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If voter turnout for Tuesdays election indicates the health of our democracy this Fourth of July holiday, the patient may well be on life support.

A dismal 19.2% of suburban Cook County voters cast ballots in this years belated gubernatorial primary, the county clerks office reported. A pathetic 18.7% of registered voters turned out in Will County. In Chicago, 300,000 of the citys 1.5 million registered voters bothered to show up.

Our democracy and the principle of majority rule are in peril, and only one in five voters seems to care.

Illinois voters seemed unfazed that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled four days before the election that women did not have a constitutional right to abortion, after all. The court overturned the nearly 50-year-old precedent of Roe v. Wade, but the decision did not seem to motivate more people to vote Tuesday.

The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol convened a hastily scheduled hearing Tuesday to hear blockbuster testimony from White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson.

The committee is establishing with increasing certainty that Republican lawmakers and operatives participated in a plot to overturn the will of the people in a free and fair election by using violence to stop the process of certifying Joe Biden as winner of the 2020 presidential election.

Yet turnout would seem to indicate most people in Oak Lawn, Orland Park, Tinley Park and other communities in the south and southwest suburbs treat the revelations with a collective yawn.

Gas prices and inflation, thats what seems to matter most to many at the moment.

America seems largely unaware of the effort to chip away at rights, freedoms and protections. Most adults are busy with work, family and other matters. Many prefer to escape the nastiness of politics with entertainment.

The Jan. 6 committee seems to grasp the urgent need to grab peoples attention. What President Donald Trump and Republican co-conspirators did in their failed attempt to keep Trump in power went far beyond politics as usual.

They schemed to have state legislatures instead of voters decide which candidate should be awarded a states Electoral College votes. Republicans control legislatures in 30 states, thanks to gerrymandering.

In Illinois, Democrats have used the same tactics that Republicans have used in other states to create districts that are rarely competitive. Illinois Republicans should be outraged by how Democrats have created supermajorities by gerrymandering the GOP into irrelevance.

The current 18-member Illinois congressional delegation consists of 13 Democrats and five Republicans. There are 73 Democrats and 45 Republicans in the Illinois House. The Illinois Senate has 40 Democrats and 18 Republicans.

Democratic voters outnumber Republicans in Illinois, but the margin is not greater than two to one, as party representation numbers would indicate. In a fair system, there would be more balance.

Most districts are stacked so heavily to favor one party that the other party doesnt even bother expending resources to field an opposing candidate. The vast majority of Illinois lawmakers in Tuesdays election and in every election are uncontested.

Illinois Republicans, however, make little noise about the need to fix the broken system of creating districts after the census every 10 years. Criticizing Illinois Democrats too loudly might force them to admit Republicans in Ohio, Florida, Texas and other states use the same tactics to create unfair advantages.

Congress ought to fix the problem at the federal level and create a fair set of rules that could be applied in every state. Courts have shown they have no interest in correcting the inequity.

Weve evolved from dirty tricks of President Richard Nixons Watergate scandal to one party willing to resort to violence to prevent the other party from taking office.

Some will ignore the facts and believe the lies, so long as people like Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Georgia, are willing to describe the Capitol riot as a normal tourist visit.

Too many other decent people are content to sit on the sidelines. They may not like the direction the country is headed, but they probably figure they cant do much about it.

People could make a difference, though, if they would vote in every election. Turnout is always robust for presidential elections every four years, typically around 75%. Americans like a binary choice. Yea or nay, up or down, red or blue.

Its harder to choose from among six Republicans running for governor, or to pick three names from a list of eight candidates for school board.

But state and local elections are just as important as the presidential contest. Republicans targeted down ballot races after President Barack Obama took office in 2008. The Tea Party scored huge gains in 2010, and what we are experiencing today is a result of efforts to win elections at every level.

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One way people could overcome negative effects of gerrymandering would be if greater numbers unexpectedly voted. When turnout is only 20%, a few thousand people could make a huge impact.

Young people, in particular, ought to feel the need to pay attention and get involved. Tuesdays election was consistent with all other elections in that turnout was greater among older voters.

Those who care about democracy, freedom and independence need to figure out a way to increase turnout. Maybe some of the tens of millions of dollars spent attacking opponents in the Illinois gubernatorial primary could have been put to better use in a voter participation effort.

In the 1990s, MTV partnered with the Rock the Vote organization to encourage young people to vote. Madonna and other celebrities appeared in public service announcements that sought to engage 20-somethings in politics.

