EXTRA: ¿La segunda guerra civil?

It shouldn’t be a shock – our society’s demographics are changing, and some people are determined to ensure that nothing changes.

Let's hope that rallies such as these don't devolve … 

It’s the most obvious explanation for why a certain segment of our society supports Donald Trump, no matter how moronic his behavior as president is or becomes an embarrassment to all of us.

SO THE RESULTS of a series of polls that came out this week shouldn’t be a surprise.

Yes, the growing Latino population of our nation is grossly offended by Trump, and his behavior threatens to cause harm to the political backing they might otherwise have been expected to provide to Republicans, at-large.

Yet it also seems true there are those people who don’t give a rat’s culo about that. They see their continued support for Trump as a way of fighting back against what they would view as a “takeover” of our society.

Take the Morning Consult poll for the Politico newspaper, which found that 51 percent of those surveyed actually approved of the notion of mass raids in large cities across the country to get “those frickin’ foreigners” out of the country.

YES, ONLY 11 percent of those who call themselves Democrats strongly supported the idea, but some 46 percent of those people who refuse to pick a party label also favored the action – which withered away into a nothingness that did little but scare up a segment of our society.

… to gruesome carnage such as this of a century-and-a-half ago?

But then there were the polls done by Miami-based Latino Decisions, which found 51 percent of Latinos think that racism against the Spanish-speaking enclave of our society is a “major” problem, while another 35 percent think it’s “somewhat” of a problem.

And as for the statement, “I am frustrated with how President Trump and his allies treat immigrants and Latinos, and I worry that it will get worse if Trump is re-elected,” only 11 percent of Latinos surveyed did NOT agree.We definitely don’t see eye to eye – the segments of our society whose ethnic origins lie in Latin America and those who are of Irish/Scottish mix but would insist on use of the “real Americans” label to describe themselves.

We definitely don’t see eye to eye – the segments of our society whose ethnic origins lie in Latin America and those who are of Irish/Scottish mix but would insist on use of the “real Americans” label to describe themselves.

The ultimate Trump legacy?

THE FACT IS that the national outcome ultimately will be a “numbers” game – similar to how the original U.S. Civil War outcome ultimately came down to a matter of the Union North having some 20 million people and the Confederate South having only half as many – with some 4 million of those being the slaves whom the South didn’t want to regard as full-fledged human beings.

Considering that many of the people now determined to revere the memory of that Confederacy of old are the same ones eager to embrace Donald Trump, it would seem that some of us haven’t learned. Or are determined to fight the same ol’ battles.

Still peaceful, for now

Which is the real shame befalling us as a society. I’m optimistic enough to think the day will come when those of us who will be the descendants of Trump-ites will wonder how they could ever have been deluded enough to believe such nonsense.

Or how much of our lives were wasted away by our inability to see past our differences?

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Send Trump back? Who’d want him!

President Donald Trump is an ethnic mixture of Scottish and German – the latter of which cause some people to deride him by reminding us at every chance they get that the family name originally was ‘Drumpf.’

TRUMP: Deport Donald? Who'd want him!

Back in the days when they were the immigrants, and the name change was made to come up with something they thought sounded more “American.”

SO NOW THAT the president is on a rhetorical kick of wanting to deride members of Congress whom he thinks aren’t American-enough to belong in this country – literally saying they should “go back to the broken and crime-infested countries they came from” – perhaps we ought to give it a thought.

Should we take this sorry excuse of a U.S president, revoke his American citizenship, and ship him off to either Scotland or Germany? Send him back “home,” so to speak!

Actually, that would be a ludicrous fantasy – and not because of the fact that Trump by birth is a Noo Yawker from the borough of Queens (even though he’d like us to think he’s the ultimate in Manhattan sophistication).

More it’s ludicrous because I suspect that neither Scotland nor Germany would want anything to do with The Donald or anyone in his pompous, egotistical family. They probably think they dodged a bullet of sorts by having his family emigrate away from them all those generations ago.

OCASIO-CORTEZ: Not easily silenced

EITHER THAT, OR maybe they’d concoct some sort of scheme by which they could confiscate his immense family wealth for themselves – thereby reducing the Trump family to penniless status.

Not that I expect this to happen either. I suspect our society is stuck with the Trump ego – and is going to have to live with the shame of knowing it really was possible for a vocal minority of voters to actually prevail in the 2016 election cycle.

