When is paranoia totally justified? Or, Get off yer lazy behind and Vote!!!

My step-mother’s sister, Betty, literally wagged her finger in my face this weekend while telling me it was absolutely crucial that I turn out and cast a ballot come Election Day this year.

 

TRUMP: He wants the presidential perks

She’s one of the people appalled by the existence of Donald Trump and has managed to get herself excited about the prospects of a “President Hillary Clinton” (although she flirted briefly with the idea of Bernie Sanders).

BUT SHE’S CONVINCED the natural apathy that afflicts people is going to cause too many to just sit on their fat behinds come Nov. 8.

Which, if it really happens, would enable the incredibly outspoken faction of our society that wants Trump in the White House (unless he decides the presidential mansion is unbecoming of him and he shifts operations to the Mar-A-Lago Club) to go out of his way to repudiate everything that has ever occurred that they disagree with.

Now I know some people are convinced that there are just too many checks and balances in place to allow Trump to do anywhere near the amount of damage he has pledged to do during his presidential campaigning. That line of logic is being spewed by those who seriously have their hang-ups about Hillary being anywhere near the political position once held by her husband, Bill.

But the paranoia about a Trump presidency persists – even though many (including myself) would argue there’s nothing “extreme” or “irrational” in their fear or “distrust” of “the Donald.” Even Hillary Clinton herself is more than willing to play off of it.

FOR I RECEIVED in my e-mail Sunday night a message from the Clinton campaign itself (and have since received two more similar notes), telling me how Trump’s fundraising is stepping up its work (supposedly $82 million raised during July), which boosts his chances of turning out the vote in parts of the country where the Electoral College favors them.

Trump is, “unqualified and unfit to lead our country – but the unfortunate reality we must confront is that he still might be able to win if he spends enough to convince voters otherwise,” was written on behalf of Hillary.

Of course, that e-mail then got to the real point – which wasn’t so much to remind us of how repulsive Donald Trump is but to tell us how we should donate more money to Clinton.

 

CLINTON: She wants campaign cash to stop him

The e-mail was set up in a way that I could “quick donate” as little as $3, figuring that a lot of petty donations from many people could add up to a significant amount. Of course, if I also feel compelled to be a more significant donor, they’re not about to refuse to accept my money.

NOT THAT IT’S going to influence me, because I generally don’t give money to political campaigns of any persuasion. In part because I’m cheap, but also because I don’t want any of these people thinking they can keep me on a list of individuals whom they come to expect for support. It's that old line of logic about a reporter-type person not wanting to create an impression of favoritism for anybody.

I may feel a twinge of guilt when I don’t make a donation to PBS or NPR (that's just because I'm cheap). But the campaigns are a different animal, and I don’t doubt that an operation as professional as the Clinton camp is capable of finding enough significant donors.

So their attempt to appeal to my sense of guilt and having a conscience isn’t going to get money from me. Besides, this particular e-mail reminded me that Trump has called women “fat pigs,” pledged to repeal the Affordable Care Act, erect that nonsensical wall along the U.S./Mexico border and boost the deportation totals from this country.

Yet nowhere did she tell us any reason why we should think she's any better.

I KNOW THE strategy of political operatives is to go nasty on the opposition until just before Election Day, at which time you bring everyone home, so to speak, by telling us how nice the candidate is.

I also don’t doubt that Trump will spend the next couple of months committing countless acts of borderline libel and slander on the Clinton reputation – and threaten to sue anyone who calls him out on his trash talk.

 

Will enough people get their sticker?

This is the time of the campaign season we’re in now, with negativity that’s only going to get worse and worse after Labor Day when political activity traditionally reaches its peak prior to Election Day.

Yet for me, the rhetoric from Clinton and Trump is something I can bear with. It may well be my “Aunt Betty” with her incessant appeals to vote (that probably won’t let up until she sees me wearing an “I voted” sticker on Nov. 8) that will be hardest to resist.

  -30-

Not a political revolution on Tuesday, no matter what some want to believe

I’m sure there will be those individuals who will contend a serious change in our government was achieved, what with the way voters in Cook County dumped State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez.

Still have my sticker

Anita is the one whom it seems will wind up taking the fall for the police shooting death of Laquan McDonald, as her opponent, Kim Foxx, managed to get a serious voter margin over her.

SO MUCH SO that people can’t argue the presence of a third candidate in the Democratic primary took votes for Anita – Foxx got a solid majority. With particularly strong voter turnout for her in the South Side and surrounding suburbs.

In short, the portions of metro Chicago that have majority African-American populations where people were outraged over the shooting death of McDonald that got captured on video.

The people who have been screaming for Mayor Rahm Emanuel to resign and are frustrated to realize he could care less what they think will have to settle for defeating Alvarez’ re-election bid (she was seeking her third term as head of the county prosecutorial office).

Let’s hope they remain pleased if, in a couple of years from now, the criminal trial of the police officer who shot and killed McDonald (he faces multiple counts of murder) does not go the way they want and the cop gets acquitted (which is always a real possibility).

BUT FOR THOSE people with the Beatles’ song “Revolution” running through their minds, I’d say “Pipe down!” Because dumping Alvarez – while significant – is about as big as things got on this Election Day.

FOXX: The new state's attorney

U.S. Senate hopeful Andrea Zopp, who was hoping that the same people who voted Foxx into the Democratic nomination for state’s attorney would also support her, didn’t do so well.

