Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama & Neo-Liberalism are the Daleys' Gifts to Chicago and the Nation. Thanks.
B[print_link]
- public education [1] Black Misleadership Class [2] Chicago [3] Democrats [4] privatization [5]
C H I C A G O ‘S
Last month, at the installation of the new White House chief of staff Bill Daley, President Obama declared the man had “public service in his DNA.” What Obama actually meant was that Daley, a lobbyist and JP Morgan Chase [7] exec who helped write NAFTA [8], hailed from the predatory family of wolves that have ruled Chicago for two generations and who helped launch his own career.
Corporate school reform: Made in Chicago
profitable private charter schools [11] and their contractors.
War on Public Workers? Made in Chicago
Chicago, where Democrats have been in power forever, has seen its brand of corporate neoliberalism toward workers in the public sector become bipartisan national policy. Outgoing mayor Richard Daley last year suggested that cities and counties should simply default on their pension obligations [13], to see what happens, and “renegotiate,” while President Obama has also declared war on the wages and benefits of public workers [14].
Rearranging the political landscape
residents can be more easily overridden by the power of big money. Candidates in Chicago used to need valid voter signatures on nominating petitions circulated by enighborhood residents. Laws were changed to let big money candidates import mercenary petition circulators from anywhere, again amplifying the power of big money over local grassroots organizing. And a quarter of the city’s African American population was driven from the city in two decades by the demolition of public housing and the fact that practically nobody built any affordable rental units.
Impotence, Irrelevance of Chicago Black Leadership
In fact, the Daley regime spent two decades feeding and unleashing its own brown Machine, the HDO, or Hispanic Democratic Organization. Mayoral candidate Gerry Chico, who finished second to Rahm Emanuel with a quarter of the vote, is a product of HDO.
The genuine progressive candidate in the mayoral race was former state senator Miguel del Valle, who finished with just under 10% of votes cast [16] in a lackluster 40% turnout. Del Valle was overwhelmed by the power of big money, which monopolized access to media, and the fragmentation of black and Latino Chicago, the destruction of most grassroots organized infrastructure, and the sheer weight of what Chicagoans call “the Machine.”
BAR managing editor Bruce A. Dixon is a native Chicagoan who now lives in exile near Atlanta GA. He is on the state committee of the Georgia Green Party, and can be reached at bruce.dixon@blackagendareport.com.
public education Black Misleadership Class Chicago Democrats privatization
Links:
[1] http://blackagendareport.com/category/education-public-education/public-education
[2] http://blackagendareport.com/category/african-america/black-misleadership-class
[3] http://blackagendareport.com/category/life-america/chicago
[4] http://blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/democrats
[5] http://blackagendareport.com/category/political-economy/privatization
[6] http://blackagendareport.com/sites/www.blackagendareport.com/files/rahm_obama_daley_machine.jpg
[7] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/10/william-daley-jp-morgan-stock_n_807161.html
[8] http://www.counterpunch.org/clinton03082008.html
[9] http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=914
[10] http://www.substancenews.net/articles.php?page=362
[11] http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=219×22966
[12] http://www.blackagendareport.com/category/us-politics/arne-duncan
[13] http://dailycensored.com/2010/12/15/chicago’s-mayor-daley-says-let-pension-funds-go-bankrupt-communities-are-failing-across-america/
[14] http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/clinton-obama-and-collapse-black-economic-stability
[15] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/22/AR2011022207620.html
[16] http://www.chicagoelections.com/dm/general/SummaryReport.pdf
[17] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fblackagendareport.com%2Fcontent%2Frahm-emanuel-barack-obama-neo-liberalism-are-daleys-gifts-chicago-and-nation-thanks&linkname=Rahm%20Emanuel%2C%20Barack%20Obama%20%26%20Neo-Liberalism%20are%20the%20Daleys%27%20Gifts%20to%20Chicago%20and%20the%20Nation.%20%20Thanks.