A few days before last week’s election, I got a call from a local political operative, freaking out over the fact that the lead items on the news were not about the upcoming mayor’s race, but about the ongoing sagas of R. Kelly and Jussie Smollett.
Wait, wrong Maya utterance. No, the relevant Maya theory is that the local electorate is basically divided between those who passionately care and obsess about Chicago politics—like me and Maya and that freaking-out political operative—and those, alas, who don’t.
I will now offer several of my own theories for the abysmal turnout, starting with . . . Donald Trump.
On the southwest side, people apparently got fired up over Jerry Joyce, the native son of a prominent 19th Ward political dynasty. The vote in many precincts in the 19th Ward topped 60 percent—practically an uprising for this election.
It’s a vicious cycle. Vote for the same old, same olds and nothing changes. So it’s easy to conclude that you might as well not vote at all. And what’s the result? More of the same old, same olds.
If we can’t do better than that, we have to live with the reality that the 35 or so percent of the people who vote will essentially rule the 65 percent who don’t.
