Friday, July 1, 2022

Why isn’t Darren Bailey ashamed?


     In my career, I’ve reported on many people sunk in a state of debasement. Emaciated crack addicts nestled in filthy nests of rags on Lower Wacker Drive. Diseased prostitutes selling their bodies to passing cars on Cicero Avenue. Impoverished street people huddling in Uptown doorways in sub-zero weather.
     I try to treat them with humanity, to convey their life stories honestly, without judgment.
     But state Sen. Darren Bailey, R-Xenia, the newly minted Republican nominee for governor, poses a challenge. There he was, last weekend at a downstate Trump rally, a proud supplicant before the disgraced and disgraceful former president, who should be in prison, not regally bestowing blessings on acolytes.
     “Darren is fearless supporter of the 2nd Amendment and a tireless champion of religious liberty,” Trump said.
     Given the source, a chronic liar, much of that statement has to be assumed to be untrue, and it is.
     “Fearless” and gun fetishization certainly don’t go together. Fear is what the whole secular religion built around guns is about. Me, I can go to the store to buy eggs without strapping on an arsenal. Others can’t, and should be viewed with pity. It must be awful to be so terribly afraid.
     Set that aside as a word choice quibble. Bailey is your guns guns guns guy, and if that’s the world you want to live in, or try to, vote for him.
     But “tireless champion of religious liberty”? Again, a bit of truth. For Bailey himself, sure. His notion of religion, his brand of rigid Christian white supremacy, is pushed relentlessly. Zeal never rests.

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11 comments:

  1. Bailey and his followers are frightening!

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  2. Bailey will never be ashamed of his wretched beliefs, as he's proud to be an asshole! He just doesn't know he's an asshole! He thinks he's a saint, bringing religion & saving to the uneducated masses.
    When Pritzker crushes him in November, I can't wait to hear his unapologetic concession speech, where he blames everyone else in Illinois for his loss, except himself & his hatred of all that's good!
    Of course that also means listening to that horrendous, high pitched twang of his, which makes fingernails on a blackboard sound pleasant!

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  3. I think Bailey could legitimately criticize Pryztker for spending millions of dollars to make sure that he, Bailey, would be his opponent in the general election. That's so Madiganlike. But I doubt that Bailey will raise the subject, even though the pundits have already done so, wrinkling their mighty brows in disfavor. Let's hope the strategy doesn't backfire.

    john

    John

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    1. Given the utter hardball the Republicans are playing, I think the Dem gambit of boosting Bailey because he's an — in theory — unelectable zealot is a sound one. Any strategy can backfire.

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    2. "Any strategy can backfire." Indeed. I recall in 2016, I was very concerned about Hillary's vulnerability in the election, primarily because of the quarter-century campaign that Republicans had conducted to demonize her and her husband. Especially after the "grab 'em by the pussy" tape came out, I was kinda relieved, thinking that the Biggest Loser was one guy who was so repellent that even misguided Americans would manage to choose Hillary over him. Though, at the same time, I also realized what a risky proposition it was -- yes, having the orange guy as her opponent should have assured her election, but what if, heaven forbid, he should "win"?

      Fast forward to today, and it's devastating to realize how vastly different things might look if the Electoral College had not enabled the least qualified, most mendacious charlatan imaginable to select 3 Supreme Court justices. Truly, an American tragedy.

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  4. Question is why aren’t the Illinois Republicans who voted for him ashamed.
    Oh but at least he’s not Black like Irvin. I guess that’s all that matters to Illinois R’s.

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  5. When I first began reading EGD each morning, I quickly learned that "To continue reading, click here" interrupting the column meant that it would be in the Sun-Times that day for everyone to see, and not just us acolytes. Thus it was tremendously satisfying to see that jump this morning in particular. I don't doubt his talent for growing corn, but I wish he'd stay there, and realize that his skill at growing vegetables does not qualify him for higher office.

    I do have one other thought on that: assuming that Darren Bailey makes the rounds of meeting with editors of the major dailies, will you be invited to sit in? I have this vision of a Bailey aide interrupting your line of questioning: "Objection! Argumentative!"

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  6. Why isn't he ashamed? Perhaps because when you're a member of a cult, such as Cult 45, clear thinking and self-awareness aren't really part of the program.

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  7. "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury is known for the burning of books in a dystopian future, to protect people from having bad thoughts. It's more than that though. One of the sequences in the book has a fake election between a handsome articulate man, versus a seedy looking man with a bad haircut who mumbles nonsense and picks his noise during a televised debate. The citizens are left with the illusion that they participated in a free and open election. Now it seems Pritzker read this book and didn't consider it a warning but used it as an instruction manual. By funding the worst possible candidate Hubert Hoag no wait I mean Darren Bailey, he set himself up as the best candidate. Now know I have a lot of hatred for Darren Bailey, enough to last at least two minutes, feel free to join me.

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  8. I hope JB is right. I certainly don't want to see this guy win. But you saw the woman Trump came in to endorse won quite big. Illinois is much different downstate than around Chicago. I do think JB is a decent politician. He does know how to win. I hope he gets this one right.

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  9. take a well deserved bow Neil. Look at what you wrought. Again, take a bow.

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