I am not in Cook County anymore. When I was I was still voting Democrat because well was there any Republicans in Cook County?
Used to be that suburban Cook was more widely Republican and someone from that party could carry a Countywide election occasionally. There is one (oh wait maybe two now, not sure about the affiliation of the guy who beat Natarus) Republican aldermen. In the more affluent lakefront districts and in the middle class areas on the fringes of town (the traditional “city employee” neighborhoods) there are enclaves of Republican voters. There are some Republican state legislators from Cook (even within parts of the city) and a couple of the Republican Congressmen have parts of Cook County in their districts. Suburban Cook still has it’s spots of Republican control (along with local village presidents and County Commissioners… and I think one Board of Review member), but it isn’t strong enough to elect anyone from the party except for when there is a certain degree of scandal and outrage about his opponent.
Before the state legislature reformed to streamline itself and eliminate proportional voting, there were more opportunities for opposing factions (such as Republicans in Chicago or Democrats in suburban Cook) to gain a certain degree of foothold occasionally. Now, with that potential long gone, everything gets run by the controlling party at the local level.
Recognize, however, that the Illinois Republican party is, by and large, not at all akin to the national conservative movement Republicans. It’s more of an old skool Eastern Seabord liberal establishment type of party here (what the Illinois conservatives mockingly call “Country Club Republicans”). Which accounts for the liberal social policies of many Illinois Republicans. Some would have considered Illinois to be a Republican state for the last couple of decades while it was run by the likes of Jim Thompson, Jim Edgar, and George Ryan… essentially all socially liberal (despire Ryan’s past as a legislator).
Our Democrat Catholic Senator is proabortion and I have emailed him several times. He is committed to being proabortion.
State Senator or U.S. Senator? Durbin was a pro-life Democrat as a House Congressman, but switched for the money and power when he wanted to rise. Even at the state senator level, however, such a thing is, admittedly, not uncommon.
I do have more choices in the burbs for people that are prolife.
Obviously. (Though an in-city type would probably note that you would have less of a choice of people who support other issues that they find important, also.)
Democrats don’t have a very good record, you must admit that. I look it up on the Right to Life reportcard. I am not making this up you must know.
I’m certainly not defending the ones who vote the “wrong” way. I’m only noting that not “All Democratic” elected officials in the city or state are pro-abort. Indeed, it is usually the downstate Dems and some of the Chicago area ones who stand up to some of the most aggregious errors. Without them, we’d REALLY be lost in the state house.
What is really sad is that I know many Catholics in Cook County that really don’t seem to care about life issues.
I suppose that most people are either apathetic, frustrated (some of them actually WERE fighting fervantly 25 years ago, but never saw progress and gave up), or just don’t see how it affects them and are more concerned about matters which seem to immediately impact their lives.
Considering that polls show (on average) how only what, about 7% or something like that, of voters make this issue a priority of any sort (whether being pro-life or pro-choice) that should not prove in the least surprizing. Those of us who care about it primarily are very much in the minority.
