Living in the Chicago area used to be a source of pride for me. It was the "city that works" under "The Boss," Mayor Richard J. Daley. Of course, it "worked" by keeping a lid on racial and ethnic tensions and using the Chicago police as enforcers to keep the peace and maintain the separation of whites from everyone else.
Later, it was still a grand place to visit, relatively safe for people to walk around most of the neighborhoods to sample the various ethnic dishes the city took great pride in.
It was the crack epidemic that started the city's collapse. Then, it was heroin, crystal meth, and finally fentanyl. Chicago has never had the open-air drug markets that plague other cities. But Chicago's central location in the United States made it a natural distribution point for the cartels and other international gangs. This led to turf wars that made Chicago one of the most murderous cities in the U.S.
Then there's been a series of bad city governments. Weak politicians like Rahm Emanuel and incompetents like Lori Lightfoot gave way to the weakest, most incompetent mayor of all: Brandon Johnson.
A bona fide tool of the teachers' union, Johnson has been in over his head since day one, blaming others for his mistakes -- including the powerful governor of the state, J.B . Pritzker. And Republicans looking to counterprogram when the Democratic convention hits town in August have a target-rich environment to choose where to put the bullseye.
Chicago’s ills—from the migrant crisis to pockets of violent crime to shuttered business—threaten to cast a shadow over the August convention in this Democratic-run city. Republicans plan to make sure they do.
The city’s embrace of some liberal policies in recent years has made Chicago, like San Francisco, a target for GOP attacks on progressivism. Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has stoked that sentiment by repeatedly singling out the city for criticism.
Further complicating matters for Democrats, pro-Palestinian activists hope to attract 100,000 demonstrators from around the country to protest President Biden’s handling of the war in Gaza. Chaos in the streets could help Trump reinforce his core message of law and order.
“When a convention comes to a city, the city becomes part of the convention,” said Republican consultant Alex Conant, a White House spokesman during George W. Bush’s second term. “Chicago’s problems will become part of the Democratic convention.”
It really is a "can't-miss." Just a few blocks from the United Center, where the convention's main events will be held, are a couple of migrant shelters that, at the moment, are cesspools.
"Colleen Cella keeps an eye out for human excrement outside the building she manages less than a mile from the United Center arena," begins the Wall Street Journal article on the GOP strategy during the convention.
"'The messes started showing up last fall after hundreds of migrants were moved into a property down the block,' said Cella."
Blacks in the city are angry because the migrants are getting goodies that people who have lived in Chicago all their lives aren't getting. Goodies like free rent, free food, and assistance in getting a job. And Hispanics are no happier given that the newcomers are displacing many established Hispanic neighborhoods.
How can Democrats put lipstick on this pig? Mayor Johnson is going to blame everyone else for the city's problems. Other Democrats will follow Johnson's lead and lie.
Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson, speaking at a recent investor conference in Chicago, blamed his city’s challenges on those who ran it before he took office in May 2023, saying “not one crisis in this city right now” developed on his watch. The mayor’s office declined to make him available for an interview.
Chicago’s boosters point to positive developments such as the much-anticipated transformation of a state office complex downtown into a high-tech space for Google, which property and business owners hope will spur economic activity. The Obama Presidential Center is expected to open on the city’s South Side in 2026, boosting tourism and development in an area that has long struggled.
“When the world looks to Chicago this August, they’ll see a world-class city and a convention that showcases the progress possible under President Biden, and a stark contrast to Trump’s chaos, division, and extremism that will be on display in Milwaukee,” said Emily Soong, a Democratic National Convention spokeswoman, in a written statement.
That will be a damn site better than the Democrats showcasing shuttered shops, excrement on the streets, and protests that may or may not get out of control in the city known for chaotic conventions.
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