Elections matter. Today’s Chicago mayoral run-off matters. The two candidates in the run-off – Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas – offer starkly different visions and agendas for the city. And today, the people will decide – but only those who show up and vote.
Happily, all can vote in Chicago. Even if you aren’t registered or haven’t voted in the past, you can go to a polling place, register and vote–at the same time. Same-day, on-site voting registration allows busy workers and distracted parents to cast their votes without having to register ahead of time.
Yet in the first round of the mayoral election, with a multitude of candidates, barely more than one-third – about 36 percent – of those eligible cast a ballot.
In this race, the two candidates offer a dramatic choice. Brandon Johnson is a former teacher and union organizer. He grew up in Chicago in a working-class family. He wants to repair and invest in Chicago’s public schools, ending the slash-and-close policies that have been so costly. He also wants police reform. He wants to add social workers and mental health professionals so police spend their time on preventing and solving crime; and not on tasks like resolving domestic quarrels or treating mental illness that they aren’t trained for. His financial support comes primarily from unions.
Paul Vallas is a conservative. He was the CEO of Chicago Public Schools in the mid-’90s. He pushed choice schools, took out loans, and skimmed money from teacher pensions to help seed them. He left the school system in a deep crisis. He promises an updated version of school privatization, taking money from public schools to pay for it. He has the support of the right-wing leaders of the Chicago Police Union, in part because he promises more of the same – more police without reform or accountability. His financial support comes largely from wealthy private donors – many of them conservative Republicans.
The two campaigns have unleashed millions in ads – many of them negative, some scurrilous – like the claim that Johnson would “defund the police.” Underneath the ad barrage, the choice is clear. If you believe that Chicago needs to invest in its public schools and reform its police, Johnson is your candidate. If you believe that public schools should be drained to support private ventures, if you want more of the same from the police, and if you prefer a candidate who is funded by wealthy financial interests, Vallas is your man.
If you prefer a candidate supported largely by workers and their unions, Johnson gets your vote. There are other issues, but these surely are defining ones.
Increasingly, elections across the country – from the White House to city councils – feature stark choices like this. Under the influence of Donald Trump, the Republican Party has become more wedded to the politics of fear and division, more committed to tax benefits for the rich and program cuts for the poor, more wedded to big money and big oil, and less committed to democracy and free and fair elections.
For example, today in Wisconsin, voters will elect a new member of the highest court in the state, who will represent the deciding vote on a court panel that is basically split evenly between Democrats and Republicans. The progressive candidate favors a woman’s right to choose and defends the right to vote, opposing the partisan gerrymandering that allows Republicans to dominate the legislature with a minority of the votes. The conservative candidate is anti-choice and will uphold partisan gerrymandering. Again, this a stark choice, one that, with Wisconsin, a swing state in a divided nation, will have a major effect on national politics over the next few years.
Elections matter – and they matter even more as the partisan divide gets ever wider. As the choices get starker, then it is even more vital that more and more people express their opinion by casting their ballots.
Vote today if you still can – and be prepared to vote in the future. This country faces deep challenges – and our democracy depends upon citizens to make the choices.
You can write to the Rev. Jesse Jackson in care of this newspaper or by email at jjackson@rainbowpush.org. Follow him on Twitter @RevJJackson.
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