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Tag: lori lightfoot
coronavirus

The Pandemic Is A National Test That We’ve Failed

Over the past century, there have been times when Americans showed they can unite to overcome formidable challenges: winning World II, sending men to the moon, bringing down Soviet communism. The coronavirus pandemic will not be remembered as one of them.

It's fair to say that we have done many things right, individually and collectively. Most Americans, most of the time, have abided by the counsel of public health experts that we wear masks, socially distance and avoid large indoor gatherings. Most governors and mayors have taken prudent steps to curb transmission of the virus. In all, we've done pretty well.

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Why Trump Can’t Restart The Economy Now

Why Trump Can’t Restart The Economy Now

The federal government’s effort to combat the new coronavirus carries an economic price that is getting higher every day — too high, it appears, for President Donald Trump and some of his advisers. They fear a sharp, brutal downturn that could boost unemployment into double-digits, litter the landscape with bankruptcies and doom his reelection bid.

On Monday, the president expressed impatience: “America will, again, and soon, be open for business. Very soon.” His reason: “We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself.” On Tuesday, he said he “would love to have the country opened up, and just raring to go, by Easter” — April 12.

Having declared himself a “wartime president,” Trump assumes he can unilaterally decide to restart the economy and get Americans back to work, companies back to making money and the stock market back to its previous heights. In truth, most of these matters are not under his control.

He can instruct Americans to return to their old ways. But he will be at odds with governors and mayors who have urged or mandated that businesses close and people remain at home. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot have imposed stringent measures on their own residents and will keep them in place as long as they see fit.

“Pulling back now, in my view for Chicago, does not make sense at all,” Lightfoot said Tuesday. Pritzker makes it clear he’s about as likely to defer to Trump as he is to get a face tattoo. In his Tuesday news conference, Pritzker stressed, “I want to be 100 percent clear about what will drive my decision-making in the weeks ahead: science.”

Elected officials elsewhere are likely to do likewise. As of Tuesday, The New York Times reports, “at least 167 million people in 17 states, 18 counties and 10 cities are being urged to stay home.”

Though Democratic and Republican voters diverge somewhat on the need for action, governors of both parties have taken the lead. Ohio’s Mike DeWine, a Republican, issued a stay-at-home edict Sunday, saying, “I don’t know any other way to describe it other than to say we are at war.” GOP governors in Indiana, Massachusetts and West Virginia have adopted the same policy.

They aren’t likely to reverse course merely to accommodate the president. Democratic governors from New York to California will not hesitate to defy him.

In moments of national crisis, power usually flows to the central government. To some extent, that is happening this time, as Congress scrambles to help shuttered businesses and newly unemployed workers. But we are also seeing the reinvigoration of federalism by state leaders who are making decisions without waiting for guidance from Washington.

Corporate executives and small business people cannot be under any illusions about the challenges created by the virus. The nation’s Big Three car companies shut down production under pressure from the United Auto Workers, which would fight any attempt to resume normal operations.

Anyone who owns a hotel, resort, restaurant, hair salon, bar, workout facility or music venue must realize that it’s one thing to open your doors and quite another to attract customers. It would not be easy for the administration to get elementary and secondary schools to reopen or persuade universities to pack students into dormitories and lecture halls.

The professional sports leagues know that resumption of games before spectators would put their own players, coaches and other personnel at risk and might not sell many tickets. As Yogi Berra once said, “If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them.”

Most Americans have come to understand the need for social distancing and self-isolation. They have learned that exposure to others is dangerous for them and those they care about. As cases of COVID-19 rise, and deaths mount, their aversion to old-fashioned mingling will only increase.

As the epidemic shows up in places where it has not yet been detected, the fear of ordinary Americans will count for more than the desires of the president. The best way to overcome that fear, and its effect on the economy, is to slow the spread of the disease, implement widespread testing and keep hospitals from being fatally swamped. Only then may people feel enough confidence to shift back toward economic life as we knew it.

Trump can tell Americans to go back to life as before. But he may find that what he says doesn’t matter.

