“If government were a product, selling it would be illegal.” (PJ O’Rourke)
I am a crotchety contrarian stark realist curmudgeon who finds tragedy in the truth and comedy in lies. I live in Chicago- a city of tragic comedy and humorous deadly lies. My problem is Chicago logic. All politicians are liars. All liars are not politicians. Politicians give liars a bad rap. Need proof? Chicago elections are supposed to be non-partisan- no party affiliation. Yet, Chicago politicians claim affiliation with Democratic Party. They are not non-partisan. They are liars. They pledge allegiance to their party platforms like brain dead Scientologists.
Politicians are very good at getting people to believe their lies. They are aided and abetted by the friendly local news media, who provide free public relations, hyping the lies. How else can they get elected and, worse, re-elected? Most of the voters are gullible or ignorant. They believe everything the politicians and news media tell them. They love Kool-Aid.
There is no such thing as an honest politician in Chicago. Naive uninformed voters are abundant.
As the ditty says- “Bulls**t, it makes the grass grow green. Horses**t, it does the same damn thing. Bulls**t or is it Horses**t or is it Bulls**t and Horses**t combined?”
I only care about local politics and policy. I live here. What happens here directly affects me. I keep up on national and international issues. Most do not directly impact me or my quality of life. For example, I really do not care about Ukraine’s problems with Russia. When Russia park their army and tanks on the border of Chicago, I will worry.
From where I sit in my bunker, Chicago is going to hell in a handbasket. Our mayor is more concerned with the Museum Campus, keeping the McCaskey Bears in Chicago, getting a casino in the city, and other sundry issues than she is about public safety.
We have a new familiar slogan too. Violent crime used to be blamed on guns, gangs, and drugs. Over and over during the Daley, Emanuel, and Lightfoot administrations, we heard guns, gangs, and drugs. Now, the slogan is guns, drugs, and poverty. And the pliant news media picks it up without questioning and drives the mayor’s narrative. The gullible, naïve voters believe it.
Guns are inanimate objects. So are drugs. Poverty is a condition. Committing crimes is a choice, a human choice. People are responsible for their choices. In Chicago, criminals are not held accountable for their crimes.
The causes of violent crime are humans. Humans using guns, humans in gangs, humans in the drug trade. Humans who have no humanity. Evil humans who have no regard for life. All these humans are not impoverished. They are just evil. They choose evil over good.
Governance and politics imply a submission to reality. In Chicago, crime-fighting devolved to submission to the unrealistic. Our politicians’ objective- criminal justice reform- failed miserably.
There are only two legal justice systems in this country, criminal and civil. Social justice, economic justice, environmental justice, and the rest are theoretical, academic, and political exercises in fantasy. They are also lucrative business plans for attorneys and activist organizations.
All these experts, activists, and elected officials (We can question if they are human) are supposedly intelligent, educated people. What if all these “brilliant” people are wrong? It is something to ponder since their reforms fail to keep us safe.
Crime is part of the human condition. The best we can do is control it- hence the term crime control. We no longer control crime in Chicago. Thanks to our elected officials and their failing policies, crime controls us- the new crime control.
What is it going to take for our elected officials to admit they made mistakes instead of doubling and tripling down on their ridiculous philosophies and beliefs about fake justice systems? They tout these philosophies and ideas with the zeal of evangelical preachers. They are backed by a choir of academic experts with no expertise except smoking green substances in their ivory towers.
PJ O’Rourke was right. “If government were a product, selling it would be illegal.” Government in Chicago should be banned as an illegal substance.