PRESSLEY: Deport her to … Cincinnati?

A vocal minority that probably thinks it is entirely clever for Trump to go around using his Twitter account to spew nonsense like he did this past weekend – where he derided four outspoken members of the Democratic caucus of Congress for, basically, not treating their own ethnic and racial origins as something they ought to be greatly ashamed of.

TLAIB: Serving Michigan proudly

For what it’s worth, he was talking about Rep. Ilan Omar, D-Minn., who was born in Somalia and lived in a refugee camp in Kenya before coming to this country as a 12-year-old and ultimately settling in Minneapolis.

BUT THEN HE lumped in three other members of Congress – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan – as others who don’t really belong here.

All are U.S.-born, and in the case of Ocasio-Cortez may be Puerto Rican-ethnic but was raised in the suburbs of New York City. Only in the mini-mind of Donald Trump would they somehow not belong here, where I suspect his real objection to them having a prominence in society is due to the fact he regards many women as being decorative objects – and nothing else.

Think about it seriously. What are we going to do – deport Pressley back to her birth city of Cincinnati? It’s nonsense-talk like this that causes many to deride him as the “twit who Tweets” and to regard his constant use of Twitter as a true social embarrassment on our society – far worse than anything that any of the Congressional women has had to say.

ALTHOUGH IF YOU really want the truth, I suspect his attack on the Congresswomen was a deliberate tactic in its’ timing – as in Sunday, the day that was supposed to see federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials conducting many raids to deport all kinds of foreigners whom he also thinks don’t really belong “here.”

OMAR: Learned English off American TV

It seems the raids fizzled out, and really didn’t amount to much of anything.

Yet instead of now wondering how full of hot air Trump is for all his immigration raid trash talk, the focus is instead going toward Trump wanting to kick Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez out of the continental U.S.

Although even that wouldn’t achieve much – because Puerto Rico is a U.S. commonwealth. Meaning even if she were sent back to the Caribbean island, she’d still be within U.S. reach and more than capable of speaking out against Trump nonsense on oh so many issues. Nobody silences AOC that easily!

  -30-

EDITOR'S NOTE: It's worth pointing out that everybody here is standing before, and serving the interests of, the very same U.S. flag.

Now it’s Burke’s spouse who’s paying for his purely political ‘sins’

Is Anne Burke now as much a political … 

Illinois Supreme Court Justice Anne Burke, the spouse of the alderman now under criminal indictment, is coming under her own partisan fire from people upset with politics-as-usual – rather than actions meant to benefit themselves instead.

Burke is the alderman who is going to push to the limit a defense that his actions in the City Council are merely the way things get done. It seems his wife will wind up having to make the same arguments over-and-over.

… target as husband Ed?

FOR IN THE case of Anne Burke, she has the authority to make appointments to fill vacancies within the judiciary of Cook County. It would seem that she used her power to place people with whom she has political ties.

Which has more activist-types offended that Anne Burke didn’t give preference to “their” people instead of “her” people.

Her first offense occurred earlier this month when she used her authority to appoint a white attorney to be a judge in a sub-circuit meant to cover much of Chicago’s West Side. The intent when the sub-circuit was created in the 1990s was that it would somehow result in more judges of an African-American persuasion being picked.

Now, politicos of Latino ethnic origins are offended.

THEY SEE A different sub-circuit – one meant to cover city neighborhoods such as Pilsen, Little Village and Back of the Yards (all of which have become Spanish-speaking enclaves) and stretching out to Cicero. Where there also is a predominance of people who habla en Espanol.

Yet as various Latino aldermen and legislators are pointing out, that judicial post was given to Cara Smith, whose qualifications were serving as an aide to the Cook County sheriff’s police, where Sheriff Tom Dart is a long-time ally of Alderman Burke.

There also are signs that she gave Burke’s aldermanic re-election campaign last year a significant campaign contribution, which has those of a more criminally-conspiratorial mindset thinking she bought the judicial post. Anyway, she was sworn in to the post on Monday.

GARCIA: As critical of her as much as him

It wasn’t given to an attorney of Latino origins. For all I know, there were no such attorneys who were even considered for the post.

THE LATINO POLITICOS, including Rep. Jesus Garcia, D-Ill., who sent along a letter of support, are trying to make this an issue of ethnic prejudice, just as those interested in the initial appointment wanting to see it as a case of black political empowerment being undermined.

