Illinois no longer a bellwether state; Chicago too dominant for that to be true

The Washington Post let it be known Wednesday that when it comes to the Great Lakes states, they’re going to be paying attention to Ohio. The Land of Lincoln and its likely Election Day results just won’t be of enough intrigue.

Illinois would have had "President Hughes' in '16

Which is interesting in its own right, because it wasn’t all that long ago that Illinois was considered to be a state totally in line with the mood of the nation.

AS IN ONE could get a good sense of how a national election (actually, a collection of 50 state elections for national office) would turn out by paying attention to Illinois.

Just as political observers now say that a Republican can’t win if he can’t take the state of Ohio, it used to be that a presidential candidate can’t win if he can’t take Illinois.

Literally during the 20^th Century, Illinois and its Electoral College representatives were almost always aligned with the person who actually won the presidential election.

The sole exceptions were in 1916 when Illinoisans preferred the idea of Republican Charles Hughes over that of Democrat Woodrow Wilson. And then again in 1976 when Illinois voters would just as soon have legitimized the idea of “President Gerald Ford” by giving him his own full term, rather than letting Democrat Jimmy Carter in office.

IN SHORT, ILLINOIS used to have a legitimate Republican Party. While Chicago was controlled by Democratic Party politicians, the rest of the state was significant enough to put up an Election Day fight!

And in cases where Chicago Democrats just couldn’t get all that enthused, the rest of the state could deliver Illinois to the Republican candidate.

Or in cases such as 1972 when Democrat George McGovern was just so incapable of capturing the nation’s mood that even Cook County went Republican and Richard Nixon won re-election with 59 percent of Illinois’ vote.

 

... and would never have had 'President Carter' in '76

None of this is capable of happening any longer, and it is a large part of why Election Days just don’t have the same thrill from a local perspective in this state.

THE FACT IS that Chicago metro (as opposed to the city proper) now dominates about two-thirds of the state’s population. Meaning the rural parts are just too small a segment for the Republican candidate to get anything from Illinois.

Democratic partisans may boast and say the reason Donald Trump’s presidential bid hasn’t spent more time in this state is because he’s scared – after all, he tried coming to Chicago back in May only to have his loud, obnoxious followers shouted down by the real majority.

The reality is we’re not seeing Trump because it’s not worth his time and effort to campaign much here. This state will give its 20 Electoral College votes to Hillary Clinton come the date in December when they formalize the results of the Nov. 8 elections.

Which also means that no one talks anymore about how Illinois is symbolic of the national mood when it comes to political concerns. Now, all we’ll hear about is speculation about Ohio, and how a Trump victory there means he may well be just strong enough to actually win the general election.

IF ANYTHING, WE’RE the one Great Lakes state that is a shoo-in (unless you regard Indiana as a GOP lock, although Democrats in the Hoosier State have their delusions of winning come November).

The rest of the country will not care much about watching us here. There’s no political suspense.

Unless, by chance there was a Trump victory in Illinois, which would mean possibly that the Aztecs were off by four years when they predicted the End of the World come Dec. 21, 2012.

Or maybe the world really did end, and the fact that we’re now taking people like Trump with his boorish behavior seriously is evidence of that fact!

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Political spin can rival a roller-coaster when it comes to making one ill

I couldn’t help but be amused by Bernie Sanders, whose presidential campaign put out a statement regarding his Sunday campaign rally at Ohio State University.

Putting his own spin on Trump dealings

“Boisterous, but peaceful,” was the way the Sanders people described the crowd of 7,500 who gathered to “feel the Bern,” so to speak. Also meant as a direct contrast to the crowds of nincompoops who have felt compelled to be at Republican Donald Trump’s campaign rallies.

ONE DAY AFTER the event that Trump wants to describe as Chicago “thugs” getting out of hand at the University of Illinois at Chicago, someone tried to rush the stage at an event in Dayton, Ohio.

That led to a public decision to cancel the event meant for Sunday in Cincinnati. Although it appears that the event wound up taking place anyway, the security was stepped up to the point where Trump was physically surrounded by local police and the Secret Service detail that has been assigned to his campaign.

Trump, it seems, already wants to behave as though he’s the head of a police state prepared to flex its muscle at anyone who dares to speak out against The Donald!

Trump, meanwhile, is keeping up the cheap talk about how the need for this overkill in security is because of the people being instigated by Bernie Sanders himself.

FOR IT SEEMS that Trump is one of those people who just can’t function in life if he isn’t the perpetual victim – some “meanie” is constantly out to get him. He’s being picked on so much that it’s the very fault of the people Trump singles out for abuse that he criticizes them.

And if by chance, Trump’s critics respond in kind – he claims HE’S the one being hurt!!!

Who has bigger victim complex; Donald ...

Bernie Sanders’ campaign appearance Sunday had its touch of self-serving silliness – what with contrasting how well behaved his crowd was compared to the Trump crowd.

But Trump’s victim complex is becoming so overbearing as to the point of being ridiculous. To the point where it is a miracle anyone can take seriously his presidential aspirations. And we have to seriously question the mental competence of anyone willing to publicly say they’d vote for the man.

... or Charley Hustle?

WHICH IS WHY it may be all too appropriate that Trump on Sunday got the endorsement of Pete Rose – the one-time Cincinnati Reds hitter and manager who himself has a victim complex at work. It would be like if Sammy Sosa of the Chicago Cubs were to give a presidential candidate his political blessing

Rose is determined to believe he’s wrongly being denied his place in baseball’s Hall of Fame just as I’m sure Trump will take his eventual electoral loss as evidence of what is allegedly wrong with our society.

Even though I’d argue it will be the moment of clarity in a campaign cycle that has exposed just how delusional some of us in our society can be.

It also is the moment when the campaign cycle that resembles an amusement park roller-coaster ride will come to an end, and we’ll all feel a bit queasy at the memory of what we will endure in coming months.

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