What is the partisan political norm?

I stumbled across some commentaries recently; one of which predicted that the electoral gains to be made come November by Democrats with regards to control of Congress would be balanced out by an overwhelming victory come 2020 for Donald Trump’s re-election as president.

Would a "J.B." win restore the 'norm'

While I also have heard countless people talk of the Illinois political situation by saying this year’s election cycle (where many are convinced Gov. Bruce Rauner is doomed to defeat by Democratic Party challenger J.B. Pritzker) will be an “outlier”.

AS IN A victory by Democrats will be a freak exception. One that should not be taken in any way as evidence of what our state is all about politically.

All of which strikes me as a whole lot of Republican partisan types determined to ignore the realities around them. Either that, or they really do believe that everybody who doesn’t agree with them ideologically is someone who ought to be disregarded.

Probably even flogged publicly, then incarcerated, if the most outrageous of those individuals could have their wildest of fantasies come true.

Then again, listening to the conservative ideologues amongst us, the things they say publicly all too often are wild-enough fantasies.

Is Bruce Rauner the Illinois norm?

BEFORE I GO further, I should state that I think the partisan fluctuations of our political establishment IS the norm. I also think that not only is the way things are, it is the way it should be.

A part of me thinks that Illinois suffered from having the governor’s post in the hands of Republicans for 26 years (even if those GOPers included a city-based attorney like Jim Thompson, or a political professional moderate like Jim Edgar).

And before you try throwing it into my face about the string of Democrats serving as Chicago mayor (dating back to 1931 – the longest electoral winning streak by any political organization in any legitimate Democracy), I’ll concede that our city would be better off if the one-time Party of Lincoln could come up with credible candidates for City Hall posts.

Have we devolved to a national Trump norm?

But when you consider the GOP’s most serious mayoral challenger in decades was that 1983 election cycle when they came up with Bernard Epton to challenge Harold Washington – and that election became so overly-tainted by race for the one-time state legislator from Hyde Park to be taken seriously, it’s no wonder the Republicans are irrelevant locally.

WHAT SHOULD WE think of the politics likely to occur in coming months?

Personally, I’m inclined to think the 2014 election that gave us Bruce Rauner in Springfield and 2016 that produced Donald Trump in D.C. even though his Democratic opponent got some 3 million more of the popular vote were the election cycles that threw our system out of whack. Perhaps this is the year the voters try to balance things back to the norm.

By replacing the governor whose ideas of “reform” are about undermining organized labor and trying to perceive people who represent constituents who rely upon unions as somehow being corrupt because they look out for the union label.

Or by installing a Democrat-influenced Congress (at least in the House of Representatives) that could serve as a counter-acting measure for the remaining two years of the Donald Trump presidential term.

WITH THE 2020 election cycle being the one in which our society’s majority gets to Dump Trump. Or will it be that incredibly-outspoken minority of Trump backers manage to pull off a second electoral miracle?

EPTON: Last serious GOP mayoral hopeful

Perhaps it’s because I remember the 1994 election cycle – the one in which hard-core Republican ideologues managed to gain control in Congress and also experienced a surge in Illinois where the GOP gained control of all the state constitutional offices AND the General Assembly’s entirety.

It was the two-year time period during which Michael Madigan was reduced to the role of “minority leader” and Lee Daniels got to serve as Illinois House Speaker.

Those were supposed to be long-lasting partisan movements that would forever change the way things got done. Yet by ’96, Madigan was back, and Bill Clinton managed to get re-elected with as president. Everything has a habit of balancing out when it comes to partisan politics.

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Sleeping on the job? Now that’s a major offense to our city's political mindset

The Summer of ’86 was the year I was close to finishing college, and also had a job on the Cook County government payroll. A low-level clerical job with the county Recorder of Deeds office.

Officers too fatigued to work in this Facebook-provided photo

I was one of the minions working in the basement who took copies of land transactions and recorded them, by hand, into huge ledger books where one could literally look up who owned every single piece of property in Cook County.

I COULD TELL you horror stories of the people I worked with who didn’t have a clue what they were doing (which means those books that were an official record likely were a mess). There also was the time a batch of us ditched the job for an afternoon to watch an official city parade along LaSalle Street paying a long-overdue tribute to Vietnam War veterans.

But the memory I most have of that job was the very first day – when my supervisor took us around the basement, pointed out all the spots where one could think they could sleep or goof off on the job without being noticed, then told us not to try to do that.