Of course, there’s also the fact that the Latino activist types tried seriously in the aldermanic elections this year to undermine Ed Burke and get him defeated from the City Council post he has held for half a century.

Garcia was prominently behind that effort – which failed, as voter turnout was particularly strong in the precincts of his ward that still have sizable white-ethnic populations – rather than the parts that have become solid Latino (mostly Mexican-American) neighborhoods.

So I don’t doubt this is partisan politicking, just as much as the Burkes’ activities may have its own political taint.

THEY COULDN’T BEAT him on Election Day (Ed solidly won re-election as alderman without a runoff, while Anne won a 10-year term to her Supreme Court post last year), so they’ll dredge up other dirt.

The image the alderman may be giving off

Which may, or may not, be true. In politics, “dirty pool” is downright fair – or to be expected – from all sides.

So I don’t doubt that much of these allegations is about trying to make up for Burke electoral victories – which some of those of an activist mentality likely regard as defeats for the good of the people. At least their people.

And taking a few pot shots at Ed Burke’s wife may hurt him just as much as anything they fire off directly at him. Although it does create the possibility that Burke will take great offense to Anne being criticized and could add people to his personal ‘enemies’ list.

WHAT’S THAT OLD cliché, remembered by many as a line from the film The Godfather? “Revenge is a dish that tastes best when it is served cold.”

The bottom line is that we could be in for an ugly political war, with Ed Burke doing his best to be none other than “Don Corleone” himself.

  -30-

Will electorate trust Lori Lightfoot to fill city school board vacancies?

I’ve never been amongst those people who think we ought to be putting it up to the Chicago electorate to decide every few years who should be serving on the board of education for the Chicago Public Schools.

del VALLE: New school board president

Yet there are those who have argued incessantly that giving the mayor the authority to make such appointments is far too much power and influence to be entrusting to one individual.

SO I’M GOING to be curious to see what kind of reaction arises to the fact that newly-elected Mayor Lori Lightfoot has gone ahead and made appointments to the school board.

Seven, to be exact, including the pick of one-time city Clerk and state Senator Miguel del Valle to serve as the new school board president.

Who, as somebody who once tried himself running for mayor against Richard M. Daley, has a political reputation of someone who wasn’t exactly a part of the old boys network and was interested in bringing about change.

Which would sort of put him in line with the image the Lightfoot is trying to create for her own term as mayor. Although Lightfoot herself was opposed to the bill that would have created an elected school board for Chicago (just like all the suburbs have), because she thought the bill’s mechanism was too convoluted.

BUT ARE THE people who view Lightfoot as being all about change and shaking everything up going to accept a school board that they didn’t personally pick?

It could be the big issue. Although I don’t have much of a qualm about accepting it – largely because I think it’s absurd to go about expecting voters (many of whom think there already are too many obscure political posts to have to pick people for) to make qualified choices.

I could easily envision an elected school board becoming a lot like all those judicial posts people are asked to make picks for. Many would wind up skipping over the ballot spots, while others would randomly pick people without much of a clue as to who they’re voting for.

LIGHTFOOT: Picks former mayoral challenger

And yes, I’d put into that category the kind of people who say only semi-jokingly that they look for good Irish-sounding names on the ballot; figuring that’s a sound of respectability and experience.

PERSONALLY, I THINK it is nonsense, and there have been times I’ve been spiteful enough to deliberately vote against an Irish-sounding name – just because I figure that candidate will get too many votes from other people.

I did find it interesting that Lightfoot, amongst her school board picks, were people with education backgrounds – instead of what often becomes of school boards. They get filled with people who have electoral ambitions who, for whatever reason, wind up being unable to find any other office for which to run.

And the idea of del Valle in the top post is also intriguing – and not just because I personally have an interest in seeing increased political empowerment of officials with Latino ethnic backgrounds.

I’ll admit that any Spanish-sounding name on a ballot usually gets a second-glance and extra bit of consideration. So the idea of del Valle – once the first head of a Latino caucus in the General Assembly – isn’t exactly the most outrageous pick that a mayor could make to be in charge of the school board.

WOULD HE HAVE had a chance of getting the post if it had been up to voters making picks on the ballot?

EMANUEL: Would he have ever appointed del Valle?

I don’t know. I suppose he might have, IF the political bosses who put together candidate slates would have seen a benefit to themselves to having del Valle be in the running for the post.

