1/6/15
Yesterday, Congressmen Bobby Rush and Danny Davis
appeared with Mayor Rahm Emanuel at
an event kicking off an expansion of the Chicago
Transit Authority’s (“CTA’s”) Second
Chance program that provides jobs for ex-convicts. The local press and other observers of the
political scene took special note of the presence of Messrs. Rush and Davis,
two of the city’s most powerful black leaders, with Mr. Emanuel as the Mayor
dodges the slings and arrows being fired his way in the wake of the Laquan MacDonald shooting and its
aftermaths.
Especially interesting were the comments made by
Congressmen Rush and Davis when the topic of a possible Rahm resignation was brought up by the assembled media figures. Mr. Rush, in rejecting the idea that a Rahm
resignation might be good for the cause of police reform, stated
“If the (mayor’s
office) became vacant, it would take
another five years to even get remotely to the point where we are right now in
terms of reforming the police department.”
Mr. Davis, in rejecting the notion that Mr. Emanuel might
resign, opined
“I don’t think we’re
going to see resignations. When people
are in a position to be fired, they get fired.
But when people are in positions where they get elected, if the
electorate wants to change it, they’ve got to vote them out and vote somebody
else in.”
It should not be at all surprising that neither Mr. Rush nor
Mr. Davis wants to see Mr. Emanuel leave office. Chicago
politics is not dictated by ideology, or, contrary to popular belief, even
by race or ethnicity. Chicago politics
is dictated by power and the money that results from acquiring and keeping
power. This makes Chicago different
from just about any place else only in degree, but I digress. Messrs. Rush and Davis have enjoyed the spoils
that result from being integral parts of the Chicago political power
structure. Even since, and probably
before, Mr. Rush left the Black Panthers
to begin his ascent to the rarified regions of the Cook County Regular Democratic Organization’s power structure, he
has enjoyed power, respect, and money from all corners of the city’s and, if
the ability to overlook ethical transgressions is any indication, the country’s,
power structure. Under Richard M. Daley, Mr. Rush had the proverbial
run of the place and that latitude has continued under Mr. Daley’s
successor. Why would Mr. Rush want to
upset the apple cart at this stage? He’s
put a lot of time and effort into getting where he is and, at the age of 69, is
probably not eager to start currying the dubious favor of whoever were to takes
over in a crisis inspired coup of sorts.
Mr. Rush has been around long enough to know that his race will count
for little if somehow a black politician should succeed a disgraced Rahm
Emanuel and Mr. Rush’s chances of getting as good a deal as he has received
from the city’s existing power structure are slim.
Just about the same could be said for Mr. Davis; he has
been treated like royalty under the current regime and its predecessor and has
very little incentive to take a chance on a neophyte. But something else is at work in the case of
the apparent Davis/Emanuel condominium:
Mr. Davis made the uncharacteristically foolish mistake of supporting Chuy Garcia for mayor in the last
mayoral election. So for Mr. Davis, his
apparent game of nicey-nice with Mr. Emanuel involves some measure of
atonement. Mr. Davis knows that Mr.
Emanuel isn’t going anywhere any time soon and thus getting back into the Mayor’s
good graces is of paramount importance.
Mr. Davis’s support of Mr. Emanuel is, in all likelihood, a small part
of the penance that will be expected of him.
There may be something else at work here, something of
which I am not as sure as I am of the ability of the aging Messrs. Rush and
Davis to ascertain the score around town.
Maybe the post McDonald outrage is more a creation of the media than a
genuine movement. The crowds at the
demonstrations have been small, and usually exaggerated by the media, and their
intensity, never that great in the first place, has been petering out as time
has passed. The typical black citizen is smarter than the media seem to think.
Yes, s/he is angry at the shooting of Mr. McDonald and other young black
men by the Chicago police. But s/he also
realizes that the biggest problem is not the police shootings but the black on
black crime that has ravaged his or her neighborhood. S/he also notices that the “community
leadership’s” outrage at this far larger problem has been disproportionately
muted. So maybe this rising tide of
anger, or however the media portray it, at the Chicago Police Department and the Emanuel administration, is not as
overwhelming as the largely white press would have us believe. And old pros like Messrs. Davis and Rush are
not about to jump on a bandwagon that is about to run out of gas. Mr. Davis did that in the last election and,
as I mentioned before, is still doing penance for this uncharacteristic lack of
discernment.
Most of the opposition to Mr. Emanuel in the black
community will come from those far removed from the power structure or from
those who lack a fundamental understanding of how things work around this town
and how loudly money and power, and the potential of acquiring more of both,
speak to people. One might see people
who are comfortable within the power structure, like County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, openly oppose Mr.
Emanuel because they might think that they could replace Mr. Emanuel as a
result. But the smart people among this
crowd will, upon not much reflection at all, come to realize that bucking the
power structure in Chicago is a fool’s game; 1983 was more than 30 years ago,
the tide is weaker now, and the demographics are not as friendly as they were
back then. If such insiders, black,
Hispanic, or white, really want to be Mr. Emanuel’s successor, the surer path
to achieving that goal is to play ball with the entrenched.
See my two books, The Chairman, A Novel of
Big City Politics and The Chairman’s Challenge,
A Continuing Novel of Big City Politics, for further illumination on
how things work in Chicago and Illinois politics.
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