For the past few days, I’ve been barraged with calls and e-mails from friends of the progressive persuasion, extolling the virtues of Lori Lightfoot or Toni Preckwinkle.
Look, I understand we’ve entered the frenzied final moments of a campaign, where folks are losing their collective minds with the urge to glorify the home team and demonize the opposition. And I know that if you can’t convince the voters of your candidate’s virtues, the next best thing is to scare them with a distorted caricature of your opponent. And I also know that a lot of progressives feel compelled to make good on the endorsement gamble they probably should have thought twice about making in the first place.
I’m not saying there’s anything intrinsically wrong with either type. Hell, I’ve voted for candidates similar to Lori and Toni many times over the years. It’s a big world out there, people. Not everyone’s like me.
Mental health clinic closings? Nope. Teachers’ strike? Nada. School closings? Unh-uh. Marriott/DePaul basketball arena in the south loop? Don’t make me laugh. Demanding that Rahm release the Laquan McDonald video? Yeah, right.
There’s no strong indication that either candidate will break from the Rahm/Daley positions of using property taxes to fuel gentrification and starve our city of the money it needs for everything from mental health clinics to schools.