But this may have been an example of how we’re better off with the school board members being political appointees. After all, we always can hold the mayor accountable for her picks if they turn out to be poor ones.

Besides, I suspect the desire of many people to have an elected school board will wither away, now that we have a mayor, such as Rahm Emanuel, whom many of them found so objectionable and whom they were eager to diminish in authority to whatever degree was possible.

  -30-

‘white’ Sox the ones willing to meet with Donald Trump at White House

I’ll have to confess to experiencing a second or two of confusion when I learned of the blurb circulating on Twitter about how it was the white Sox who were willing to meet later this week with President Donald Trump.

Red Sox shortstop-turned-manager won't go

Actually, it is the Boston Red Sox who are making the trip to the White House on Thursday to fulfill the sporting tradition that a championship sports team gets to meet the president, shake hands and experience some of the aura of being at the presidential mansion.

IT’S SORT OF like the athletes who joke about “going to Disney World” to celebrate their sporting success.

But in the case of the Red Sox, it seems like it’s going to be a split squad of ballplayers who actually make the trip to the District of Columbia – which was timed to coincide with the Red Sox’ trip to nearby Baltimore to play the Orioles,

News reports out of Boston indicate that all of the Red Sox players who are black or of Latin American origins (with the exception of J.D. Martinez, who is of Cuban ethnicity) are the ones making a point of skipping a trip to see Trump, and his orange dye job that we’re supposed to pretend is a natural tanned complexion. Team manager Alex Cora, who is Puerto Rican, also is not participating, because he thinks Trump has been disrespectful to the Caribbean island commonwealth.

Whereas the white players, who probably think they’re being all-American, are the ones who will show up and allow themselves to be used by the president to build up political good will.

Ortiz wouldn't go, if he were still playing

OR WILL IT be the partial ballclub that is using the presidency to try to throw some sense of legitimacy to themselves? As though their World Series championship of 2018 isn’t enough praise in and of itself.

Personally, I always thought that sport teams visiting with politicians was just a bit phony. Since when it comes to professional athletes, we’re usually talking about the kinds of guys who could care less about politics.

They probably figure the politicos were the kinds of people who couldn’t hit a curve ball, so why should they care.

While some political people wind up going so overboard with their fandom and drooling for a taste of athletic glamour that they tend to embarrass themselves in the presence of ballplayers.

Bryant WAS willing to go, back in 2017

OF COURSE, THERE was the happening when the 2016 champion Chicago Cubs team managed to gain dual White House appearances. Outgoing President Barack Obama made a point of squeezing in a ball club visit in the final weeks before he departed the White House.

Then, Trump would not be deprived, He offered up a second visit – which saw a partial Cubs squad consisting mostly of the white players (Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant and Jon Lester were among those who attended) participate in the presence of Donald Trump.

Now, it seems that the national sense of hostility that is characteristic of this Age of Trump is making this the trend of all such athletic visits.

Although I also suspect many of the Trump supporters who are sports fans don’t object in the least – they probably see the Red Sox visit as consisting of the “real” American players, and probably fantasize about having the “foreigners” up for deportation the moment the lose a mile or two on the speed of their fast balls.

Would Abreu be welcomed at future visit?

WHICH REALLY IS a shame, in that professional athletics once was thought to be a place within our society where we could put aside the ideological nonsense of partisan politics.

Instead, it allows politics to stage a hostile takeover, of sorts, of sports.

There is one semi-humorous aspect of the pun that the white Sox are visiting the White House. For anybody who’s paid any attention knows the Chicago White Sox are still quite a ways away from the championship that we’re being told will result of the ballclub’s rebuild and would warrant a White House invitation.

Trump can only dream

But with the degree to which this team is counting on Latin American talent to bolster itself (Jose Abreu, Yoan Moncada and promising minor league star Luis Robert are all Cuban-born, just to name a few), would that create a future White Sox championship team entirely unwilling to be seen in the company of The Donald? Or would Trump snub the ball club altogether?

  -30-

Trump talk of “punishing” U.S. w/ foreigners shows ideologues know little

President Donald Trump’s latest trash-talk of taking all the people trying to come to this country and deliberately sending them to the big cities – particularly those cities that have enacted “sanctuary city” policies that refuse to cooperate with federal immigration officials and policies – show just how little he and his ideologue backers comprehend reality.