23-year-old Green hopes to gain campaign attention

You might want to think this supervisor was being high-minded and expressing concern that work on behalf of the taxpayers was being performed properly.

But I remember his biggest concern was the idea of public disclosure. Because not long before I started working there, a camera crew managed to get video of workers taking a nap on the job.

THAT VIDEO WOUND up in the hands of Walter Jacobson, the famed broadcaster then still with WBBM-TV, and the county became the subject of one of his "Perspectives." We were warned of the consequences to ourselves if we publicly embarrassed county government in any way with our behavior.

Will Emanuel figure out way to turn issue to his favor?

I couldn’t help but remember that moment on Monday when I learned of Ja’Mal Green, one of the many people with delusions of becoming mayor of Chicago following next year’s election cycle.

He came up with photographs of Chicago Police officers sitting in a squadrol, and from the looks of it catching up on their sleep.

Green, like many other people these days, has a Facebook account. He has to come up with things with which to fill up his page. Which means he posted an item on Sunday with the picture of sleeping police officers.

ALONG WITH AN explanation saying why this is evidence of the failure of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s efforts to have police officers working overtime to help patrol streets in hazardous neighborhoods.

“Officers get fatigued, which will prevent them from reacting to crime,” Green wrote. “Militarizing communities does not reduce violence.”

Many people have seen these images (including the one I felt compelled to copy and publish here) and are now passing them along. There’s also news coverage. City workers, cops nonetheless, asleep at the switch – so to speak.

The ultimate sin for those who receive a paycheck at the expense of taxpayers – insofar as the powers that be are concerned.

THE SAD PART is that Green’s intended point is likely to get ignored. The well-being of the officers and their ability to do the job without putting themselves in harm’s way? Not so important.

Sinclair's book had unintended effect

What we’re going to get are a lot of crackpots complaining about goof-off cops, and probably a few wisecracks about how they needed their naps in between coffee-and-donut breaks.

Just like author Upton Sinclair’s famed book “The Jungle” that was meant to warn people of the horrific working conditions inside meatpacking plants, but instead merely grossed people out about the conditions of what it was they were eating.

Just like I think many cops are now going to think of Green as “the enemy” out to make them look bad, instead of someone concerned about their welfare. With the intended target, Emanuel himself, somehow managing to find a way to spin this to his re-election campaign’s benefit.

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Does the secret to Chicago sporting success lie in the form of the “sisters?”

Remember back just a few months ago to “Sister Jean?”

In the form of Jean Dolores Schmidt, the nun at Loyola University who made a spectacle of herself as the ultimate Loyola Ramblers basketball fan and who became the lucky charm, of sorts, as the team worked its way all the way to the Final Four of the NCAA championship tournament.

PERHAPS THE CHICAGO White Sox ought to follow the lead of Loyola and create the perception that none other than the Lord himself has a stake in the team’s future development.

Now in all honesty, the success of the White Sox’ efforts to rebuild themselves into a championship caliber ballclub is going to depend on the skills of management in finding the right combination of athletic talent – along with a few lucky breaks to ensure all the “talent” currently with White Sox minor league affiliates pan out the way they’re anticipated to.

The Blues Brothers (remember they were on a “Mission from God”) were on a more legitimate holy crusade than the White Sox, or any sports team, could be.

But Sister Jean and her appearance at courtside all through the Ramblers’ trip created an image that gathered much public attention. Probably to the point where most people thinking back now, and forever more, will have the sister stand out in their mind more than any of the actual players.

COULD THAT BE what happens to Sister Mary Jo?

Good form?

As in Mary Jo Sobieck, who along with her religious duties is an administrator of Marian Catholic High School in suburban Chicago Heights.

She’s the nun who Saturday night gained herself national attention (I’m not kidding, I lost track of the number of local and national television stations that felt compelled to put her moment on the air) for doing the “first pitch” duties for the White Sox prior to their game against the Kansas City Royals.

Because unlike most people who are called upon to perform such a task, she didn’t throw it wildly away and over the catcher’s head, or bounce it in front of home plate. Such as did Joe Mantegna, the actor, who handled the duties the last time I went to a ballgame at Wrigley Field.

Sister Jean provided lead for Ramblers' success

BROADCASTERS OF ALL sorts praised her toss as being a perfect 12/6 curveball – as in a pitch that drops straight down as it crosses home plate so that a batter can’t judge it properly and winds up swinging his bat at the wrong level.

