1 week Ago By The Editorial Board
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker played the role of designated attack dog within the failed Kamala Harris presidential campaign and he played it with rhetorical flourish. At the Democratic National Convention, where (unlike most others) he used almost his entire speech to criticize Trump, Pritzker called Trump “weird,” “dangerous” and said he was “rich in only one thing: stupidity.
” “He’s a racist, sexist, misogynistic narcissist who wants to use the levers of power to enrich himself and punish anyone who dares speak a word against him,” Pritzker said of Trump on June 9, while President Joe Biden still was the presumptive Democratic nominee. And that’s among the more polite things the Illinois governor said about the man the nation just elected for a second term as president. He also has described him as “a convicted felon, an adjudicated rapist and a congenital liar.
” Trump, of course, has responded in kind. To wit, also in June, on Truth Social: “Sloppy JB Pritzker, the Rotund Governor from the once great State of Illinois, who makes Chris Christie look like a male model, and whose family wanted him out of the business because he was so pathetic at helping them run it, has presided over the destruction and disintegration of Illinois,” Trump wrote. Now an inconvenient truth.
Trump is to be the next president of the United States with a mandate from the American people and more likely than not sufficient majorities to push through whatever he wishes to enact. Many of those policies will have profound impacts on the people of Illinois. Now another inconvenient truth.
Trump did very well this past election in Illinois. When all is buttoned up, Harris will almost certainly have beaten Trump in the Land of Lincoln by less than 9 points. In 2020, by contrast, Biden won Illinois with 58% of the vote to Trump’s 41%, a 17-point margin.
In 2016, Hillary Clinton won Illinois with 56% to Trump’s 39%, also roughly a 17-point margin. Illinois remains a reliably blue state, but with a margin now only in the single digits . Trump sliced away nearly half of the prior Democratic presidential candidate’s advantage even though we, like many others, stated many times that his personal behavior and convictions meant that he was no longer qualified to be president.
Remarkable indeed. Even in Chicago where Republicans seem as scarce as a free parking space, Trump scored close to a quarter of the vote for president. Those are painful, and inexplicable, numbers for many Chicagoans, we know.
We are amazed ourselves. But they are a reality. And Illinois now faces at least four years with its state and national leaders who have a colorful mutual history of nasty insults.
And that could well turn out to be a big problem for its 12 million residents at least between now and January 2029. Just campaign rhetoric, you might argue, all forgotten after the heat of battle. Indeed, mindful of their need to model the decorous transfer of power in a democracy, most national Democrats, including Harris herself, immediately dialed down the rhetoric.
Harris gave a gracious and empathetic concession speech Wednesday. Bill and Hillary Clinton issued a statement that said of Trump and his vice president-elect: “We wish them well and hope they will govern for all of us.” Joe Biden, his legacy at its worst ebb within a formidably long political career, said Thursday he had called Trump to congratulate him.
To his credit, Pritzker did say after the election that he would put the people of Illinois first and work with the new administration (he has no choice after all), but he also positioned Illinois as a kind of sanctuary (an “ally” in his parlance) against the very Trumpism that close to half of the residents of Illinois just voted into office . We note again, this now is a single-digit state, not a unified vanguard against a revolution. Not unless Democrats reverse the trend lines.
And on Thursday, Pritzker adopted some strong-arm rhetoric that seemed like an acknowledgement of Trump’s proven appeal to his base, which is a protector against assaults from within and without. “You come for my people,” Pritzker said, presumably referencing Illinoisans, “you come through me.” Granted, the election was just Tuesday and feelings are raw all over, including at the governor’s mansion, and understandably so.
But we’re not convinced that’s the way to deal with our famously vindictive new president. There is time for a 2028 presidential campaign. And the governor might want to remember that not only will Trump soon control the White House but Republicans will control the U.
S. Senate and (odds are) the House of Representatives. Potentially a lot of legislators with the power to punish Illinois will be “coming through” Pritzker, not that we have any general agreement as to what “come for my people” actually means.
It will be subject to partisan interpretation. Like everything in this country. We would never ask anyone to deny their political allegiances or abandon their core principles or even their future political ambitions.
We admire Pritzker’s strengths in all those regards. But we respectfully suggest someone else take up the rhetorical cudgel. There is no benefit to Illinois for a good while.
We have things to say to the newly elected president of the United States too. We offer our congratulations and remind him that he is to be president of all Americans, including millions in the “failing state of Illinois” who offered him their support. So there’s no call for us to be a punchline or on some permanent naughty list.
Even in Chicago, which has proved a convenient and ill-thought punching bag for Trump ever since former Barack Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel became its mayor, Trump found unprecedented levels of support. Another reason why that nonsense needs to stop. Most importantly, Trump has done significant prior damage to Chicago’s global reputation, and thus its economic vitality, just by opening his mouth and while he is of course free to reasonably criticize what goes on here and make impactful policy decisions, we’ve had it with the gratuitous shots and the cheap narratives.
Chicago is the leading economic engine of the American heartland. Any economic success for which Trump might hope will run through here. We expect and demand every duly elected president to help build the Illinois economy and support the well-being of its people, regardless of their votes last Tuesday.
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