PEORIA, IL -- Here's a fascinating comment from Doug Day, former theater professor who is interested in politics. I agree with him.
There has been, and will continue to be, advocacy for re-drawing legislative districts in Illinois to end gerrymandering.
Indeed Republican State representative Ryan Spain has dutifully carried the plan, handed to him by a Chicago cabal of libertarian backers, to Springfield for consideration. Unlike the recent popular and successful grassroots movement to redistrict in Michigan, this one for Illinois has the secretive background we have come to expect from Illinois Republicans.
I expect we will hear more about the need to remove elected legislators from map drawing to be replaced by an un-elected commission or computer program soon after the opening of the general assembly in January. I do not doubt the same dark money people and organizations (Koch funded, Illinois Policy Institute as example) will run negative ads on television as we just endured against Thomas Kilbride, State Senator Dave Koehler or the fair tax constitutional amendment and of which they were successful in two of the three contests.
We have seen that a well funded campaign of lies and deceit can change an outcome and should expect more in the future. The ads will be to inflame the right by claiming corruption and will focus on Mike Madigan as the root of all evil in Illinois, and will be used to pressure Democratic office holders to support their plan.
Although the 17th Congressional district is a marvel of gerrymandering, it has provided the Democrats living in the district with representation in Washington D.C. which they would certainly lose under the dark money Republican plan.
Before we get all dewey-eyed over “good government” or “fairness” or “reaching across the aisle” let’s recall some of the recent Republican Party outrages and power plays which should serve as a cautionary warning for allowing them any more power in Illinois; a state that has overwhelmingly voted blue for many election cycles.
Let’s start with the one recent anomaly, the election of Bruce Rauner as Governor. His election was a backlash to the corruption of Rod Blagojvich who was forced from office by the Democratic controlled legislature, convicted and imprisioned but later pardoned by Republican Trump thereby giving a middle finger to the people of the state and making a mockery of justice.
Rauner, sometimes known as “Ruiner”, proceeded to not sign a budget for several years calling for draconian cuts to social programs, education and constitutionally mandated pension obligations and weakening the State’s bond rating which drove up borrowing costs (interest rates) which cost taxpayers more in interest and which his libertarian billionaire pals profited from by buying the bonds and his Republican legislative munchkins held ranks to thwart a veto to overrule.
His other great achievement was the Janus v. AFSCME lawsuit to weaken unions. He and his billionaire pals paid for the legal fees run through a libertarian front group. Within weeks following their success in the Republican controlled U.S. Supreme Court to weaken unions; their front man, Mr. Janus quit his union job and was rewarded by a cushy job with the same dark money group that paid the legal bills and supplied the in-house attorneys. So much for good government and Republican rule.
But it doesn’t end there. How about the current attempt to overturn the recent election? Have you heard any Illinois Republican office holders breaking from Trump? Have you heard any condemnation of the incompetent handling of COVID-19? Or the manipulation or interference with the Census? Or the incompetent division of families and caging of children so that they cannot find where the children’s families reside? Or the hundreds of thousands of citizens removed from the voting roles in Georgia, Texas, Ohio and other states to suppress the vote? Or filing court cases to prohibit vote by mail, early voting or student voting and then in Texas providing only one drop box for half a million citizen’s vote in Houston? Or attempts to limit the postal service by limiting hours and removing sorting machines?
Have you heard any Republican pushback to Mitch McConnell ramming through federal judges, denying Obama’s Supreme Court justice even a hearing? Or with the exception of Mitt Romney anyone wishing to hear testimony during the Impeachment trial? Or sending the Senate home without passing a COVID-19 relief bill for the long suffering American people and which has been sitting on his desk since May?
Or Lindsey Graham’s notorious phone call to Georgia asking for thousands of votes to be thrown out? And finally let us not forget the innumerable votes, and now a court case, to overturn Obamacare without ANY plan to replace health insurance for over 20 million citizens. Do any of these examples provide encouragement for further Republican power?
The only thing worse than not having power is having it without the will to exercise it. We have it in Illinois and I say we use it. I say we use it to continue policies of social advancement and progressivism.
I am reminded of France and Great Britain in the years following World War 1. They had the power through the Treaty of Versailles and other lesser treaties and agreements to keep Germany from rebuilding her military, but they were tired and weakened by war and gave in to incessant grumbling , whining and complaining that the Germans were not being treated fairly, that they had a right to self defense and that reparations were too onerous all the while secretly building up their military, drawing plans for military engagement and using all matter of homegrown resentments to strengthen their position.
France and Great Britain gave in to these complaints and unilaterally disarmed so that by 1936 Germany had reached military parity and perhaps dominance in some areas such as her Air Force. France and Great Britain had power but not the resolve to use and we all know the result.
Let’s look at Wisconsin which has been burdened by Republican gerrymandering for a decade. The state voted for Biden and has elected a Democrat as Governor, but the Republicans have a gerrymandered lock on the legislature and have refused to cooperate with the governor and indeed have laid mines to blow up his administration in several different ways. This seems to be the current strategy among Republicans regarding Biden. Republican Wisconsinites are currently obstructing the recount by challenging every vote in the recount.
How about Michigan where Republicans lost the governorship but held the legislature and have tried to overthrow the election results, kidnap and kill the governor and burn down the Capitol building.
The same use of gerrymandering is in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas, Ohio and more. Do we hear any calls from Republicans in these states for good government or fairness?
Illinois has joined a number of states pledging to assign electoral college votes to the winner of the national popular vote. Presently this gambit is short by about 100 votes of being able to, without a constitutional amendment, neutralize the outdated electoral college. Republicans would block this at every opportunity because their policies and behaviors are so odious to a majority of American voters that retention is their only path to the White House.
If Republicans are handed the chance in Illinois they will pull out of this multi-state agreement.
For all the above reasons and more not mentioned, I say keep Republicans in Illinois out of power. I do not support their pleas to unilaterally disarm. Keep control of the legislative map making in the hands of elected office holders. We have power, let us maintain the will to use it.
-- Doug Day