 will be to support a political union that will unleash all
kinds of bad things upon the people of the Land of Lincoln.
Kind
of odd in the use of gay marriage imagery, since there are those ideologues
amongst our state who want to believe Rauner himself has been too lax in
fighting against certain moralistic issues such as gay marriage.
But
I’m sure Rauner is gambling that many ideologues will view the idea of two men
being married, hear the names of “Madigan” and “Pritzker” and will become so
grossed out that they will automatically vote “no” to notion of J.B. as governor.
AS
FOR THOSE people who will become offended with Rauner for mocking a gay
marriage image? He probably figures those people weren’t going to vote for him
no how. No real loss there!
Let’s
be honest; things did become significantly worse in Illinois during the Age of
Rauner – largely because he came in with a solidly anti-union agenda. He wanted
to play hardball against organized labor to try to reduce the influence of
unions within Illinois government.
That
is why we had nothing accomplished for those first two years of Rauner’s time
in office, and why most political people have put the concept of dumping Bruce
Rauner from office as their priority in this year’s election cycle.
SO
YES, ILLINOIS is “F***ed.” We heard it from Bruce himself.
Perhaps
a step in the right direction to fixing that is to dump Rauner and put people
in charge who are interested in operating government – instead of trying to
score political points for themselves at the expense of the unions and behaving
as though everyone who disagrees with their ideology IS the problem.
Of
course, all this “Dump Madigan” rhetoric isn’t new. It was the basis of gubernatorial
campaigns in 2010 and 2014. Rauner is merely upping the ante of the campaign
tactics that he thinks were successful when he first ran for election. He
thinks he won, so it must have worked. Ignoring that he has been a Republican
serving as governor, having to deal with a whole batch of Democrats in other
political posts.
In
fact, one theme I oft have heard from Republican partisans this election cycle
is that we need to have Rauner in office to hold in check the actions that other
officials might try to do.
ONE
COULD ARGUE just as strong that we needed all those Democrats in place to hold
in check Rauner’s own ideological leanings – which actually were very clear and
open when he first ran for office. He’s anti-union. Everything else (including
all those social issues the ideologues get so worked up over) is of lesser
importance.
All
this anti-Madigan rhetoric is spread throughout the campaigning; from the
television spots proclaiming Madigan and congressional candidate Sean Casten to
be “two sides of the same coin” to Republican attorney general candidate Erika
Harold proclaiming, “I’ll never take orders from Mike Madigan.”
Unless
she’s also more interested in playing partisan politics, rather than governing
for the people. A concept that, to be honest, is “F***ed” up.
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