Am I Blue?

Since its focus this week was on Chicago and the failure of its “Blue Model”, as Walter Russell Mead has characterized the Fordist pattern of social organization under which a co-op of a few large companies, large labor unions, and the guiding hand of centralized government planning, fueled by debt and taxation, controls the working of society and the economy, I didn’t want to let George Will’s latest column go by without comment. Mr. Will remarks:

During the past 84 years, the growth of the public sector has been mostly driven by the alliance between elected politicians and public-sector unions. This has made Chicago emblematic of the coast-to-coast crisis of what Walter Russell Mead has labeled the “blue model” of municipal and state governance.

It is not Emanuel’s fault that Chicago’s three largest employers, after the federal government, are the public school system, the city government and Cook County’s government. Although Emanuel is a product of the Chicago politics that made Barack Obama, the crisis brought on by such politics now requires Emanuel to take many measures to make Chicago an exception to the nation’s economic lethargy under Obama.

There is one thing that is definitely Rahm Emanuel’s fault. When he took office in 2011, Chicago’s bond credit rating was A3. During his tenure it has inexorably dropped until it’s not given junk status. That is costing the city money. If he took the steps he’s taking now four years ago, it would have saved the city millions in interest payments. His call—his fault.

He’s certain to be rewarded by his banker cronies. It’s the citizens of Chicago who’ll pay the costs.

The video above is the incomparable Ethel Waters who introduced the standard, “Am I Blue?” in 1929. This is the hit record she made back then, nearly 90 years ago. That’s just about the last time that Chicago had a Republican mayor.