A similar effort is needed today to underscore the threats to our free and fair elections. The only foreseeable solution is to increase voter participation. If turnout remains a paltry 20%, we will only have ourselves to blame if we lose personal freedoms.

Ted Slowik is a columnist for the Daily Southtown.

tslowik@tribpub.com

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Column: Personal freedom was on the ballot Tuesday. Only 20% of voters bothered to show up. - Chicago Tribune

FOURTH of July is a popular American holiday that is often celebrated with fireworks and cookouts.

Among the places Americans buy their cookout food is Target, which means they want to know if the doors will be open for last-minute essentials.

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Target locations across the country are expected to be open on the Fourth of July.

However, hours may vary based on location, so it is always recommended to check with local stores for accurate times.

To find the closest Target near you and check their hours, you can go to the store locator.

Independence Day is celebrated annually on July 4th in the United States.

The national holiday commemorates the passage of the Declaration of Independence by Congress on July 4, 1776.

In 1775, the 13 colonies that made up America declared a war of independence against Britain.

more from the fourth of july

The British had inhabited America since 1587 and exploited their resources, such as tobacco and tea.

Tensions began to rise between the British and Americans as the British Government pushed for their own financial gain and continued to exploit American goods through taxation.

Founding Father and head of the Sons of Liberty organization Samuel Adams, and his men, boarded three ships in Boston harbor and threw 342 chests of tea overboard.

This became known as the Boston Tea Party of 1773.

Other violent acts also arose from the tension over the taxation of tea and other products.

The Boston Tea Party was one of the main events that started theAmerican Revolutionary War.

In 1775, the 13 colonies that made up America declared a war of independence against Britain and on July 4, 1776, Congress officially adopted the Declaration of Independence.

It is one of 11 federal holidays, meaning that it is recognized nationwide by the government.

The Fourth of July became a federal holiday in 1870.

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Fourth of July celebrations have taken various forms across the centuries.

In Bristol, Rhode Island, in 1777, there was a salute with 13 shotguns in the morning and evening of July 4.

And in 1778, then general of the revolutionary army, George Washington, doubled his troops' rum ration for the festivities.

Nowadays, fireworks are one of the most common ways to celebrate Independence Day.

Displays are held in every major city and the White House also puts on its own show on the South Lawn.

Generally, the 4th of July is a time to spend with family and friends, having BBQs, watching firework displays and parades while surrounded by a large quantity of red, white, and blue, stars and stripes themed paraphernalia.

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Is Target open on July 4th, 2022?... - The US Sun

Borgman

I witnessed the Boston Tea Party, the Battle at Concord and Paul Reveres Ride.

You didnt think I was that old, did you?

I was a kid at the time, living in a Kansas City, Missouri neighborhood that went all out for the Fourth of July.

Old, fuzzy black and white snapshots of the Battle at Concord sharpen the memories. Red Coats are lined up in costumes that arent half bad if you can overlook the tie dress-shoes and long white socks pulled up over pant legs. They are wielding guns (not loaded) and a British flag. Kids, more kids, tricycles, bicycles, baby strollers and women wearing Bermuda shorts line both sides of the street.

Lest you become confused, there is signage. Magic marker on a posterboard reads Battle at Concord, April 19, 1775.

A small bridge sits in the middle of the street. The Red Coats approach from one direction and the Minutemen from the other. The Minutemen fire and the British run like scared rabbits. Neither side suffers a single casualty a slightly different outcome from the original Battle at Concord, but revisionist history had to start somewhere.

All that really mattered was that we whupped em again.

A neighbor man, who had a horse pastured in the country, was the main act the year Paul Reveres Midnight Ride was the featured attraction. Down the street he flew on his horse, tacatac, tacatac, past the letter drop mailbox, tacatac, tacatac, past a Plymouth Fury Suburban station wagon and a Corvair convertible, past kids waving flags, all the while shouting, The British are Coming! The British are Coming!

No one was overly concerned that the British were coming because wed seen how they scattered like chickens year before.

The most memorable of these gatherings was the year of the Boston Tea Party. Grown-ups worked hours in a neighbors garage building a ship on a platform on wheels. There was even a party table onboard the ship with a punch bowl and cups, courtesy of my mother. The crowd roared as crates of tea were heaved onto the blacktop. Our dad was onboard, heaving tea and celebrating with punch.

