I will not speak with disrespect of the Republican Party. I always speak with respect of the past. – Woodrow Wilson
It wasn’t as if the Kane County Republican Party had much of a shot to begin with, but with Agent Orange emerging as the presumptive presidential nominee, now they have no 2024 shot at all. To be more specific, Zero, zilch, zip, nada, nil, naught, jack cheese, goose egg, bupkis, and diddly squat.
I realize the kind of due diligence that demands analyzing voter data has become passe in the Party of Lincoln, but even if we removed all of the local personalities, the second Trump stole the nomination, it was all over but the shouting. How do I know this? Because I have an IQ of greater than 10 and the briefest look at the KC 2020 election results tells the entire story.
A record 172,000 voters cast a ballot in the 2016 election, but after four years of Trump’s juvenile antics, that number was shattered by the 235,000 voters who weighed in on the 2020 festivities. That included 40,000 first-time Kane County voters who, despite the County’s still-Republican propensities, voted primarily against Trump, sending him to an ignominious 14-point defeat.
It wasn’t a good night for the local GOP, either.
With the exception of the recorder, who won by a very narrow margin, Trump’s long “coattails” swept every last countywide Republican out of office. It was a bloodbath of epic proportion, and unless Trump is ruled ineligible to run, this rout will be even worse.
The KC GOP’s only hope was to moderate their rhetoric in an effort to appeal to those inevitable new young voters. But since they can’t be bothered with statistics and facts, they’ve doubled down on the MAGA bullshit, assuring their own self-destruction, instead.
What really frosts my flakes is I repeatedly warned the Party, right here, that the county was turning one- to two- percent more Democratic with every even year election. And if they didn’t start paying attention, their failure to stop the infantile infighting would only accelerate that decline, which is exactly what happened.
With Party chairmen like Chris Lauzen and Ken Shepro co-opting the position for the sole purpose of exacting their personal feuds against each other, predicting this ignominious ending wasn’t rocket science. Neither of those men could lead a second grade sing along, much less manage a countywide organization.
So, now we’re left with KC Republican chairman Andro Lerario, an egotistical blowhard MAGA nutcase, who has no idea how local government really works and he firmly believes whatever he’s been thinking for the last five minutes has got to be the truth.
In his defense, Lerario’s a more than reasonable cheerleader, something the KC GOP has been sorely lacking for quite some time. But ceaselessly bragging about “getting 30 college students” to show up at the newly resurrected Lincoln Dinner doesn’t mean shit if you can’t follow through and get Republicans elected. And Lerario couldn’t win a sixth-grade student council contest on his best day – if he has any best days.
Prevailing at the polls in any balanced district requires crafting a message that resonates with “leaning” voters from the opposite camp. That means, in order to win, Republican candidates must appeal to voters who generally “lean” towards the Democrats, but can be convinced otherwise.
Ah! But since he’s sure he has all of the answers, Lerario’s decided that preaching to the choir is a much better strategy. So, he’s:
- Proceeding with the idiotic notion that the 2020 election was stolen.
- Attacking County clerk Jack Cunningham for winning a $3 million grant to buy desperately needed new voting machines, easing the burden on the taxpayer.
- Organizing protests against Kane becoming a sanctuary county even though Republican governor Bruce Rauner signed that into law back in 2017.
- With very rare exception, recruiting candidates who couldn’t spell the words “successful campaign” if you spotted them 17 letters.
The worst part is, he’s so in love with himself and his position that he’ll gleefully go on the radio and discuss the border nightmare in Texas proudly proclaiming that, “If a voter asks me a question, I’m going to answer it.” Yes! And all of those leaning Democrats, who might otherwise have been persuaded to consider your slate are now completely turned off by another MAGA manifesto that has virtually no bearing on Kane County politics.
That shortsightedness leaves you with your hardcore GOP base which isn’t nearly enough voters to win a countywide contest. November will be such a blowout that neither the incumbent Republican coroner nor the recorder will survive, leaving Kane fully in Democratic hands.
Then, when the Republicans go down in those soon-to-be legendary flames, despite an utter lack of any evidence, Lerario and his nitwit Campton Hills Warriors ilk will start beating their chests and blaming those newfangled voting machines for the lopsided result.
Won’t that be fun!
I’ve used this quote many times before, but it suddenly seems more appropriate than ever. Per the great cartoonist Walt Kelly, “The KC Republicans have met the enemy, and it is them!”
