Jay Weber Show transcript 8-22-24 6:10-am
You know-there’s a great ‘irony’ in having the democrats hold their national convention in Chicago this year-
It’s in keeping with the incredible hypocrisy and intentional blinders that we see as features of today’s democrat party.
As a pundit put it this week: if democrat leaders want to see the ‘real America’ they have created, today, all they’d need to do is venture outside of the united center and their convention bubble and see more of Chicago: a once-great city that has been losing population, it’s pull, and its ‘shine’ for some time, now.
This is a city that was literally built on ‘big shoulders. Built on working class innovation, work ethic, and self-reliance.
And now- it’s a mere echo of what it once was.
In the 1950s and 60s- Chicago was literally called ‘the city that works.
Today, it could be called, ‘the city where everything’s broken’.
What a downfall. And it’s the modern-era democrats who are to blame.
If ‘bygone era’ democrats helped to build Chicago up- modern era democrats have done nothing but destroy it: oppressive taxation that drove out both manufacturing -and- company headquarters. High crime rates that did the same. God-awful public schools that have cranked out multiple generations of ignorant lemonheads.
This, of course, has meant an ugly cycle of poverty that just keeps reinventing itself.
Do you know that Chicago’s population is lower than it was 100 years ago?
This surprised even me: the city’s census-figure population is 2.6 million. It was down other four percent in the 2020 census.
That amounted to another 100-thousand people who had fled Chicago over that previous decade-and since 2020-of course- the trickle of people fleeing Chicago has turned into a steady stream. Both residents-and businesses- leaving.
In fact- the number of major companies that have fled Chicago just over the last few years is as impressive as it is depressing.
Just over the last year or so-Caterpillar, Boeing, Citadel, and Tyson foods have all left.That’s’ a major blow to one city- no matter how large it is.
As one analyst pointed out: that’s not just hundreds of good paying jobs and taxpaying employees that Chicago has lost-it’s also millions of charitable and philanthropic dollars that were coming from those companies.
That’s a very good point: when major corporations like Caterpillar and Boeing move out- you lose some major sponsorships and private sector dollars that have been helping the community. Sponsoring venues. Paying for signage. Underwriting little league teams and youth sports...etc.
It's more than just ‘the jobs’ that are lost.
And -maybe the worst thing about Chicago right now is- there’s no sense of ‘hope’ that things are going to get better any time soon.
I said it when socialist mayor Beetlejuice was being replaced: the city’s’ remaining residents had a chance to vote for a more sensible, reasonable, democrat with a proven record of leadership in other leadership roles-
Or- a radical community activist who was the handpicked candidate of the Marxist Chicago teacher’s union and the Chicago political machine.
That foolish idiot-who is even more socialist than Beetlejuice- is Brandon Johnson, the current Chicago mayor.
When he was elected-I advised any remaining ‘decent’ Chicagoans to flee. Because things were ‘only ever’ going to get worse from here on in.
The residents of that city have chosen their path: more govt handouts, more dysfunctional leadership, more crime, and decay.
And what have they gotten under Brandon Johnson thus far?
Precisely that,,,,as predicted.
Before he was elected, Brandon Johnson had never run anything- and he was the ultimate ‘outsider’ agitator. He was a political thug for the teacher’s union, openly pushing a Marxist agenda.
Now he’s in charge of the city-and his tenure is marked with instances of him siding with the criminals- pushing that Marxist agenda-and refusing to take responsibility for any of his failures-
Which is- by the way- a hallmark of leftists as they destroy things: I’ve never seen a left-wing democrat ever take responsibility for any of the damage they’ve done.
Johnson is no exception. He’s got a bad answer and a fake excuse for everything...as he flips the city’s problems on their head: the high crime problem should be met with-more sympathy and excuses for the criminals-
Not with a crackdown on crime.... etc.
As his city rots...Johnson’s real interest is in ‘slave reparations’ and ‘economic liberation’...and a bunch of radical nonsense that don’t solve a single one of Chicago’s problems. Today. Or in the future.
Grocery stores and Walmart’s have been shutting down and moving out-to the point that some Chicago neighborhoods have nowhere to shop or get groceries.
Brandon blames the corporations. Not the social rot.
It also shouldn’t be lost on us that -it is the exact policies that kamala Harris and Tim Walz have supported-that have led to the civil and economic decay of cities like Chicago and Minneapolis- in this era.
Chicago hasn’t had a republican mayor in over 90 years. It’s a stretch of time that’s nearly if the one in Milwaukee, here.
It’s been 90 years since Chicago was run by a republican. Heck, it’s been 40 or 50 years since Chicago was at least run by the political machine of democrat mayor Richard Daley. Chicago was-at that time-at least a clean and largely functional city.
Then came the loony liberalism. That gave way to the sort of socialism that mayor Lori Lightfoot and Brandon Johnson now espouse-
Along with the bulk of the Chicago councilmen. And it’s all decay and excuses.
Murders in Chicago hit a 50 year high under Lightfoot in 2022. Nearly every victim was either black or brown-and yet-Lightfoot continually blamed racism.
Brandon Johnson is even worse- blaming everything from smash-and-grabs to rapes and murders on ‘misunderstood teens and criminals who need more understanding from the rest of us.
No wonder this city’s a hellhole.
Do you know the poverty rate in Chicago is nearly one-in-five residents?
Chicago’s poverty rate is 17 percent. And even that stat is misleading. On the south and west sides of Chicago-the ‘really bad’ neighborhoods- the poverty rate is a full 50 percent.
That’s ‘third world’ sorts of stats.
And one of the biggest reasons? The Chicago public schools crank out kids who can’t read or do math at a third-grade level.
According to the Illinois state dept of education- only one in ten Chicago school students are reading or doing math at ‘grade level’.
Now that-is pathetic.
That’s virtually sending kids to school to ‘make them dumber’. Isn’t it?
And sadly, the ‘Chicago’ model of democrat governance has been repeated in New York, LA, San Francisco, Oakland, Portland, Washington DC.
This. Is what all-of America would look like if today’s democrats ‘ever really’ get their way.
And it’s more evident than ever that-this- this- Chicago, Minnesota, Frisco-
This is what we get if Americans are dumb enough to put Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in office.
We get-even more of-this.
Poverty, decay, and crime- implemented on a larger scale- across America.
This is today’s highly dysfunctional, highly destructive, democrat party.
photo credit: Getty Images
audio version of the segment here > Chicago is the perfect city for the DNC. The city of failed policies