Steve Chapman blogs at http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chapman. Follow him on Twitter @SteveChapman13 or at https://www.facebook.com/stevechapman13. To find out more about Steve Chapman and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

What The Chicago Mayoral Race May Tell Us About 2020

What The Chicago Mayoral Race May Tell Us About 2020

On Tuesday, Chicagoans did something that no one imagined a year ago, voting by a mammoth margin to entrust the mayor’s office to an uncharismatic gay black woman who has never held elective office. Lori Lightfoot was the most surprising election winner since — well, since Donald Trump.

Chicago is not a cross-section of America, but developments and tendencies seen in America’s third-largest city often reflect the general pattern of the nation’s political evolution. And those on display Tuesday offered some clues about how the 2020 presidential election may go.

One conclusion to be drawn from the mayoral race is that large fields make for unpredictable outcomes. There were 14 candidates on the Feb. 26 ballot, including some formidable figures who enjoyed big advantages in name recognition, proven vote-getting prowess, and fundraising. But given such a wide range of options, voters are unlikely to coalesce rapidly behind any of them — even those who start out looking like winners.

For a candidate, assembling a majority is not the first priority; building a small base of supporters can be enough, at least in early contests. Lightfoot, today’s landslide winner, got just 17.5 percent in the first round, and that was enough to put her in first place. Toni Preckwinkle made the runoff with only 16 percent. The candidates who didn’t survive captured 2 out of every 3 votes.

We already knew about this phenomenon from the last presidential election. No one gave Trump a chance of winning early on. But he won the New Hampshire primary with 35 percent of the vote, and he was able to win several more primaries with far less than a majority. One key to his success was a surfeit of rivals who managed only to kill each other off until he had a commanding lead.

In the mayoral race, we found that being well-known at the start is not an indispensable attribute. A long and crowded campaign gives obscure candidates a chance to gain attention. Lightfoot’s victory should be taken as encouraging by such Democratic presidential contenders as Pete Buttigieg, Jay Inslee, John Hickenlooper, and even Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang.

What is plain from this election is something that was also apparent in 2016: Voters don’t place immense importance on experience in elective office, of which Lightfoot has none. Neither did J.B. Pritzker before he was elected governor of Illinois, and neither did his predecessor, Bruce Rauner. Nor, of course, did Trump. These examples are not hopeful indicators for Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, or Cory Booker.

The public’s attitude stems from the performance of elected officials and government institutions over the past two decades. Nationally, those include the 9/11 attacks, the Iraq war, the financial crisis of 2008, the Great Recession and the slow recovery that followed.

In Chicago, they include the sharp increase in murders in 2016, the 2014 killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald by a Chicago cop and the ensuing cover-up, the crushing public pension debt, and repeated tax increases.

Looking at the debacles produced by veteran leaders who were supposed to know what they were doing, people find themselves more willing to take a chance on inexperienced newcomers. Trump’s many blunders and inability to learn from them may eventually curb this popular impulse, but not just yet.

Fresh faces seem to have considerably more appeal than before. Lightfoot benefited from being a conspicuous departure from the straight white men, Rahm Emanuel and Richard M. Daley, who preceded her as Chicago mayor. In a runoff featuring two African-American women, Preckwinkle was better connected and more establishment-oriented, and those hard-earned traits turned out to be liabilities.

Why did Americans elect Barack Obama and then Trump, who had almost nothing in common? Because each candidate represented something very different from what came before. Hillary Clinton’s stature and expertise were a mixed blessing when she ran against Obama in 2008 and Trump in 2016.

The days when George W. Bush could succeed largely because he came from a famous political family are over. Ask Jeb. Or ask Bill Daley, son of one Chicago mayor and brother of another, who failed to make the runoff.

But the race is not always to the swift; time and chance happen to them all. Come election night 2020, the only surprising outcome would be an unsurprising outcome.

Steve Chapman blogs at http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chapman. Follow him on Twitter @SteveChapman13 or at https://www.facebook.com/stevechapman13. To find out more about Steve Chapman and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.