For what it’s worth, the MLB-TV channel went so far as to compare video of Sister Mary Jo’s toss to that of the first actual pitch of the game thrown by Sox pitcher Dylan Covey.

The overwhelming preference? Sister Mary Jean rules! Lots of gags about how the sister, who actually played volleyball and softball back when she was a schoolgirl.

Just as Sister Jean was once athletic (volleyball) in her younger days before taking her religious vows.

The 'high' point of Mantegna's effort

ONE DIFFERENCE – SISTER Jean is on the Loyola payroll, and serves as the Ramblers’ chaplain. Sister Mary Jo has no official connection to the White Sox – other than being invited for one night’s duties.

Although maybe it would be a nice touch if she were to become a part of “White Sox Nation” – that segment of Chicago’s sporting world that has absolutely no interest whatsoever in the Chicago Cubs.

Can sister add to Sox' collection

Maybe we need that “touch of faith” to think that the White Sox rebuilding program will succeed – rather than produce a string of ballclubs that will consider themselves completely successful if they can avoid losing 100 ballgames (the Sox need 18 more wins this year to avoid that niche).

Then again, no matter how much it may sound ridiculous, perhaps it will require a “hand of God” as the final piece in the White Sox puzzle to become a ballclub amounting to something worthwhile -- although the arrival of top-level pitching prospect Michael Kopech come Tuesday could be the momentum-changing move.

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Short-term ‘retirement’ post turns out to be a long-term one for Jesse White

It was a couple of decades ago when Jesse White ran for election as Illinois secretary of state.

WHITE: At age 84, is he up to sixth term?

The line of logic that existed amongst his political supporters is that White had been an 18-year member of the Illinois House of Representatives from Chicago’s Near West side who then returned home to Chicago for a term as Cook County’s recorder of deeds.

AT AGE 64, sending him back to Springfield for a term as secretary of state (replacing George Ryan, who gave up the post for his now-infamous stint as governor) was sort of a reward for White.

He could finish out his political career “on top,” so to speak. Before wandering off into a retirement from a life of community and public service, while occasionally reminiscing about “what might have been” if he had made it to the major leagues with the Chicago Cubs back in the 1960s.

Shows you how little we all knew back then.

For now, 20 years later, White is about to finish his fifth four-year term as the man who runs the state government office that – most prominently – puts his name on everybody’s driver’s license. Along with a whole slew of other services that makes the local secretary of state’s office the one Illinois residents most frequently deal with in their daily lives.

HELLAND: Out to make it a prime issue

NOW, COME NOV. 6, White will be the Democratic nominee seeking a sixth term, taking on Republican Jason Helland and Libertarian Steve Dutner. Both of whom are ridiculously young, compared to White.

Dutner is a 2002 college graduate, while Helland was in high school back when White was running the recorder of deeds office.

It almost brings to my mind the old Ronald Reagan debate wisecrack, the one where he said of presidential opponent Walter Mondale, “I want you to know that also I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.”

 

REAGAN: Able to beat it down against Mondale

The point being that Reagan already was 73 years old, and wasn’t about to be intimidated out of running for office just because some people would prefer he retire to memories of his days as a B-grade movie actor.

JUST AS SOME people, including Republican Helland, are trying to make age an issue in this election cycle.

They’re claiming that electing White to a sixth term is really nothing more than putting control of picking the secretary of state into the powers-that-be of the Democratic party.

They’re claiming White has every intention of retiring shortly after his re-election – thereby giving the governor the ability to hand-pick a replacement – similar to how Rauner in 2014 picked an Illinois comptroller when Judy Baar Topinka died before she could be sworn into office.

An 'alternate life' version of White … 

Of course, Republicans want to believe that all Democrats are puppets of Michael Madigan, the Illinois House speaker and state Democratic chairman whom they’re trying to demonize.

OR COULD THIS be the admission by Republicans that Bruce Rauner’s re-election dreams are little more than delusions? Which means a “Gov. J.B. Pritzker” will go along with whomever Madigan desires for the post!

Even though the real admission is that Helland is a candidate with no chance of winning secretary of state, and is merely doing service to the GOP by allowing his name to fill the ballot slot.

… if there hadn't been an 'Ernie Banks?'