Not just Noo Yawk feels this way

Trump’s rhetoric from late last week further indicated his nonsensical beliefs that these non-Anglo, non-U.S.-born people are the dregs of humanity.

SO HE’S GOING to punish those of us who refuse to go along with his xenophobic-motivated immigration policies by flooding us with foreigners. That’ll show us, he likely thinks!

The problem with such a line of reasoning is that many of those municipalities already are foreigner-friendly, and the existence of those ethnic enclaves within the cities is a significant part of their character.

If anything, they make the municipalities places where upper-scale people might themselves want to locate. Even if they don’t live in the same neighborhoods right next to each other, they give the upper-scale individuals the ability to say they live in varied communities.

Compared to some of those rural places that are so overwhelmingly white and un-ethnic that they appear to be unfriendly to anyone who didn’t actually grow up there – and also often take on such a character that many of their younger, more-motivated residents feel the need to go away to college and find someplace else to live their adult lives.

I DON’T DOUBT that the people living in the rural, white parts of the country would find Trump’s nonsense-talk all the more appealing because it would reinforce their thoughts that they’re the only people who ought to matter.

But if it really happened, it would also further enhance the notion that these rural communities would become further isolated from the masses who are the real tone of our society.

If Trump really were to try to enact his suggestion, he’d be doing so much long-term damage to the areas where the people who like the Age of Trump we’re now in. The harm would be so long-lasting and permanent.

Would plans actually hurt rural Illinois political interests?

Which is why even Trump’s allies are pointing out the flaws of his idea, and are hoping that this is all just another example of Trump Talk – rancid ramblings meant to do nothing more than get the idiotic ideologues all worked up into a rage on the president’s behalf.

PERSONALLY, I’D THINK the idea would be reprehensible to Illinois politicos of the Republican persuasion – because adding to the Chicago population would do little more than further enhance the urban leanings that already work to the detriment of rural Illinois.

As in the one that ensures Illinois’ congressional delegation is 13 Democrats and five Republicans. With the likelihood that the next reapportionment of Congressional districts after 2020 will cost Illinois a seat, you have to wonder if those rural, isolationist-minded people realize that seat likely will come from their portion of the state.

Then again, there’s no accounting for sense when it comes to politicos.

Take the measure now pending in the Illinois General Assembly, where state Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer, R-Jacksonville, wants his colleagues to pass a resolution that urges Congress to break Chicago away from Illinois.

Trump and Davidsmeyer (below) … 

HE TOLD THE State Journal-Register newspaper of Springfield that rural people are losing their chances to make Illinois more like rural Missouri or Indiana because Chicago, by its very nature, is in competition with places like New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

I’ll agree that people have a right to live off in isolation, if that’s really all they want out of life, even though I can’t comprehend why they’d want to.

… both don't comprehend consequences

But I definitely don’t think those people have a right to dictate to tell the rest of us we have to live like them.

So if Trump thinks he’s punishing places like Chicago, I’d say we’ll take these newcomers – who would not only boost the city’s population count to our political advantage, it would also give us a slew of newcomers eager to work hard for better lives – unlike those who want to live in isolation and on the decline.

  -30-

Preckwinkle to put Garcia’s political influence to the test on Election Day

Rep. Jesus Garcia, D-Ill., would like to think he’s the predominant Latino politico in Chicago, and the upcoming run-off election for mayor will be a significant test.

GARCIA: Cook County grudges come to life

For Garcia, formerly a member of the Cook County Board before being elected to Congress, has come out publicly in favor of the mayoral campaign of Lori Lightfoot.

OR ACTUALLY, IT’S more like he’s come out as being opposed to the mayoral aspirations of Toni Preckwinkle – who was his county board colleague as county board president.

Meaning this is about political payback. He doesn’t want Preckwinkle to prevail. He’d like for her to go down to a shameful defeat come April 2.

Part of it is because back in 2015 when Garcia wound up running against Rahm Emanuel for mayor, Preckwinkle managed to fail to support Chuy’s mayoral aspirations back then. So he doesn’t feel compelled to offer her any support.

There’s also the fact that when the county assessor’s post was most recently open in the 2018 election cycle, the two were split – with Preckwinkle backing Joe Berrios’ bid for re-election while Garcia came out in favor of Fritz Kaegi.

ALSO PLAYING INTO this is the fact that when Garcia gave up his county board post to run for the seat in Congress, he wanted to hand-pick his replacement – Alma Anaya. But Preckwinkle offered only the most tepid of support for her.