He took a nap in the front yard beneath the shade of an elm tree that afternoon. My mother mentioned that she had spiked the punch onboard the ship. Yes, she had taken liberties.

I have often wondered if the Fourth of July in our old neighborhood was over the top because so many in our neighborhood had served in World War II. Military service had been borne by the many in those days, not just a few.

They had seen the horrors of fascism with their own eyes, just as they had witnessed the bloody cost of freedom. Many bore some of those costs for a lifetime. Shared sacrificed yielded a strong pulsebeat of patriotism.

There were democrats, republicans, non-voters, white-collar and blue-collar workers among those staging those Fourth of July celebrations but the differences among them were superseded by a love of country and deep respect and appreciation for freedom.

There is no perfect nation. There never has been and never will be. That said, we have always been a city shining on hill, a nation of possibilities, hopes and dreams. Maybe its possible that a respect for freedom and love of liberty will unite us again.

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Lori Borgman: The Boston Tea Party you never read about in books - Daily Journal

Even Republicans acknowledge the Illinois GOP has fought a slow, unresolved policy fight with itself for decades.

For 50 years, the moderate wing of Illinois Republicanism (former Govs. Jim Thompson, Jim Edgar, and marginally Bruce Rauner) had its way, but Tuesdays primary election in which state Sen. Darren Bailey locked up the GOP nomination for governor, might have signaled a tectonic shift. Perhaps no one seemed more surprised by that rumbling under their feet than the old-line moderate leadership.

Some view the shift as a decadelong drift that began with the Tea Party. Others point to former President Donald Trump and his continued prominence both nationally and in some circles of the Illinois Republican Party.

Bailey, whose every public pronouncement signals he is a Trump/MAGA Republican, won the governors primary so handily that it seemed as though he had no serious opposition. Billionaire GOP influencer Ken Griffin spent $50 million on a candidate Aurora Mayor Richard Irwin who finished third.

Former President Donald Trump, right, ushers gubernatorial candidate and state Sen. Darren Bailey to the podium at a rally at the Adams County Fairgrounds in Mendon, Ill., Saturday, June 25, 2022. (Mike Sorensen/Quincy Herald-Whig via AP) (Mike Sorensen/AP)

Former U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh said Tuesdays results show the Republican Party is shrinking in terms of its appeal, both in Illinois and nationally. He also questioned how Baileys nomination would fare against Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker this fall.

This is still Trumps party, he said. To win a Republican primary, you have to get down on your knees and bow and worship Trump and Trumpism.

U.S. Rep. Mary Miller of Illinois, who spoke at a rally over the weekend with Trump and U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colorado, beat fellow Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis. Catalina Lauf, who had a speaking role at the 2020 Republican National Convention, secured the GOP nomination for Illinois 11th Congressional District. And Thomas DeVore, who fought Pritzkers school mask mandate in court, won the GOP nomination for attorney general.

U.S. Rep. Mary Miller, of Illinois, left, is joined by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, of Colorado, on stage at a rally at the Adams County Fairgrounds in Mendon, Ill., Saturday, June 25, 2022. (Mike Sorensen/Quincy Herald-Whig via AP) (Mike Sorensen/AP)

Speaking on the Illinois gubernatorial primary results, Walsh said Irvin was a bad candidate who didnt deserve to win. Bailey, on that note, assumed the mantle of Trumpism, which carried him forward, he said. Still, Walsh said he doesnt think the odds favor Bailey in Novembers general election.

[Bailey] has no prayer against Pritzker, he said. He wont play in the suburbs or Chicago. Theres a reason Pritzker put money behind Bailey.

Alhough Walsh expects November to go well for Republicans at the national level, he sees the party becoming a rural, regional party in the years to come.

I dont think the party can be saved, he said. Its a party walking away from the suburbs and urban America.

Kristina Zahorik, the McHenry County Democratic Party chairwoman, said the GOP has become too extreme, and is now more exclusive than inclusive.

Stepping away from what Tuesdays results may mean for Democrats in November, Zahorik said the direction Republicans are taking is bad for lawmaking.

For our country and democracy, its very concerning, she said. I dont think it serves any of us well.

Republican Party officials in McHenry and Lake counties disagree with that sentiment.

Mark Shaw, chairman of the Lake County Republican Central Committee, said the most important thing to him was party unity. Overall, he wasnt concerned with the partys direction; its best chance to win is coalescing behind one candidate, he said.