Her numbers were so weak that the various newsgathering organizations rushed to declare Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., the winner for the Senate right when the polls closed at 7 p.m.

And as for “the Bern,” Sen. Sanders of Vermont would seem to be nothing more than a mild case of suntan in Illinois and elsewhere. For it seems Democrats in this state preferred Hillary Clinton. Then again, so did Democrats in all the states where ballots were cast on Tuesday.

HILLARY, THE PREFERRED candidate of the Democratic Party establishment, continues her progress toward gaining the presidential nomination for the November general election.

CLINTON: She didn't get 'berned' in Illinois

While the one-time “Party of Lincoln” continues to shame the reputation of “Honest Abe” with its desire to nominate obnoxious New York real estate developer Donald Trump for a bid for the White House.

If anything, the intriguing part of Tuesday’s activity may well be the turnout.

It wasn’t that big in Chicago proper – Board of Election Commissioners officials say it was less than the 53 percent of registered voters who turned out in 2008 when hometown boy Barack Obama first ran for president.

BUT IT WAS high in the suburban areas – so much so that the Washington Post made a point of acknowledging the desire of our suburbanites to make sure to cast their ballots.

For what it’s worth, I have one Facebook friend who tells the story of how his parents did not cast their ballots because the lines were so long at their polling place in suburban Buffalo Grove and they couldn’t wait.

While I know my own parents in suburban Homewood saw the long lines of would-be voters waiting to use the touch-screen machines to cast ballots, and wound up deciding to fill out paper ballots instead, rather than wait in line.

All in all, it makes me grateful I used an early voting center to cast my votes a couple of weeks ago. Particularly since any attempt to consider Tuesday’s outcome revolutionary gets dumped all over by the outcome for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago.

Da winnah, and still champeen!

NOT ONLY DID he solidly crush the challenger who received campaign funding from people loyal to Gov. Bruce Rauner, his preferred candidate of Julianna Stratton managed to crush state Rep. Ken Dunkin, D-Chicago – the legislator whose refusal to support Madigan on several issues undermined the so-called “veto proof” majority that Democrats use as their club over Rauner’s head.

Political retribution was achieved. And how revolutionary can things be if the big winner for the night is the high-and-mighty “Mr. Speaker?”

  -30-

Turnout will determine just who prevails on Tuesday’s Election Day

By the time Tuesday night is complete, we ought to know who wins all these elections that have tried to dominate our attention span in recent weeks.



Would this Elvgren cartoon need Den socialist symbol ...

Heck, in some cases, we’ll actually know who will get to serve in public office for the next four years – I don’t know of anyone who seriously thinks the Republican nominee for Cook County state’s attorney has a chance of prevailing in November.

BUT ANYBODY WHO says now they know who the Democratic nominee for that post will be is lying – and any predictions you hear now that turn out to be correct come Wednesday will, in reality, be nothing more than lucky guesses.



... added for an update?

It’s Election Day in Illinois, and all across our grand state we will get the chance to express our preferences for U.S. president, a U.S. Senate seat and other assorted posts within Congress and the General Assembly.

Along with all those judges and other court-related positions at the county level.

The key question – the one that I’m focusing my attention on come Tuesday, is turnout. How many people will actually feel compelled to show up at the polling places to cast a ballot?

Let's hope voter turnout is larger than that!

HOW MANY PEOPLE will think it important enough to express their say?

Or the real question may turn out to be; how many people will be so pathetically lazy that they won’t bother to express themselves? In which case, I’d argue they deserve whatever they get in terms of actually manages to win on this primary election cycle.

Aren't we glad this isn't a scare sight anymore?

I found it interesting to see the statements that came from the Cook County clerk’s office that said the first day of early voting in Illinois (which was on Feb. 29) produced a record-high number of votes cast (including my own at the county courthouse in Bridgeview).

We also got statements about how the total for the early voting time period was close to approaching a record, and how there were a particularly-high number of people actually registered to vote.

ALL OF WHICH might mean people care about this particular election cycle enough to vote. Or maybe they don’t?

Because political observers have noted that the concept of using early voting centers has become so commonplace that it really has no direct tie to the overall voter turnout.

Early voting is for the people who are so hard-core that they made up their minds several months ago. As for those who aren’t that set in their ways, they wait until Tuesday.

Time for all of Illinois to do its civic duty

Or perhaps they don’t bother to show up at all, if they can’t ever make up their minds.

WHICH IF YOU think about it is kind of scary; our political structure for the next four years is going to be decided by the kind of people who are indecisive and who will cast their vote if it fits within their convenience cycle.

Kind of like my teenage niece, who while I was writing this particular commentary responded to her grandfather’s request for a plastic bag by flinging it at his feet, then acting as though she had been massively inconvenienced by the whole request.

Are we supposed to feel equally grateful to those who bother to vote? Should we think they did us a favor by voting? There are times I wonder if the ideologue Republican types aren’t completely off their rocker when they say we make it too easy for people to register and cast a ballot.

After all, it is one of the ultimate perks our structure of government gives us – we are given a say in deciding who gets to run our government. Instead of what some places have; a structure in which a Donald Trump wouldn’t even dream of wanting to be president because all he’d have to do is throw his money at the public officials to get them to do his bidding!

  -30-