Not too long ago the Chicago Tribune obtained and published a trove of Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s text messages. Since then Trib political reporter Gregory Porter has been analyzing their contents. Here’s snipper from his latest report:
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot privately called an official a “dumb, dumb person of color.â€
Ald. Jason Ervin, she texted, was “full of crap.†She told Ald. Brendan Reilly he was “bush league,†and referred to Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez as a “jackass†in a text to another council member.
Lightfoot’s brusque style is no secret. But a trove of text messages, recently obtained by the Tribune, further reveals the extent to which the mayor — who campaigned as a reformer aiming to unite the city — at times resorts to name-calling and shaming of her perceived enemies as she governs the city.
The Tribune obtained more than 2½ years of Lightfoot’s text messages with aldermen through a series of Freedom of Information Act requests — which her staff failed to comply with until the state attorney general admonished them and the Tribune threatened a lawsuit.
That led to the release of hundreds of pages of documents offering an unprecedented look at how Chicago’s chief executive deals with city aldermen and workers.
IMO Mayor Lightfoot is repeating the same mistakes that her predecessor, Rahm Emanuel, made and for the same reason. It’s called variously a “Napoleon complex” and “short man syndrome”. They’re compensating for their lack of physical stature by aggressive, even abuse or demeaning social interactions. Such behavior simply doesn’t work when you’re dealing with people who are as or more powerful than you are which Mayor Emanuel learned to his chagrin when the teachers’ union went out on strike on him. The abusive language he had used towards the president of their union did not endear her or them to him.
Richie Daley was no giant and his dad was even shorter but they were a lot more powerful than either of their successors and knew how to deal with people.
Being continuously abusive in your interactions with people is seen as a character flaw. And, character flaws eventually catch up with people in negative ways. Over time Mayor Lightfoot will experience the consequences of her sharp tongue, just like Trump did.
On the topic of Chicago — what is your opinion on the series that Politico magazine did on the changing fortunes of Africans Americans and Chicago.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/12/07/chicago-black-population-decline-523563
As someone who doesn’t know much about Chicago; I learned quite a bit.
I’ve been posting on this subject for years. Successive mayoral administrations have bungled policy completely. The Politico reporting is fine as far as it goes but it doesn’t touch on some basic problems like how some Democratic politicians including very high-ranking ones have been in bed with the gangs for years.
Right now there’s a heated argument about redistricting. Black aldermen are desperate to keep the count of wards with black majorities as high as possible (to keep their jobs). Hispanics are equally eager to get the power they think they deserve. As I have been predicting for decades the notion that they will make common cause has always been ludicrous to the benefit of whites in Chicago. A key underlying question is whether wards should be aligned to maximize how representative they are of the city’s population or how representative they are of the voting population. If the former the number of wards with Hispanic majorities should outnumber those with black majorities. If the latter it should be the reverse.