Chicago Politics Still ‘Ain’t Beanbag,’ But Try to Keep it Ccivil

Clarence Page, Tribune Content Agency on Mar 6, 2023

“Politics ain’t beanbag,” Washington often observed, quoting an old saying that goes back to 19th-century Chicago novelist Finley Peter Dunne. Washington understood the times and worked to change them.

Today, we see race, ethnicity and gender continue to be issues in Chicago, but fortunately the voters seem to have gotten a little better at focusing on issues that affect all colors of Chicagoans.

Vallas is white, and Johnson is African American. But, in the often-quoted spirit of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., I believe they should be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their platforms.

Of course, that approach can be complicated by the language that we use.

For example, Vallas is keeping his laser focus on crime, saying in speeches that it’s time to ”take our city back.” Lightfoot compared that line to “Vote for Epton before it’s too late” as a racial dog whistle, echoing back to 1983. Well, not quite.

Johnson, by contrast, has backed away from his early support of the “defund the police” movement to call instead for reversing the “lack of investment” in high crime areas so police don’t have to behave as “crisis interventionists, therapists and social workers” on emergency calls.

Vallas, backed by the Fraternal Order of Police, presented himself as the tough-on-crime candidate who also supports restoring a community policing model that builds strong relationships between police and the communities they serve.

I have long supported community policing as well as alternative services to take some of the burden off police in emergency calls. As departing Mayor Lightfoot showed, coming up with new ideas is great, but putting them into action can be quite another matter.

Chicago politics, like elsewhere, still ain’t beanbag. Nevertheless, let’s hope it stays civil.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)