Political Arena

The job of a legislator in modern day America isn’t what it used to be. Today it’s tougher. Winning public support for the right policies now requires a lot more effort and there are a lot more forces working against those good policies.

What hasn’t changed since the nation’s founding is that it’s still all about public opinion.

Right after the 2002 election I asked an old political veteran of the 1976 Reagan campaign what his opinion was about the prospects for Republicans in Illinois going forward. He said get ready for at least ten years in the wilderness. At the time that seemed too pessimistic, now it looks right on target.

The 1958 Spencer Tracy film “The Last Hurrah” is about “an old Irish-American political boss, running for reelection as a mayor of a U.S. town for the last time,” an”outstanding look at old time politics as it begins to give way to the era of mass media.”

Half a century later we’ve entered yet another new era, so it’s time for a remake. The new version of the movie could involve a member of Congress, or for that matter a state legislator, who is coming to grips with the fact that the times have passed them by and their approach to their job hasn’t kept pace.

While Chicago Cubs and White Sox fans are fastening their seat belts for an exciting ride through October, spectators of the greatest game of American politics have a momentous month ahead as well.

Just as a good coach can make the difference in baseball, the quality of staff in politics can make or break a campaign. Both John McCain andSarah Palin are going to be sprinting from here to the finish and the quality of much of what we hear from them until November 4th will depend upon who has their ear.

Political pundits talk of the 50-50 red-blue divide in America as if it’s the result of both sides clearly articulating their positions and only succeeding in convincing half of the population to vote their way. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Democrats like Barack Obama work overtime to find words to hide their real agenda. An Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) editorial we linked addresses this fact head on. Rather than frighten moderates by speaking to the true nature of their agenda, Obama and the Democrats speak in code and use euphemisms. The IBD says that “Obama is too smart to try to smuggle such hoary collectivist garbage through the front door.”

What Barack Obama and the Democrats have to offer can’t be made to work. It’s pretty easy to summarize a few examples of what we now have with big government – especially at the state…

John McCain trails Barack Obama in the national polls on this last Sunday in September and in Illinois, as Doug Ibendahl explained here, it’s not even close. McCain might still win the election but in Illinois it’s already over. The reason for this is what we’ve been saying on this website for years: a lack of effective Republican leadership.

Unfortunately the sad story of the IL GOP has somehow been mirrored nationally. President George W. Bush and Speaker Dennis Hastert chose not to work for domestic policy reforms (such as we outlined here) and instead increased the size of government as if they were liberal Democrats.

It is my view—and the view of smart people I respect—that Sarah Palin is the kind of person that the Republican Party has needed for a long time. It’s not just that she’s intelligent,…

Wise political leaders throughout American history have understood that public opinion is king. In the past several decades, however, shrill organized interest groups and a left-leaning press have made it a challenge for supporters…

“Change” is the catch word in today’s politics, and now “reform” has been added as its companion. To bring about both, real power is required. Why state the obvious? Because good people entering the…

A lot of political activists are confused about where the ultimate power lies in Illinois politics and government. Many who run political or issue organizations think they have power – but to paraphrase Shakespeare’s…