The Corruption of Chicago
The recent election of an under-experienced, media and racially-hype-driven car salesman for President, followed by the cries for impeachment of the sitting Illinois Governor for trying to sell said President Elect’s Senate seat, has caused me to focus, briefly, on the city of Chicago. And of course, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright comes to mind as well, but he’s not really part of the story anymore.
The attempt of Rod Blagojevich’s unsavory attempt to auction off the seat of Obama has indeed caused many to raise an eyebrow, even if just out of mild discomfort, as the action rattles the image of many that Obama is the pure ‘second coming’ in the flesh. Many think Obama is some kind of perfect answer to their frustrations with Washington, or even with politicians in general. Even a hint of association with Blagojevich puts at a minimum a speck of a blemish on that perfect image.
While the association with Blago and the Senate Seat auction probably will come to nothing with regards to Obama, the question kept nagging me: “Why is Chicago so corrupt?”
And then, I thought, “mayyyyyybe there is some underlying indicator… something which might lie beneath the surface that gives us some insight into why Chicago has the reputation as the most corrupt city in the country, especially when one considers politics.”
Digging up the Capone’s
Let’s take a look at Illinois governmental bodies, from the top, all the way down to Chicago’s City level. Let’s do a comparison of Democrat vs. Republican seats.
State Senate
Democrats: 37 Republicans: 22
Nothing odd there. A little out of whack, but nothing jumps out at me.
State House
Democrats: 67 Republicans: 51
Hmmm. Ok. Looks a little like the rest of what has happened to the Republicans. Lagging behind, but nothing too out of the ordinary.
County Board, Cook County
Democrats: 12 Republicans: 5
Ouch. Looks like the Board of Chicago’s home County is a little tipped to one side. Hmmm…
Chicago City Council
50 members. 50 Democrats.
Huh? What? Not a single Republican in the most corrupt political city in the U.S.?
Do the Math?
What can one conclude from this? I don’t think it takes a genius to see the apparent problem. Chicago is run by corrupt people. All of them, Democrats.
Blagojevich rose to his power through Chicago. He previously represented Chicago in the U.S. Congress.
The presiding officer of the Chicago City Council is the Mayor, Mayor Richard M. Daley, Democrat. He is the son of Richard J. Daley, the notoriously corrupt former Mayor of Chicago who ruled it like a mob boss.
Democrats have dominated the office of Mayor in modern Chicago history; the last Republican mayor was William Hale Thompson who left office in 1931.
The Cook County board has far more Democrat members (by proportion) than any other County in Illinois. It is one of the most heavily Democrat leaning Counties in the United States.
Chicago is the largest city in America not to term limit its Mayor.
And, Chicago is the place where Barack Obama was born and raised, politically.
Nice…
[...] — much more on the Corruption angle over at Conservative Oasis, who takes a look at who’s running the state of Illinois down to the city of Chicago: [...]
Rod Blagojevich’s Father-In-Law is Alderman Dick Mel, the most powerful member of the Chicago City Council.
Rod got elected with the help of his Father-In-Law then they fell out with each other. Several years ago, they stopped talking to each other when the Father-In-Law found out some of Blagojevich’s methods.
It seems that Blagojevich is corrupt even for Chicago Standards
CORRUPTION,CONSPIRACY AND MURDER ,,,,,,, THE WRONG MAN
THE SCHAUMBURG ILLINOIS POLICE DEPT. IS DIRTY. THE SCHAUMBURG POLICE AND MANY HIGH LEVEL PEOPLE ALL THE WAY TO FORMER S.A. MAYOR DALEY ARE INVOLVED IN AN INCREDIBLE ONGOING CRIMINAL COVERUP AND CONSPIRACY ,,,, THE BLATANT DISREGUARD, FALSE ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT OF ME,LYING TO A GRAND JURY, MALICIOUS PROSECUTION, ARMED KIDNAPPING, DEVIATE SEXUAL ASSAULT, RAPE AND MURDER OF YOUNG SUBURBAN GIRLS, PROBABLY SINCE THE 1960,S.
