Zoom Out From Our Usual To Reflect On What This Election Is About – Wirepoints

By: Mark Glennon*

On this site, we usually zoom in on data, facts and charts that inform specific policy issues.

Elections, however, are time to zoom out and step back – to reflect on where the sum of those details says we have gone, where we are headed and what we want from the election.

So, forget for a moment our usual links to supporting information or to any of our 2,068 original columns presenting that information.

Below is my personal view on that compilation for the topics we have covered on this site. These matters shouldn’t entirely determine the election’s outcome because there are other issues we don’t cover. I accept that.

I submit, however, that my views below are held by a majority of the population and widely regarded as exceptionally important. Hence, I will use “we”:

We are appalled by failing schools that prioritize woke political, racial and sexual indoctrination over basic skills.

We are aghast watching violent criminals destroy our cities and so-called prosecutors who let them.

We have had enough of politicians who demonized the police.

We have had it with Illinois politicians who pretend that our fiscal crisis is gone and continue to ignore our most critical financial challenge – pensions.

We are livid about inflation caused largely by absurdly oversized federal spending that was dishonestly labeled as pandemic relief.

We want the damn border enforced, which is among the most fundamental duties of government.

We are fed up with men competing in women’s sports.

We are infuriated with gerrymandered election maps that violated campaign promises of fair maps.

We are disgusted with how America threw away its energy independence and tired of naïve, unaffordable renewable energy goals, both federal and state.

We have had more than enough of the cancel culture and censorship by tech platforms, the media and illiberal mobs.

We are tired of those who disagree who respond only with empty charges of racism, fascism and the like.

We are horrified by the woke monopoly on higher education that has eliminated opinion diversity and academic freedom.

We oppose the excessive influence public unions have on Illinois government.

We are sick of seeing Illinoisans and our tax base flee and with lawmakers’ indifference to the causes, particularly high taxes.

We are aghast that personal responsibility and the golden rule have been abandoned as core values and replaced with indolence and grievance mongering.

We will never forget or forgive the incompetent and dishonest response to Covid, particularly school shutdowns that irreparably hurt so many of our young people.

We will not accept, under any circumstances, the growing assault on parental control over their own children, particularly efforts to end parental control over school curriculum.

We think the poor, the working class and minorities have been had by today’s left — the progressives in charge. They suffer hardest at the hands of progressive politicians who offer nothing beyond a life dependent on government.

And, perhaps most of all, we abhor, and will not tolerate, the lies told by politicians and much of the media, day in and day out, on issue after issue, without the slightest indication of conscience.

*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.