Because running the Grundy County state’s attorney and a former prosecutor in Kankakee County for the post comes across as falling way short of White’s political service dating back to 1975, and his work with kids, particularly leading the Jesse White Tumblers, that goes back even further.

About the only reason people might find a negative about White is his time as a professional athlete – playing first base for Chicago Cubs minor league affiliates back in the 1960s and futilely trying to beat out Ernie Banks for his major league job. Then again, I don’t think even Chicago White Sox fans would hold that against him.

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Partisan politics run amok at all levels

Trump has one thing in common with Rauner, … 

It may well be my generation’s contribution to the electoral process – we not only tolerate the overly partisan nature that prevents things from occurring, we encourage it.

The notion of people of the opposition political party being demonized because they have the unmitigated gall to think differently. How dare they!?!

PERSONALLY, I ALWAYS have thought the partisan nature of our electoral set-up has the advantage of preventing either “side” from running amok; from being out-of-control.

… feeling the need to demonize an opponent

Literally for letting them behave as though politics is an “all or nothing” game with the loser needing to learn to shut up and take it – as in whatever abuse the political opposition feels like dishing out.

We’re at a point now in this Age of Trump in which our nation’s chief executive is determined to demonize everyone in the majority of society who is embarrassed by his garish behavior.

Take his behavior Thursday, when he responded to the joint effort by dozens of daily newspapers across the country to choose as their editorial subject for the day the notion that the president is literally sitting on his brains every time he goes off on a tangent about news organizations being the “enemy of the people.”

TRUMP USED PHRASES such as “collusion” to take shots at the joint action – which usually is a term that implies some form of criminal conspiracy. As though he thinks federal prosecutors ought to be working on a joint prosecution of all the publishers and editorial writers who did work on putting together a joint statement.

Which basically amounts to saying that the newspapers so often being dumped on by Trump aren’t going to take it being smacked about anymore.

For the governor, it's "Blame Madigan!"

Far from being criminal in intent, it feels more like the schoolyard bully gets his keister kicked in by the very people he has been taunting, then goes about complaining that the people he has been terrorizing have no business thinking about fighting back.

Personally, I’m viewing my own retribution as coming in 2020 – when we as a society have our chance to considering a collective Trump Dump! If we can’t get ourselves organized to pick somebody else (there were 3 million more of us who wanted the concept of “President Hillary,” remember?), then perhaps we deserve what we get.

YET IT’S NOT just at the federal level where such nonsense talk takes place.

Take our very own Illinois, where Gov. Bruce Rauner is trying to turn the political unpopularity he has into some sort of statement about Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago – whose actual “offense” is that he has refused to cooperate with Rauner’s partisan desires to undermine the influence of organized labor within state government.

On Thursday in Springfield as part of the Democrat Day activities at the Illinois State Fair, there was a line of questioning amongst some reporter-types about whether Madigan is a “liability” to Democrats.

The state legislator who is now executive director of the state Democratic Party says this election should not be about “individual personalities.” While Kwame Raoul (the Dem seeking election as Illinois attorney general) merely responded “My name is Kwame Raoul, Next question?”

PERHAPS TRUMP WOULD like the kind of press questioning that presumes his partisan political principles have a basis in truth, just like Rauner got on Thursday. Although I’ve also seen speculation that the “questions” came from political operatives trying to spin the line of rhetoric.

For Trump, it's the content of what is published in all those little boxes

So what should we think? Do we have people openly hostile to the partisan stances of our elected officials?

Or do we have elected officials openly hostile to the concept that not everybody in our society agrees with what they think?

The cliché says that “Everybody has a right to be wrong.” The reality is that a society where everybody agrees would be not only an un-American concept, it would be a downright dull place in which to have to live.

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EXTRA: Aretha at rest; or Give the Lady some R-E-S-P-E-C-T

It was not long ago I felt compelled to write a little ditty concerning the death of Matt "Guitar" Murphy, the blues musician who had a classic moment in the 1980 film "The Blues Brothers" with the Queen of Soul herself, Aretha Franklin.

Now, Aretha herself has departed this realm of existence. Reports of her pancreatic cancer became public earlier this week, and her people say she died early Thursday. She was 76.

I SUPPOSE I could make quips about the reunification in Heaven of Franklin and Murphy -- running a soul food joint on Chicago's Maxwell Street in the hereafter. Perhaps even John Belushi would stop by and try to order his "four fried chickens and a Coke."