All in all, it means Garcia has his reasons to not be inclined to want to see Preckwinkle succeed. And if, by chance, there turns out to be evidence that the Latino vote in Chicago this coming election swings heavily in favor of Lightfoot for mayor, I have no doubt that Garcia will be more than eager to take credit for it.

He’ll gladly take it as a feather in his cap that he personally deprived Preckwinkle of a significant (and growing) share of the electorate, and it will further bolster his desire to see himself as Chicago’s most politically powerful elected official of Latino ethnic origins.

Will Toni defeat redeem for Garcia … 

Similar to how in last year’s elections, he was more than eager to take credit for the fact that Dan Burke lost his seat in the Illinois House of Representatives – saying he turned out the significant Latino vote in that Southwest Side legislative district in order to bolster the Latino caucus within the General Assembly.

BUT FOR ALL that accomplishment might mean, there’s also evidence that there are limits to Garcia’s political influence. Such as the Feb. 26 election when Garcia made it known he was targeting the aldermanic re-election bid of Burke’s brother, Ed – as in the long-time Finance chairman who liked to think he was the almighty powerbroker of City Hall.

Despite the growing Latino population of that ward (about 80 percent), Burke solidly won re-election. He got the remaining white voters to turn out in force to generate some 53 percent of the vote – meaning he didn’t even have to endure a run-off election.

And he overcame all the hostile rhetoric that has been spewed about Burke on account of the fact that federal prosecutors were slinging toward Ed. As in if there ever was a time when Ed Burke should have been politically vulnerable, this was it.

If anything, Ed Burke’s victory showed the limits of Garcia’s influence over Latino Chicago. It puts thoughts into peoples’ minds that maybe Chuy isn’t as almighty as he’d like us to think he is.

BY THAT STANDARD, being able to claim he “took down” Preckwinkle’s mayoral aspirations would be face-saving, to a degree.

… his failure to beat Burke?

Of course, there was the fact that in the Feb. 26 election, the Latino segments of Chicago were the ones where the mayoral race was seen as a political battle between Susana Mendoza and William Daley, with some extra votes for Gery Chico.

Preckwinkle and Lightfoot really didn’t factor into the equation. Making some wonder if come the run-off, the Latino voter turnout will be tepid, at best. Will Garcia be able to get the Spanish-speaking enclaves of Chicago to care at all about who the next mayor will be?

That will be the real test – as we will learn whether anybody ought to be paying any significant attention to Garcia and his thoughts in future elections.

  -30-

Robert Francis Beto O’Rourke not an ethnic Mexican, yet that is his nombre

Down around Texas last year, one of the key political races involved that of Beto O’Rourke, a member of Congress from El Paso, trying to take down the politically unpopular Ted Cruz.

O'ROURKE: Could we have President Beto?

It didn’t happen. Cruz managed to narrowly win the election, with enough people deciding they’d rather have a Republican – even one as goofy and irrational as Ted.

WHICH MEANS THAT Beto O’Rourke may well have decided if he’s to have a political future, he’s going to have to work his way UP the political ladder – as in his announcement this week that he’s going to be one of the many political hopefuls seeking the Democratic Party’s nomination for president.

It also means we’re likely to get the spreading of the ultimate in “phony” issues in coming months.

We’re going to be told that O’Rourke is a fraud, trying to pass himself off as being of Mexican origins even though he isn’t.

His family has its background in Ireland and Wales, and were amongst the many white people to flood their way into Texas in hopes of finding a better life.

AS TO THE nickname of “Beto,” it’s a common one in Spanish. It’s short for Roberto, or Robert in English. Basically, “Beto” could translate into something like “Bobby.”

CRUZ: Could his '18 victory lead to Beto rise?

As for why the O’Rourkes would turn to Spanish when it came to their kid, it was because he was named for his grandfather. And it means they were influenced enough by the heavy-Spanish population of the border region in which they lived – and which O’Rourke grew up.

So is Beto O’Rourke trying to pull off some sort of fraud in trying to pass himself off as a Mexican-American? Not likely. Personally, I don’t think anybody would believe it if he tried – particularly since amongst the other presidential hopefuls in the running is one-time San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro – who also served as Housing and Urban Development secretary during the Barack Obama presidency.

CASTRO: A 'real' Mexican candidate

But I have no doubt we’re going to hear a lot of trash talk trying to take him down.

