On Tuesday night, I followed the Illinois primary results to keep up with the liberal challenge to pro-life Democrat Dan Lipinski. It was too close for comfort, as they say, but Mr. Lipinski pulled out a 2-point win with 97% of the vote counted. He defeated Marie Newman, a progressive, as they like to call these candidates.
By 10 P.M., I found myself caught up in the governor’s race. On one hand, incumbent Governor Bruce Rauner, who has been a major disappointment, according to my friends in Illinois. They tell me that he cracked and gave in to the legislature. It’s probably more complicated than that, but this is not the governor that most of them voted for.
On the Democratic side, I went to Mr. Pritzker’s website and did not know whether he was running for president or governor. He wants to resist President Trump:
Donald Trump’s legislative agenda threatens to wreak havoc on the lives of Illinois families. Trump is actively working to dismantle health care in the United States, potentially stripping millions of families of their coverage and targeting those who need it most.He is waging war on science in his refusal to acknowledge climate change and his rejection of the policies that will preserve our future. Trump’s attacks on public education, immigrant families, and people of color are tearing communities apart, and undermining the principles that make this country strong. Every day, Trump is exploiting divisions and peddling hate.Illinois will be deeply impacted by this administration’s devastating agenda, and Governor Bruce Rauner is asleep at the wheel. Rauner is silent in the face of Trump’s attacks and refuses to put in place policies that will protect Illinois families…After Bruce Rauner’s failed leadership, there is so much work to do and this my plan to resist Trump as Illinois’ next governor.
What else can we say? The resistance has a new spokesman and he is likely to be the next governor of Illinois.
What does this resistance have to do with the structural problems facing Illinois? The public pension problems? The shootings in Chicago? The loss of population to other states? And lots of other problems that resisting Trump will not fix?
Maybe the future governor can check with the governor of New Jersey. As I recall, he also celebrated his victory by announcing that New Jersey was the new home of the resistance. In fact, New Jersey is now the home of lots of new taxes and the incumbent is not very popular.
My guess is that Pritzker pulled a cynical one on the left. He wrapped the flag of the resistance to generate a good turnout. As soon as he walks into the executive mansion, he will learn that the state finances are a huge mess and that Trump will be the least of his problems.
The Democrats deserve a Pritzker and they will soon be furious with him. Illinois needs a resistance to the blue way, not more mindless attacks on President Trump.
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
