Saving the Republican Party and Illinois from the failed GOP losers who lead it

The Republican Party had strong roots in Illinois, but in recent years has been falling apart because of selfish leaders who are more concerned with themselves than with serving the public.

By Ray Hanania

Republicans will talk about everything except their own failures, which, over the past two decades in Northern Illinois, have been abysmal.

That’s because at one time, Illinois and even Chicago had a very strong Republican presence.

Ironically, as the Democratic presence strengthened, growing out of Chicago, the Republican Party began its steady path to total decline. Given no real choices, most Republicans turned to the Democratic Party and voted there, while a few, including the dregs, remained.

But Republicans didn’t abandon their conservative foundations of being pro-Life, favoring limiting government control of the country, government spending on unions, pensions, and other “free” giveaways, and basically believed in picking themselves up by their own bootstraps and building their own lives without reliance on government handouts, the crack cocaine of today’s world.

Those societies and cultures that have been weaned on government handouts and dependency have not done as well as they could.

President Ronald Reagan. Courtesy of Wikipedia

Real conservatives are tough on crime and believe that if you want to live in America, you need to BE an American, not just on paper but in spirit, too. Being American is not just a foundation for economic or educational success, but rather a principle that rises higher than any other country in the world.

I have had a front row seat to this transmogrification (look it up!) during the past 50 years covering Chicago, Illinois, and national politics. I’ve watched the Republican Party deteriorate and fall apart into leaderless competing rivalries.

This country needs a strong Republican Party, a strong Democratic Party, and a strong Independent Party as “checks and balances” on tyranny by one party. Sadly, politicians who feel too comfortable are the ones who end up slipping into corruption and away from their allegiance to public service. Too much power allows some to turn away from the principles of the American Constitution, and instead allow themselves to swear allegiance to other foreign countries and enjoy the corruption of “dual citizenship.”

When the two parties, and even Independents, are strong, it prevents one party from dominating politics. That keeps egos in check and prevents ambitions from straying off the path of honesty towards corruption. Corruption is as much a result of arrogance as it is greed.

It’s been a horror show, especially for someone who grew up with an AU H2O sign on his window at a young age in 1964, someone who didn’t want to go “All the way with LBJ” because of the rumors and concerns that the vice president was somehow involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Barry Goldwater was the Republican challenger, and Goldwater wasn’t that; LBJ was president, but very disliked by many. In the end, Goldwater lost simply because he did a poor job of campaigning, and LBJ became president by default, which I refer to as the process of “political relativity” in elections.

LBJ didn’t win. AU H2O lost!

In Chicago, you can mark the start of the Grand Old Party’s demise from that point forward.

People in Illinois want to forget that an Illinois native son, Abraham Lincoln, originally with the Whig Party, was the first president elected from the Republican Party in 1860.

They also want to forget that many Democrats over the years have recognized the power of Republican voters in Chicagoland, like in 1936, when a young, up-and-coming, powerful Chicago Democrat recognized he had to run as a Republican to win a seat in the Illinois House, previously held by a Republican who died. His name was Richard J. Daley, the founder of the Democratic Machine.

President Ronald Reagan was born in Tampico, Illinois, in a small apartment over the Pitney General Store there. But, he grew up in Galesburg, Monmouth, and Chicago, although he spent most of his childhood in Dixon, Illinois.

Reagan was the scion of the “Reagan Democrats,” or the conservative Democrats.

There have been many good Republicans in Illinois over the years, and there have been many good Democrats, too! But good Republican leaders, defined by effectiveness and the ability to lead, have been few and far between, especially in recent years.

The list is short. It includes Richard Williamson, Lee Daniels, Judy Baar Topinka, Pat Brady, and Liz Gorman.

At one time, Republicans owned the collar counties and dominated the suburbs of Cook County, even with a presence in the Chicago City Council.

The only one left is Liz Gorman, who is fighting to restore commonsense conservative values that have been trampled by extremist Republicans and poor and failed “leaders” like Keith Pekau, Cindy Katsenes, and Mr. Controversy, Sean Morrison.

They have brought nothing but disaster to the Republican Party. They could see the party collapsing, and instead of strengthening it with good leadership and bringing everyone together, they focused on themselves with personality politics.

But personality politics doesn’t replace good leadership or great ideas, none of which they have.

It was Daley who once said that the party “either hang together, or hang separately.” The Republicans are hanging separately, of their own leadership choices.

Gorman is an exception, and she is in an epic battle to save the Republican Party from the dregs that are dragging it down. She has common sense, and unlike her foes, her commitment is to help the public, not herself. On several occasions while on the Cook County Board, she prevented excessive tax hikes from being approved, winning over support from Democrats who controlled the board.

There are a few people who could help revive the Republican Party and tap into the conservative Democrats who happen to be a major foundation of Republican Pharaoh Donald J. Trump. Yes, conservative Reagan Democrats voted for Trump, who erratically balances his control of the national GOP.

A smart Republican with real, pragmatic conservative views like Gorman can revive the party and re-establish a foothold in Cook County and retake the collar counties.

There are a few others who have talent but need to break from the antagonism-foundation that is today’s Chicagoland Republican Party, which attacks people instead of advocating solutions to problems.

One might be Bob Fioretti, a Republican running for Illinois Attorney General, but he needs to break away from the losing wormhole of Pekau’s clique.

Fioretti can’t win the office of Illinois Attorney General, by hanging with Pekau. But he could help clean up the GOP House Pekau built, throwing out the garbage, ending selfish political name-calling, focusing on people, taxpayers, families, homeowners, seniors, and the young who are craving to escape today’s screwed up polarized world.

He can be a part of a movement to change the GOP’s future and rebuild the party. But he has to find ways to build and to break from Pekau’s circle.

It’s easy to make enemies in politics. It’s hard to make friends. You have to work hard to make friends and to build alliances with others through compromise and by not surrendering to personal animosity.

Some of the worst politics have come out of Tinley Park, including vicious, sexually explicit text messages and robocalls sent out just to win office. That kind of mudslinging doesn’t work and opens the door to justified investigations.

I learned a key principle about successful politics from Reagan, who argued that if he agreed with the opposition 70 percent of the time, he could work with them.

And by the way, the growing Arab American and Muslim population in Chicago’s west and southwest suburbs are conservative at heart, strong advocates of religious freedom, opposed to imposing sexual orientation on societies, supporting prayer in schools, opposed to excessive government control, and the deterioration of “the family.”

The image you see of Arabs and Muslims, distorted by some high-profile activists, isn’t the image of the majority of the community — most Arabs are actually Christians, too.

It takes a real leader to compromise and work with the other political party politicians to produce policies that benefit the citizens and the voters.

As long as the Republicans allow losers to run their party, they will continue to lose. Although in truth, these losers thrive in failure and use it to stoke the anger of their followers, deflecting attention to the opposition and away from their own inability to succeed.