PERSONALLY, I SUSPECT that what really bothers these people is that someone would think to look to Spanish culture as something positive. Most likely, these people are amongst the outspoken minority of the Age of Trump that really wants him to succeed in erecting that border wall.

As though they want to put up as many barricades as possible to anything existing from Mexican-American culture.

Even though if one is completely honest, the Spanish conquistadores laid claim to parts of what is now United States decades before the English did. I’m actually working my way through a book, El Norte by Carrie Gibson, that attempts to document this very phenomenon.

But such stories and anecdotes just don’t fit into their vision. I’m sure they see someone like Beto O’Rourke as challenging their very definition of what is a “real” American.

I’M SURE THEY’RE more comfortable with the one-time governor of Louisiana, Piyush Jindal, who when his family came to the United States from India tried to take on a “more American” identity and he renamed himself “Bobby.

JINDAL: Ideologues ideal of a proper foreigner pol

Maybe they think Beto O’Rourke should be more like Bobby Jindal – even though one could argue that all O’Rourke is doing is trying to have a political life under the very identity that his parents gave him.

And one in which the voters of El Paso elected him to posts on the City Council AND the 16^th Texas congressional district.

Which is my way of saying I think anybody who tries to make an issue of this is really doing nothing more than showing us their own absurd hang-ups, The best thing we could do is disregard it, and judge the potential of a “President Beto” on his own merits.

  -30-

Irish luck tops electoral enthusiasm?

This weekend is going to be an event of great cultural significance to the reality of Chicago; something that gives us a large part of our character. Something that will get people nationwide talking about us. 

The Chicago River won't be the only body of water turning green -- the Daley plaza fountain also likely to take on color. Photo by Gregory Tejeda

Oh, and by the way, the early voting for the mayoral election run-off also starts this weekend.

BECAUSE ALL THOSE crowds coming to downtown Chicago on Saturday sure ain’t a gonna be headed for the Loop supersite, at 175 W. Washington St., which will be set up so that anybody living within the Chicago city limits can cast their ballots for mayor.

Lori Lightfoot, or Toni Preckwinkle?

Personally, I expect the pathetically low, near-record-setting, turnouts that we saw on Feb. 26 will recur themselves again for the April 2 run-off, with the early voting portion actually beginning Friday.

So yes, people can take a trip downtown Friday, Saturday or Sunday to cast their mayoral vote. Maybe even do so Saturday in and around attending the St. Patrick’s Day parade – the annual tradition that now takes place along Columbus Drive.

Will Lightfoot top Preckwinkle (below) … 

BUT I DON’T expect a lot of people to turn out to cast their ballots. The Luck of the Irish will probably mean too much green-dyed beer being consumed for people to even want to think of casting a ballot.

Even though all those Irish politicos of the past would probably think that casting a vote, particularly if for a “Machine” candidate of Irish-American ethnic origins, is the ultimate gesture of cultural support one could show.

Perhaps if it were Toni O’Preckwinkle on the ballot, she’d be able to get more excitement from would-be voters. Or if Alderman Edward M. Burke hadn’t have won his Feb. 26 election so handily?

… for public attention, or … 

But I suspect this weekend will be about people trying to find the appropriate way of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, the date upon which the saint used his shillelagh to whack at snakes and chase them out of Ireland.

OR AT LEAST that’s what we were taught when I was in grade school. I suspect the reality of the holiday is to have an excuse for beer companies to push their product, similar to the way in which they have turned the Cinco de Mayo holiday into a generic Mexican fest.

Only I’ve never seen anybody dye the Chicago River a Red, White and Green tri-color mixture the way the city every year turns the city’s namesake river a bright, obnoxious Kelly green that in some ways looks even more sickly than the dingy shade of green the river takes on the rest of the year.

Seriously, those people who miss out on Saturday’s downtown parade can always venture out to the Beverly neighborhood’s South Side Irish parade for a chance to see the Irish bands and dancing girls work their way along Western Avenue, and the local residents will have to spend the rest of the day (and night) chasing away the overly-imbibed partiers who don’t have a proper sense of when it is to go home.

I’m sure all of this will be more on people’s minds than their mayoral vote. For all I know, they may view the St. Patrick’s festivities as an escape from the political nonsense that wishes it could overtake our lives for the next couple of weeks.

… will Madeline Mitchell top both on Saturday?