Illinois is very different culturally depending on what area you live in, he said. Sometimes its like six or seven different states.

Republican candidate for Illinois governor Darren Bailey speaks to voters during a campaign stop in Athens, Ill., June 14, 2022. Bailey is seeking the Republican nomination to face Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker in November. (AP Photo/John O'Connor) (John OConnor/AP)

Bailey won in most counties, including Lake County, where he garnered about 43% of the vote, unofficial election results show.

Shaw said he liked all six Republican gubernatorial candidates in the primary and pledged to get behind whoever won the nomination. Considering Baileys margin of victory, Shaw said hes optimistic about GOP chances in the fall.

The party has to be united, he said. Ive said this for six months. Our party will have to come together instantly the day after the primary. Because if we dont, theres not enough time to turn it around before November.

McHenry County Republican Party Chairman Tyler Wilke said he backed the unity concept but thinks Baileys win was positive for the party. In past races, such as with Rauner, it felt like there was no difference in the parties, Wilke said.

[Constituents] are looking for a breath of fresh air, he said. Theres going to be stark differences between Pritzker and a candidate like Bailey. That gives the party a chance to energize the base, and the independent voter has the opportunity to choose what direction they want. Wilke said he thinks Bailey has a reasonable shot at unseating Pritzker.

Baileys got a real opportunity to make changes that help people in Illinois, Wilke said.

Steve Balich, a Republican on the Will County Board, said Tuesdays GOP primary reflected an anti-establishment trend that has been developing for years.

The party direction changed six, seven years ago, Balich said. Whats happening is you have people in the party, like myself, and we care about whats good for American citizens.

Balich is a former Tea Party leader in Will County and was a Republican ward committeeman in the 1980s. He is prone to take on controversial conservative causes. Also Homer Township supervisor, Balich last year led a successful effort to have the township declared a sanctuary for life in an anti-abortion stance.

Were a party of people saying were fed up with big government, he said. We want government to leave us alone. Do you want to call that America First? OK.

Republicans who formed the Tea Party a decade ago have been motivated by Trump, he said.

State Rep. Mark Batinick, R-Plainfield, said there was nothing particularly new about the way the Republican primary turned out.

He pointed to Rauners nomination in a 2014 primary contest against former state Sen. Kirk Dillard.

Dillard was the establishment guy, and Rauner was the firebrand, far-right kind of guy, Batinick said.

Noting Bill Bradys run for governor in 2010, Batinick said, Of the top-tier candidates, the most conservative has won the nomination.

But Batinick said extremists in both the Republican and Democratic parties have been winning primaries due to gerrymandered electoral maps that favor one party over another. The defeat of U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis, R-Taylorville, on Tuesday was due more to Illinois new electoral map than Trumps support for his opponent, Miller, Batinick said.

The Democrats have moved farther to the left, and gerrymandering has created more hard Republican districts, which moves us to the right, Batinick said. Rodney Davis always won in a swing district. No one even challenged him.

But there was something different about Tuesday, said Christopher Mooney, a W. Russell Arrington Professor of State Politics at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

This primary demonstrated that the Trump wing of the Republican Party has taken over the party in Illinois, Mooney said.

The situation in Illinois has been aggravated by Republicans inability to win statewide elections with the exception of Rauners one term for the past two decades while losing the state legislature to Democrats, he said.

The other thing thats going on in Illinois is a frustration that has been building for years with the Republican Party not being able to win, he said.

When organized parties cannot win elections, people in the party get frustrated, Mooney said. They lash out at their leaders.

Mooney predicted the campaign for governor will be more ideological than is typical as candidates move to the center after primary victories to win election.

Pritzker is just all in on the Progressive agenda, Mooney said.

Pritzker could take his foot off the gas because he is in a strong position to win, Mooney said. But I dont think hes going to do so because I think hes going to run for president.

Seeing farther right candidates win in congressional or state legislative primaries Tuesday is a byproduct of the way districts were redrawn, said Kent Redfield, professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

He said the 13th Congressional District is an example of a district drawn to take in as many urban areas, traditionally Democratic, collecting Champaign-Urbana, Springfield and metro east St. Louis, leaving behind other districts primarily rural and Republican, such as the 15th.

In these districts it is easier for the Republican candidate to move farther right, because there is no Democratic candidate, or any viable one, Redfield said.