Only to get thrown out on his keister by Franklin for being blasphemous.

But the career of Franklin went so much further beyond that film based off the old Saturday Night Live sketches by Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. They also went so much further than the song "R-E-S-P-E-C-T," which is one I fear many people are going to play to death in coming days as they try to do video tributes to Aretha's life.

Personally, a favorite Franklin song of mine is her take on "Chain of Fools" It is one I suspect I'll enjoy hearing until the day I depart this lifespan.

OR THERE'S ALSO this video snippet off television in Nigeria. What's more memorable -- Franklin's take on "You Make Me Feel (like a natural woman)?"

Or seeing then-President Barack Obama tear up at her performance? Who also got to hear her perform when she sang as part of the Inauguration ceremonies when Obama was sworn in as president back in that long-ago day in 2009.

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A Hoosier to speak to Illinois Dems at partisan rally of Illinois State Fair?

My initial reaction to learning of the replacement speaker at the Democratic Party’s annual brunch held in conjunction with Democrat Day was a touch of surprise.

Is Buttigieg really a step down as speaker...

Former Vice President Joe Biden was supposed to do the honors, which had some partisans speculating how this could be the beginning of his own dreams of running for president come 2020. It was stirring up significant response.

BUT THEN BIDEN became ill, and had to cancel. Which led to the mayor of South Bend, Ind., being called upon to do the keynote speaker duties. A Hoosier? In Illinois!

Of course, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg isn’t your standard issue municipal official of absolutely no significance beyond the boundaries of his particular city.

Buttigieg is among the few politicos in this country who is open about his sexual orientation. In fact, his marriage earlier this year to long-time partner Chasten Glezman warranted a write-up in the New York Times – usually an honor reserved for the old money elite; who all-too-often are amongst the Republican ranks.

Albeit the types of Republicans who find themselves repulsed by the vulgar behavior of our current president.

SO PERHAPS BUTTIGIEG is appropo to speak to a rally meant to get Democrats in Illinois all riled up enough to care about voting come the Nov. 6 Election Day and in election cycles of the future.

For Buttigieg, who has been mayor of the city many of us think of merely as the home of the University of Notre Dame (even though the school technically is in the nearby municipality of Notre Dame, Ind.) since 2012, is a name that often gets thrown into the mix of people who may be challenging Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election. Barack Obama himself has included Buttigieg as a part of the "future" of the Democratic Party.

Always with the addition of a sentence saying Buttigieg would be the “first openly-gay U.S. president, if elected.”

… compared to Biden, who may be too old

I’m sure those who attend the Democratic brunch will try to claim they’re partaking in history by witnessing the event. While I’m sure those attending the state fair proper will go out of their way to ignore anything Buttigieg has to say, preferring to focus attention on the Butter Cow.

I COULDN’T HELP but notice one person who bothered to post a link on Facebook to the Buttigieg wedding story as a way of letting people know just what kind of person Democrats were using to speak at their big rally.

Even though the part I find ironic is that we’ll be hearing from a Hoosier; a species of Midwesterners who oft like to think they’re somehow going to get all of Illinois’ assets to move east across State Line Road.

Now, we’re going to be asked to cheer for one of those people, who can’t even seem to agree on an explanation of why they’re called “Hoosiers” to begin with.

But it could make for an interesting Thursday in Springfield, particularly compared with the Governor’s Day activities that occurred at the Illinois State Fairgrounds on Wednesday.

WATCHING GOV. BRUCE Rauner try to appear to be everyman at a time when many of the rank-and-file partisans of the Republican Party are eager to dump his keister (while also trying to figure out a way of keeping Democratic gubernatorial nominee J.B. Pritzker from prevailing) wasn’t anywhere near as amusing as one might think it is.

Buttigieg will offend those who like Age of Trump

Besides, it kind of fit in with a Chicago Tribune story published Wednesday about the Tuesday primaries held in several other states.

Ones in which Vermont Democrats picked a transgender person to run for governor, Minnesota Dems chose a woman who is of Somali ethnic origins to run for Congress, while Connecticut nominated a black woman to go to D.C. on their behalf. Diversity all dominant.

Compared to Republicans, who managed to nominate several people fully in line with Donald Trump, including in Minnesota, where Tim Pawlenty’s desire for a political comeback failed – and he’s now the man who once dreamed of being President of the United States, only to become yet another casualty of the Age of Trump.

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