Kathy Salvi
So here we go: the circus is in town.
No, I’m not talking about the Ringling Brothers or Barnum and Bailey – at least they’re entertaining – but the Democratic National Convention. This week we’ll be crammed with speeches from Kamala Harris and Tim Walz and have to listen to the smarmy posturing and posturing of the Democratic mouthpieces on the stage.
Chicago is a fitting city for the Democrats to hold their convention: it’s a great city that’s slowly decaying due to backwards left-wing and authoritarian policies. Crime is rampant in Chicago and has only gotten worse since Governor JB Pritzker signed the crime-friendly SAFE-T Act. The cost of living is astronomically high because Illinois is one of the highest-tax states in the US. All of these problems are due to Democrat rule and will be clearly visible to anyone visiting Chicago for the circus.
Democrats have had a tough task this year. The Republican National Convention in Milwaukee was a must-see and emotional moment following the assassination of former President Donald Trump. It was a show of unity that was downplayed by media across the country, and Republicans are united behind our ticket on every ballot. And I should mention – our front-runner was actually elected by members of our party. We call that “democracy.”
In contrast, the Democratic convention will be full of everything we’ve come to expect from Democrats here in Illinois: false promises, manipulation, and manufactured excitement around a candidate who won’t give interviews. We’re seeing the Democratic propaganda machine in overdrive, supporting Kamala Harris after it unceremoniously pushed their boss out of the race without a single popular vote. Anywhere else, that’s called a coup.
Kamala Harris has yet to give an interview since her inauguration without a single Democratic vote. She chose a radical left wing vice president who misrepresented his record. Stolen courage. Ask his own chaplain. The only candidate worse than Walz – and even Harris rejected the idea – would have been Illinois’ own failed governor, JB Pritzker.
Unfortunately, we have heard nothing about the real problems, nor how Democrats will try to solve them. They have not talked about fixing the open southern border that has suffered so much under Kamala Harris’s tenure. Democrats will not address the high cost of living imposed on people in Chicago, Illinois, and across the country. They will not offer a concrete or real solution to the crime plaguing communities across the country, or to the corruption within their own Democratic Party, from the U.S. Senate to Dolton, Illinois.
Frankly, there is one good thing about the Democratic convention. Voters are seeing that the Democrats have no real plan. They have no real policy agenda. Americans are choking on their progressive nightmare, and the Democrats are doubling down.
Make no mistake, we here in Illinois are suffering. Workers are suffering. Families are suffering. Children are suffering, small businesses are suffering. No matter what your political persuasion is, we are all suffering because of the overwhelming Democrat majority in Illinois. And what has that achieved? An exodus from Illinois, an unbearable tax burden on ordinary people, an unbearable pension crisis, crime-ridden neighborhoods, unaffordable food and gas prices.
We have the Illinois Democratic Party to thank for all of this. Democrats control the governorship, the two seats in the U.S. Senate, 14 of the 17 seats in Congress, and a two-thirds majority in the Illinois House of Representatives and Senate, as well as the mayor’s office here in Chicago. Their only use to the Republican Party is to ridicule their common-sense policies and to stoke hatred among those they demand money from for more power.
We Republicans are militant and will fight, fight, fight our battle at the ballot box. An analysis of Illinois cities governed by Republican mayors shows that the air is fresher and the people are happier.
As I write this commentary, most Illinois families, workers, and small businesses are becoming aware of a multitude of problems caused by the mistakes of our political leaders. Those mistakes have increased our tax burden, dumbed down our public education institutions, and made our streets unsafe. During the rest of the Democratic National Convention, open your ears to the truth and ask yourself: Does the carnivalesque spectacle I see reflect the America I know and love?
Illinois, there is a way out of this nightmare: Wake up – vote Republican.
• Kathy Salvi of Mundelein is chairwoman of the Illinois Republican Party.
