“Political honesty” is a decidedly oxymoronic notion right up there along with “military intelligence,” “conservative ideals,” “deficit spending,” “white supremacy,” “bureaucratic efficiency,” “civil debate,” and “responsible government.” But despite the obvious irony, we just received a remarkable dose of the truth right out of that pretentious proposition known as the Chicago city council.
That last time I can recall an elected official laying it on the line this savagely was President Jimmy Carter’s infamous 1979 “malaise speech.” And he paid for that honesty by losing to Ronald Reagan, one of the worst presidents in modern history. I suppose if you live long enough anything can happen – and some strange things might even happen twice.
In a lengthy interview on The Ben Joravsky Show podcast, Chicago 20th Ward alderman, Jeannette Taylor, a key member of the city council’s progressive caucus, had the kind of massive cojones to make these abundantly accurate assertions:
We should not be on the fifth floor (city hall), and I’m speaking my whole heart. We were not ready, because we haven’t been in government long enough to know how government really runs.
I’m gonna pause to give you some time to take that one in… The councilman continued:
I felt like we not ready and it’s showing out in the wash. I don’t got to say it, people see it. We’re pretending like now we got the power, let us show you how it’s supposed to be done. And we look real stupid right now.
Yes you do! She continued:
The thing that’s different about the (progressive) movement than it is with white supremacy is that we’re supposed to have sympathy and empathy for each other, to listen to each other. I think the mayor needs to think about all the people that helped him get to the space, and use us as his sounding board.
What? You mean collaboration and compromise is required to make municipal government work? If elected officials suddenly start following Jeannette’s lead it’s going to put opinion columnists out of business.
I’ve been saying that progressives, NOT LIBERALS, are neither ready nor equipped to govern for years. But it’s another thing entirely for one of their card-carrying members to admit it to a national audience. That act bestows a wonderful new meaning on the term “chutzpah.”
I certainly hope Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson is paying attention.
The reason progressives aren’t ready to ascend to that halcyon fifth floor level is they’ve never previously had any skin in the game. Their entire “platform” is based upon the self-serving premise that bomb throwing to take down “The Man” is the only worthwhile effort. So when they are thrust into the role of “The Man,” they have absolutely no clue about how to get anything done.
With very rare exception, progressive politicians have never run a successful business, they’ve never managed a staff, and they’ve never held a private sector job. They don’t understand the words “cooperation” or “compromise,” because their entire dynamic consists of attacking the status quo. So when they become the status quo, as alderman Taylor so abruptly noted, they’re at a complete loss on how to proceed.
And all the Chicago institutions and business they so regularly demeaned and attacked during their campaigns – the very entities who’s collaboration and support is vital to a successful city government – are more than happy to simply sit back and watch them fail to the point where, between obscene taxes and rampant crime, Chiraq is becoming uninhabitable.
It’s no different out here in Collar County Land, either. We’ve been discussing the predominant Elgin city council Gang of Four (Steffen, Powell, Dixon, and Rauschenberger) for years. And I will continue to dare you to name just one of their accomplishments – aside from not wearing masks at a major fundraiser during the heart of the pandemic.
The Elgin Community Task Force on Policing? That was an unmitigated disaster of epic proportion that only made matters much worse. Diversity initiatives? The City has to regularly fire those consultants for their bizarre social media proclamations and they only make white folks dig in further. Police use of force studies that blatantly skew the statistics? That was quite the embarrassment for the Gang. The failure to deal with the chronically homeless to the point where downtown business give up? That’s just another one of their greatest hits.
All that progressive group has done is create division and resentment, just like their Chicago counterparts.
We’ve recently discussed how the Geneva and Batavia city councils are equally as complicit. Both progressive groups are presiding over deteriorating municipalities, neither body can keep the power on, and they never met a tax hike or fee increase they didn’t like.
Again, other than plastic bag taxes, I dare you to name one of their accomplishments. And they don’t begin to own up to their shortcomings like my new semi-favorite politician just did, either.
Sadly, my newfound admiration for Ms. Taylor lasted just about as long as her proposed solution, which was that Chicago progressives should’ve focused on installing a veto proof council majority so they could carry out their progressive policies unimpeded.
As insightful and bold as she can be, Taylor’s completely missed the point that those progressive policies have turned cities like Minneapolis, Detroit, and San Francisco into the kind of nightmarish propositions that might actually make people want to live in Chicago.
But that’s a column for another day. For now, let’s just bask in the afterglow of a progressive politician who had the temerity to recognize and tell the truth. Though I’m seriously starting to wonder if this could be one of the seven signs of the apocalypse. Ah well, I suppose I’m good either way.
