Those of us who know that Illinois can be red again have been listening to–since at least the 1990s–excuses for why it is still blue. The excuses and the people using the excuses are tiresome, and they show their limited understanding of the state and of politics itself.
This is the position held by those who say Illinois cannot be won:
- Illinoisans prefer high taxes.
- Illinoisans love overly expensive, under performing schools.
- Illinoisans really love high crime rates.
- Illinoisans like that many companies are leaving the state.
- Illinoisans enjoy having decreased job opportunities.
- Illinoisans would rather have political and governmental corruption. (Hey, it’s what Illinois is known for! It’s something to be proud of!)
- Illinoisans, especially hourly employees who work in low-pay retail businesses, like nothing better than paying for six figure pensions for those who retire from government and government schools in their 50s.
- Illinoisans are perfectly fine with the fact that more and more families are being split up as family members have to move to other states to find better opportunities and lower taxes.
The list goes on.
And yes, that is what the Richard Uihlein money grifters and other similar losers present as reasons why Illinois is a blue state despite their own brilliance.
The only problem with their theory is that Illinois is not Maine or Washington state or California or Vermont or Massachusetts or crazy Minnesota. Look at the electoral map. Illinois is smack dab in the middle of red America, and the majority of its residents, like the majority of people in the middle west, possess mid western common sense.
Yes, Chicago is a big fat corrupt problem, but ever since the days “Reagan Democrats” carried Illinois in 1980, 1984, and 1988, it has been known that if enough people in Chicago get the right information, they will vote right. Unfortunately in Illinois, our side has been a big fat failure when it comes to the information war, not just the ground war.
Some blame the Illinois Republican Party, as if a sparsely populated volunteer organization with a bad reputation can transform itself into an aggressive, highly motivated and effective fighting force. As addressed previously, the key word is volunteer. You cannot beat a highly motivated, organized, and well-paid army of leftists with those who have some time after work to help out a little.
At least you no longer hear as an excuse that Illinois Republicans lose because they do not raise enough money. With men like Richard Uihlein leading the way, the political right in Illinois is raising and spending many tens of millions of dollars every year. What Mr. Uihlein alone contributes is enough to start building what needs to be built.
When other big and medium size donors see less waste and some credible action on the political right, that donor class will expand.
It keeps coming back to the old saw that the Democrat Party is the “evil party,” and the Republican Party is the “stupid party.”
We don’t lose because the left can’t be beaten. We lose because our leaders are full of stupid excuses.
What is needed to begin a reclamation effort in the Prairie State is for an initial group of serious donors to wake the hell up and start listening to people who understand the arena. Here’s a clue about how to find those people: they are not the ones currently raising and spending and wasting tens of millions of dollars every election cycle.
Up next: The debate about which of our current GOP leaders want to win and which don’t.