MAYBE THIS WEEKEND would be more intense if we’d have got a Daley, a Joyce or a McCarthy into the run-off election. But we didn’t. They didn’t have the Luck of the Irish back on Feb. 26

But we are getting closer to it all being over.

For Monday is the day that early voting extends to the neighborhood polling places. One site in each of the 50 wards, so that you can cast your vote without having to make the trip downtown.

Then on Election Day, you can go to the polling place located in your neighborhood proper. A chance to take part in this great American experience of Democracy – which also includes the four-year follow-up period of voters ranting and raging on how stupid the electorate was for choosing the nitwit who ultimately prevails April 2.

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Latino vote could decide mayor, but will enough care to cast run-off ballots?

For voters who wanted to see either Mendoza … 

I remember the sight some several decades ago of a man at City Hall, clad in a gaudy sarape and sombrero, creating the stereotypical image of a Mexican, who was chanting over and over, “We break the tie.”

As in white voters and black voters in Chicago potentially equaling each other out, and the Latino segment of the city being the factor that would decide who would win political election in Chicago.

… or Chico as alcalde/mayor, … 

ARE WE DESTINED to see repeats of such images in coming weeks, as Lori Lightfoot and Toni Preckwinkle fight it out in an April 2 run-off election to determine who gets to take over as mayor for Rahm Emanuel?

Because some political observers are pointing out that the parts of Chicago that didn’t really favor either Lightfoot or Preckwinkle in Tuesday’s elections are the precincts in the Latino-oriented neighborhoods.

Where the mayoral election was perceived as a brawl by Susana Mendoza and Gery Chico – and the other dozen candidates were perceived as after-thoughts.

… will either Toni … 

Meaning it is a significant segment of Chicago (where the Latino population comprises about 30 percent of the city) that could decide the run-off election outcome.

BUT WILL IT be a decision because one of the two mayoral hopefuls is able to sway the sentiment of Latino voters? Or will it be a decision made because many Latino voters will simply decide the run-off isn’t worth their time and trouble to go out and cast a ballot?

A study by the Center for Illinois Politics pointed out how Tuesday’s turnout wasn’t that great anywhere in Chicago, but was even worse in the Spanish-speaking enclaves of the city.

The city had a 34 percent voter turnout on Tuesday, which was barely larger than the record low of 33 percent back in the mayoral election of 2007 (which was an election that sent Richard M. Daley back to the mayor’s post for like the millionth time).

… or Lori hold political appeal?

In the Latino-oriented wards of Chicago (won mostly by Mendoza, although Chico took the 10^th Ward), there was 27 percent voter turnout this time around.

IT WOULD SEEM that Latino voters just couldn’t get themselves all excited about voting in this mess of an electoral cycle. Which hurt any chance that Susana would be giving up her Illinois comptroller post to become mayor anytime soon.

Will there suddenly be a sense of enthusiasm developing amongst Latino voters for either candidate? Will Latinos suddenly gain the long-ago expressed sense of enthusiasm that the new mayor (whether Lightfoot or Preckwinkle) will feel indebted to Latino interests because “we” gave them the majority of votes?

Or will it merely turn into apathy, which further creates the impression that the deciding factor will be all those people who voted for William Daley’s mayoral campaign?

Will we see the bandito image, … 

The ones who probably cast their votes that way out of a sentiment of NOT wanting to see either Lightfoot or Preckwinkle prevail. The thought of having to “pick one” could be repellant-enough to make them not want to vote at all.

DESPITE THE THOUGHTS being expressed by some that Preckwinkle could prevail because many will perceive Toni – the two-term Cook County Board president and former Hyde Park neighborhood alderman – as someone who has been a part of the political establishment.

… or hear we're finally ready for reform

Meaning she’s someone they could “work with.” As opposed to Lightfoot, the former federal prosecutor who might still carry a prosecutorial attitude toward government about her. Which I’m sure is what some potential voters think is exactly what is needed in Chicago.

So what is going to be the prevailing theme of the April 2 run-off; are we going to get a guy in a sarape, sombrero y huaraches, looking like a Frito Bandito reject while trying to tell Latinos that it’s all up to us to decide whether we’re destined to have Toni or Lori as our next alcalde.

Or is Chicago finally going think it’s ready for the reform that one-time bar-keep alderman Paddy Bauler said we weren’t ready for more than a half-century ago?

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