There are some really, really, unethical, incompetent big city mayors running amuck right now, but it would be hard to argue that any of them are worse than Chicago’s Lori Lightfoot. She easily won the Ethics Alarms 2022 award as “Most Unethical Mayor of the Year.” From that post…
Lightfoot moved slightly ahead on the pack after it was revealed that she asked teachers to try yo dragoon Chicago students into volunteering for her campaign, then lied about it, but this was standard stuff for her. In May, she tried to incite violence against the Supreme Court. She’s classy, too: Lightfoot took the stage at a “Pride” event–she is gay, after all—and declared, “Fuck Clarence Thomas!” But her forte is clearly hypocrisy, denial, and dishonesty, while counting on Chicago blacks, the primary victims of her inept crime policies, to support her anyway. No wonder: this year she suggested that blacks caught on camera speeding or running lights should get a break on extra fines and fees, or pay based on an amount proportionate to their income.
That, however, doesn’t do her justice. Review Lightfoot’s Ethics Alarms rap sheet, and that doesn’t even get into the fact that Chicago has turned into Murder City under Lightfoot. By any measure, she has been a failure. That is why she lost yesterday’s election, becoming the first Chicago Mayor in 40 years to lose a re-election bid.
And to what did Lightfoot attribute her defeat? Oh come on, guess.
“I’m a black woman in America. Of course,” was Lightfoot’s excuse. Lightfoot had laid the foundation for this despicable abdication of responsibility earlier in the campaign, saying in an interview with the New Yorker prior to the election, “I am a black woman — let’s not forget. Certain folks, frankly, don’t support us in leadership roles.”
Well, those certain people aren’t going to be convinced of the error of their ways by leaders like Lightfoot, that’s for sure.
No, Lori, certain people don’t support incompetent leaders in leadership roles just because they are “historic.” Lighfoot was Chicago’s first black, gay female mayor with a same sex spouse. In the current mutation of the Democratic Party, that was supposed to be enough to ensure accolades no matter how bad a mayor she was. “The same forces that didn’t want Harold Washington to succeed, they’re still here,” she told a black audience, referring to the city’s first black mayor, during the campaign.
She’s shameless, dishonest, and despicable…and her race-baiting didn’t work! A grand total of 16% of voters thought that Lighfoot deserved a second term as mayor. That’s just one percentage point more than a 2021 survey concluded was the proportion of Americans who believe that the government and other entities are controlled by Satan-worshipping pedophiles running a child sex trafficking ring.
You know. Morons.
Chicago voters proved that you can’t fool all of the people all of the time just because you’re the “right” color.
Good.
Ethics Alarms 
Yeah, well, who make up that 16% of the vote? Besides morons. Who could look at her track record and conclude, “by gosh! She’s earned another term!”?
jvb
The NPR commentary on her reelection bid was disheartening. The question was asked why she wasn’t more widely supported, and the interviewee said that it was because she faced unprecedented challenges, such as a rising crime and a global pandemic.
Never was it stated that she was unpopular because she handled these “unprecedented challenges” incompetently; rather, it was simply because of these “unprecedented challenges”.
Rich, you are a braver man than I, listening to NPR.
Oddly enough, her being a black female in America didn’t prevent her from being elected in the first place.
True, and being terrible at an elected position should mean defeat in any subsequent election, regardless of genetically-induced skin tone.
“A grand total of 16% of voters thought that Lighfoot deserved a second term as mayor. That’s just one percentage point more than a 2021 survey concluded was the proportion of Americans who believe that the government and other entities are controlled by Satan-worshipping pedophiles running a child sex trafficking ring.”
That’s not as reassuring as you may have intended, Jack. There’s probably no overlap between those two groups, so that means we have, at minimum, 31% of the American people who are utter imbeciles.
Chuck Blow signs in: https://dnyuz.com/2023/03/01/the-spectacular-fall-of-lori-lightfoot/
Some day in the next two years I will retire and can talk about this, Jack, but for professional reasons I can’t now. I can say only that, four years ago, she won every ward in the city, and I do not recall any Chicago Mayor in my lifetime (which began when Richard J. Daley was Mayor) coming into office with such promise—and then leaving in such wretched fashion.
From the Babylon Bee:
jvb
Thanks John.
Between the tricksy hobitses stealing the election and rampant murderphobia, she had a major challenge getting re-elected.
https://babylonbee.com/news/lori-lightfoot-blames-election-loss-on-tricksy-hobbitses
There Is Hope!
Well, there may be hope. Getting rid of one incompetent is certainly better than re-electing her, so praise must be given for that.
However, if former Cook County commissioner Paul Johnson wins, I’m going to suggest that they just traded one incompetent for another of equal or possibly greater incompetence. Consider these “accomplishments” and “campaign promises”:
– eliminated Cook County’s version of a gang database (I’m going to say that’s not a great way to fight crime).
– Was a paid organizer with the Chicago Teacher’s Union (an indictment, if ever one existed).
– Most of the unions have spent mad stacks trying to elect him (another indictment).
– He wants to implement “anti-racist” curriculum district-wide (I can’t even…)
– Wants to pay for bussing more illegal immigrants to Chicago (I’ve got nothing…)
Is there really hope? Probably just a fool’s hope…
Sadly, her replacement will be worse. Brandon Johnson will win the runoff election. Those who voted for other candidates (other than Vallas and Johnson) will either sit out the election or vote for Johnson. For those who don’t know, Johnson is a hardcore lefty, an operative of the CTU (local teachers’ union, one of the worst in the US), and committed SJW. He’s already talking about imposing more taxes, including taxes targeting businesses (which are already fleeing), talking about addressing the crime in the way you expect DSA to do so (less cops, less prostitution, more social workers and mental counselors); oh, and he’s already talking about spending more on education even though our education budget is ~$30,000 per student. Oh, and the city assembly is 100% Dems, with progressive majority. We are screwed!!
I was thinking, maybe the problem with schools in big Democrat and teachers’ union run city public schools isn’t the teachers, it’s the students! How will more money going into teachers’ salaries fix that?
Yes, they got rid of beetlejuice, but this being Chicago they’re likely to get a new mayor not all that different than the one they just dumped.
Remember in NYC how happy they were to have rid themselves of the arrogant and incompetent DeBlaseo only to end up with an equally arrogant and possibly even more incompetent Adams. It seems democrat voters never ever learn, or have they just been sufficiently brainwashed.
These are the kind of democrat voters who would vote for a ham sandwich if it had a D next to it. Doing the same thing and expecting different results is one of the definitions of insanity. At least we’re not on the national level yet like some of those places in Central and South America who keep electing hardcore socialists as president and expect things to get better, then when they don’t, the latest hardcore socialist says that hardcore socialism simply wasn’t done right. Say what you want about the former president, but he was absolutely right when he said that the problem is not that socialism was done wrong, it’s that it was done all too right. If America’s cities want hardcore socialists to lead them who are just the same nonsense from Summer 2020 with a different face, then they shouldn’t be surprised when things never bounce back. I say let them. Clearly the voters value something greater than they value prosperity. But hey, why work for prosperity when you can just get free stuff by whining?