Great stuff Anna…
Couple of quick responses, as I am kinda pressed to get a big project done…
Your first paragraph states something I do tend to agree with, in general, and that is that large cities sometimes tend to have moderate, centrist governing mayors. However, I think this is more a reflection of the PEOPLE of those cities, than it is a reflection that large bodies of people simply tend to gravitate towards a watered down style of governing. This topic could take hours and paragraphs to impart all of the nuances I am implying, but I think I will just leave it for now…
When researching the Chicago story, I contacted several County and City governing bodies. I was amazed how many of them in Lake County tried not to answer the simple question of “which party do you belong to?” I even got some cryptic responses like “tell me your name, and I will tell you…”
I found this creepy. I had several republicans tell me that they really were not republicans or very conservative, but ran as republicans…
As for the observation that the governance of the country is flipping or has flipped from by the people for the people to “to the highest bidder and media whore/favorite”, I think this has been happening for a loooooooong time. Our tech heavy media now driven society is both helping solve that problem, while at the same time, driving it as well.
The bottom line is, people don’t care, don’t get involved, are often uninformed, and therefore, vote like idiots on single issues or rumors or hype driven mantras, slogans, and soundbites…
I’m gonna check out your site. You write well, and think pretty dang well too…
Yes, Bloomberg is most definitely not a staunch conservative. That is because big city Mayors do not have the luxury of being ideologues just as Presidents do not have that capability. The same is true of Mayor Daley. While a Democrat, he is basically apolitical. He doesn’t have a “political bent,” he has power. Whatever personal feelings he may harbor on the issues, he will do whatever is necessary to stay in power and that includes appeasing both sides. For instance, he has gotten a lot of heat from Chicago and Illinois progressives for being extremely pro-business, traditionally the domain of Republican politician. Not so in big cities and most certainly not so in Chicago.
If you want to talk about what the problem is REALLY driven by, it isn’t Democrats. Democrats and Republicans, in Illinois at least, are often indistinguishable. There was recently a “Republican” State Representative in Illinois who flipped to the Democrat side, because you know, it’s more fun to be in the majority. The local conservative base in the area was furious and ran a very strong conservative female opponent. She got 47% of the vote. The problem we have here in Illinois is the same problem that I’m sure exists in other states and, of course, at the federal level.
The problem is that we have reached a point where government is VERY far removed from the electorate that supposedly puts them in power. Elected officials of both parties are often interested in political office for all the wrong reasons. Government is supposed to work FOR people, but we now have a situation in which WE the people work for government. We pay increasingly higher taxes and fees of all kinds in order to sustain bloated city, county, state and federal governments.
However, the electorate is in large part complicit in all this. By being largely ignorant of public policy and knowing next to nothing about the men and women seeking elected office, American voters have sold out their votes en masse. It used to be that people discussed who they would vote for based on a candidate’s ideas, their stances on issues, etc. Now they debate how the candidate’s hair looks. It used to be that most people read a newspaper, watched some sort of news and talked about the things they read with their friends, neighbors and coworkers. Now they watch sports, reality shows and CSI and talk to their friends and neighbors about what Britney Spears is doing.
I know this doesn’t describe every American voter. But it describes enough of them to realize that the problem isn’t with Democrats or Republicans. The problem is with our entire political system.
I agree, but wish to differentiate.
1. Bloomberg is hardly a staunch conservative. I care less about the R and the D people wear than I do about their political bent.
2. Chicago’s machine is currently Democratic, 100%. So it is relevant for now to talk of the problem as being potentially Democrat driven. I have no problem calling out the GOP labeled politicians in Chicago when they are in charge- which, by the way, will likely be when hell freezes over.
Good points, though. All worth watching as time goes on.
Thanks for coming and participating—
And Happy New Year!
Thanks for becoming a recent follower of mine on Twitter @DailyDaley and, I think, @AnnaTarkov. I think your views of Chicago politics are a bit simplistic though. Some Republicans have been prominently complicit in the corruption. Blago’s predecessor at Governor, George Ryan, is currently in prison. Many speak of the Chicago Machine, but John Kass (amazing Tribune columnist) wisely refers to the Combine. Meaning, both Democrats and Republicans have been known to do politics “the Chicago Way.” It happens to be a Democratic machine we have in Chicago. But it could just as easily be a Republican one. In fact, Mayor Michael Bloomberg in NYC is a Republican and he has recently extended his term limit. Who’s to say he won’t be another candidate for Mayor for Life the way Daley is? It’s important to realize that Chicago corruption, while unique in some ways, is not unheard of in other cities or counties in the United States.