By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner
Love Trump or hate him, he won on an agenda to disrupt the country’s broken border, the economy, and how Washington itself works. But even as many Trump detractors soften their stance against him, agreeing that too much has gone too far in America, Illinois is going the other way. Gov. J.B. Pritzker and leaders of the Democratic party are working hard to Trump-proof Illinois. They, their public sector union allies and a friendly media don’t want any disruption of their ironclad control over Illinois, never mind the continuing decline of the state.
Now, we’re not arguing for Trump to come and directly target Illinois for disruption, though we’ll benefit from much of what the president does at the federal level. Disruption at the border, great. We’ll happily accept the relief. Disruption of the massive, distortionary green energy subsidies, also great. Illinoisans’ energy costs have been jumping of late. Disruption of the rules and actions that limit free speech and force feed DEI on our institutions. Absolutely. Good riddance to the cancel culture of the past few years.
But the real disruption Illinois needs is local and Illinois-specific. We don’t need Trump for that. We don’t need the feds. We don’t need outsiders. What we need is for us to do it ourselves. Ordinary Illinoisans disrupting what’s wrong with our state. Dismantling the laws that now make Illinois an extreme outlier on the many fiscal, economic and demographic issues that matter most.
That disruption starts with clawing back the extreme powers that state legislators have given the public sector unions over the last few decades – in exchange for support at the ballot box. There’s perhaps no other state in the country where the politicians and the public unions are more intertwined than Illinois. Take Chicago, where the unions and the politicians have become one and the same: Brandon Johnson is a CTU boss, the head of Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago mayor all in one.
It’s gotten so bad that Illinoisans are now subservient to their public servants.
How about disruption at Illinois’ failed schools, where 1.1 million of the state’s public school children can’t read at grade level? We’ve written ad nauseam about how Illinois’ education system gave up long ago on ensuring kids learn how to read and do math. It’s not an exaggeration, as we wrote recently in Fresh data: Illinois officials graduate record 88% of students despite tragic literacy, numeracy rates.
The disruption must be 100% universal school choice, like what’s happening all around Illinois. Universal choice means any family – of any race and any means – that wants to send their kid to a school of their choice can access an $8,000-$10,000 voucher or an education savings account. Imagine a single mom in Decatur being able to take her kid out of the Decatur Public Schools, where just 10% of all kids read at grade level, and to try instead a private school obsessed with reading and learning.
Here’s another disruption that will be popular among Illinoisans. Bring back the rule of law so we can end stories like this one from last week: Paroled 8-time felon murders man who argued with woman at grocery store: prosecutors. Treating criminals as criminals and giving police the tools and resources they need to effectively fight crime is essential to reducing the bloodshed in Chicago and across the state. Mayor Johnson may be celebrating the small 8% drop in murders in 2024, but he ignores the fact that Chicago has led the country for most murders in the nation 13 years in a row…and that kids are increasingly a big part of those statistics.
There are many more disruptions that Illinois needs – like a reduction in state power and state mandates, the elimination of gerrymandering, a dramatic drop in taxation. The list is long.
But changes at the federal level won’t – and can’t – be enough to fix Illinois. It will take a concerted effort by Illinoisans to disrupt and dismantle the state’s political machine piece by piece.
Much of the state’s political elite may not like it, but Illinoisans 44% support for Trump foreshadows the potential for Illinois’ own momentum for disruption.
Read more from Wirepoints:
- While S&P downgrades Chicago, Mayor Johnson and city officials deny failures
- As Illinois politicians keep pushing progressive tax schemes, other states keep dumping them. Louisiana is the latest.
- Poor student achievement and near-zero accountability: An indictment of Illinois’ public education system
- The big myth that needs debunking: Illinois needs more money for education
A largely unasked question is becoming glaring: Is Illinois doing all it should to use artificial intelligence to make government cost less and work better? So far, the evidence says no.
Audio and summary 
If this bill passes, say goodbye to local control over all Illinois parks and expect to see open drug and alcohol use, needles, no sanitation and fire hazards, but no ordinary park users.
The gap between free and properous Red States and Deep Blue single party states like IL is as great as the Grand Canyon now, and not in a good way. If it hasn’t happened already, never will – IL and Chicago are a unfixable Leftist morass.
I miss my home state of IL. The mono party has assimilated all residents. The only hope is for someone to destroy the borg from within. Once we left IL for a red state it became clear that Illinois has been taking tax money from Illinoisans and using it to build a warm nest for government employees. If you’re a government employee, you are living the dream. If not, you’re paying for it.
Excellent article. Rule by public unions needs to end.
There’s only one way out and if Trump has a successful term, it may happen. 44% is getting very close to a swing state. 2028 might be the time for the earthquake.