Redfield said the mindset changes in more balanced districts, or statewide elections. He said there was a reason Pritzker spent money against Irvin, preferring to face the more right-leaning Bailey.

Redfield said Baileys win is the Republican Party moving in an ideological direction, instead of thinking pragmatically about who can win. He said its not a new dynamic nationwide, but it is in Illinois.

Originally posted here:
Where is Illinois GOP going? Shaw Local - Bureau County Republican

Commentary

In February 2009, a young man posting on a website dubbed The Urban Prankster Network (Headquarters for Global Agents of Stealth Comedy!) suggested a novel way to cool off the city of Austin, Texas, when the inevitable hell of a Texas summer bakes streets and fries brains: a citywide water gun and water balloon war waged by a flash mob.

It could happen. American flash mobs often involve goofy stuntsthe digital social network and cellphone with text-message age equivalent of 1950s-era collegians cramming sophomores into a phone booth (when phone booths still existed).

A flash mob organizer might send four accomplices a message like this: Paint yourself blue and show up at Sixth and Congress in two hours. In concept, the ability to communicate quickly and virally (think exponentseach friend contacts four more friends, and those friends four more) quickly multiplies the number of blue-painted crazies unexpectedly crowding a downtown sidewalk.

A couple of years ago, I overheard two mothers discussing a high school party that included a flash mob-like activity. A text message provided the insta-mob location. Alas, one of the moms had to drive her son to and from the mob scene. Thats an old lesson reinforced: Even improvised anarchy may require parental logistical support.

San Francisco, however, is fed up with flash mobs that leave litter. The San Francisco Chronicle assured its readers that the citys looming crackdown was not political, ideological or cultural, but a Valentines Day flash mob pillow fight left heaps of icky, sticky feathers for sanitation workersin other words, clean-up costs. The pillow brawl was billed as the fourth annual, which indicates less flash and more coordination. Unless event organizers take responsibility for the trash, the city may shut the next one down. Heres the bumper sticker: Leave Trash? No Flash.

One hundred seventy-four years after the publication of his Democracy in America, French aristocrat and author Alexis de Tocqueville remains the most insightful analyst of American political mores. Tocqueville didnt anticipate flash mob technology, but he understood them in Americas context. He noted in volume two of his masterpiece that Americans formed public associations for many reasons, including entertainment. Freedom of association flows from the First Amendments guarantee of freedom of peaceable assembly.

Tocqueville also noted that this freedom is dangerous. In Europe, crowds signaled revolt. American democracy had produced a paradox, one that had a subtle but profound national security dimension. Tocqueville concluded the liberty of association had become a necessary guarantee against the tyranny of the majority. Civil associationspresumably even pillow fightsfacilitated political association, and free political association kept American democracy vibrant. Association was the dangerous means for thwarting the majoritys omnipotence.

Tocquevilles observations and San Franciscos impending trash-bred quash of flash mobs led me to the internet. I typed in flash mob and tea party. The Google search produced an article on anti-stimulus protests occurring throughout the United States. Scores of demonstrations against congressional pork spending, congressional earmark spending, lack of oversight in bailout spending and congressional corruption have sprung up around the United States.

In some cases, several hundred people have gatheredorganized using flash mob communications techniques. The tea party protesters connect their contemporary gripes with the same anti-tax and anti-autocrat sentiment that spawned the Boston Tea Party of 1773. The internet and cellphones are simply swifter couriers for delivering messages from bloggers and protest organizers, the rough contemporary equivalents of the committees of correspondence that linked American revolutionaries in the 18th century.

Yes, hyper-left San Francisco insists it has no ideological issues with flash mobs but tyrants do. In 2006, Zimbabwes military cracked down on cellphone companies because they provide independent connections (i.e., communications) inside and outside the country. This threatened national security. The military wanted to limit the outflow of information on Zimbabwes terrible internal conditions and deny demonstrators a tool for organizing.

Tocqueville wrote: It cannot be denied that the unrestrained liberty of association for political purposes is the privilege which a people is longest in learning how to exercise.

Americans, he concluded, had learned. The privilege, and its enabling knack, remains revolutionary.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

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Austin Bay is a colonel (ret.) in the U.S. Army Reserve, author, syndicated columnist, and teacher of strategy and strategic theory at the University of TexasAustin. His latest book is Cocktails from Hell: Five Wars Shaping the 21st Century.

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On Point: Flash Mobs, Tea Parties, and Tocqueville - The Epoch Times