Worse Than Chicago

I've been writing and thinking about Chicago politics for so long that just about everything I see in politics reminds me of something I've already seen in Chicago.

But sometimes Chicago fools me. Sometimes I'll see something in Chicago and think--that's the way it goes everywhere. Only to realize, no, it's an only in Chicago thing.

For example--my Helen Shiller theory.

This theory states that Chicago voters will remain loyal to an alder who stays loyal to them, even if that alder has run afoul of a powerful mayor.

It's named for Helen Shiller, an independent-minded alderwoman from the Uptown based 46th ward who for ten or so years defied Mayor Daley on issue after issue in the city council.

Winning accolades from me and enmity from Daley. Come election time, Daley dispatched his goons from Bridgeport and Beverly to Uptown to intimidate voters into voting for whichever bum of the season, as Joe Louis might put it, he had selected to run against Helen.

Including, at one point, a neophyte named Mike Quigley--now a congressman.

Helen beat them all, including Quigley, like Joe Louis battered Max Schmeling--in their second fight. Let's not talk about that first fight.

Point is, many Chicagoans appreciated a little gutsy independence in their politicians, even if they, the voters, didn’t display much guts or independence when they voted for mayor.

Helen Shiller--back in the day...

So they voted for Daley year after year, sending out the message that they will always vote for Daley no matter what he did.

So other better-known electeds? Don’t even think about running against him, cause what’s the point?

And the corporate elite—lawyers, investment bankers, hedge-fund pirates, developers, etc? Keep writing those checks. You’ll get yours every now and then.

And mainstream editorial writers? Keep cranking out the propaganda. And everyone will pretend you’re real journalists and you’ll make enough money to buy a house in the suburbs. 

And they all did their part to immunize Daley from any resistance, already feeble, to his rule. 

And that immunization extended to resistance from prosecutors and judges. Who to one degree or another owed their jobs to Daley so they knew enough to stay on his good terms. Leaving Daley free to do as he pleased. 

Think America under Trump—that was Chicago under Daley. If anything, Trump is taking the Daley model to a national level. Substitute, say, Cook County state’s attorney prosecutors for the Department of Justice lawyers and you get the idea.

And those Shiller voters in Uptown? Ultimately, they were mounting a mostly symbolic resistance. They knew they could not stop the graft and waste and malfeasance of Daley’s Chicago by voting for Shiller—it was just their way of telling the world they were not mindless rubber stampers. 

I thought this need to occasionally express an atom of independence was a universal dynamic. But, man MAGA proved me wrong. 

As we've seen in one MAGA district after another with MAGAites ousting incumbents whose only crime, which is no crime at all, was to occasionally stray from Trump’s command.

In some cases, we’re talking long-time incumbents up against rookies no one had heard of.  It happened to state legislators in Indiana, Senator Bill Cassidy in Louisiana, Congressman Thomas Massie in Kentucky and Senator John Cronyn in Texas.

In each instance, Trump told MAGA who to vote for and MAGA did as told. Little rubber stampers. As pathetic as any Tribune editorialist or Machine hack. 

Their subservience frees Trump to do things like his IRS deal.

That’s the one where he sued the IRS for not more vigilantly protecting his tax returns from bring leaked.

Then “settled” that suit by “negotiating” a deal with his appointees at the Justice Department in which he agreed to drop his suit and in exchange the IRS agreed to end any and all audits against Trump and his family.

Thus savings the Trumps over a $100 million in taxes.

It’s so audacious I’m sorta impressed. Even Daley never tried a scam so outrageous. 

And MAGA, you rubber stamped it every step of the way—not anyone remotely resembling an Uptown independent anywhere in your bunch. 

Pathetic…