Chuy García decided to pull a fast one. The Democrats may say there are no kings — but in Chicago, power is inherited all the same
The deadline just passed for filing petitions to run for office in what used to be called the Land of Lincoln, but now more accurately deserves the nickname the Boodle Capital of the World. True to form, the machine found a way to game even the filing deadline.
Enter Congressman Jesús “Chuy” García — pronounced “Chewy” as in Chewbacca of Star Wars, and just about as articulate, a 68-year-old Chicago lifer whose congressional district has been drawn, redrawn, and contorted beyond geometry to make his reelection about as certain as sunrise. For months, Chuy said nothing about his plans. Then, on the morning after the filing deadline — when no rival could possibly jump in — he suddenly announced that he would not be running again.
And wouldn’t you know it? His chief of staff — also named García, “no relation” of course — just happened to have petitions already filed. Magically, she’s the only Democrat on the ballot. In this town, that means she’s already a member-elect of Congress.
If that’s not a political inheritance, what is?
"Chuy," in case you were wondering, is a Spanish nickname for the many Mexicans who are named after Jesus Christ. In this case it isn’t any wonder that no one wants to call him by his given name, as it would be obscenely blasphemous. His son is a known member of the notorious and vicious "Two Six" street gang, which openly and blatantly sells poisonous drugs, perpetrates gruesome violence and other predations on Garcia’s hapless constituents. Even Chuy must have felt constrained from crowning his cop-hating criminal son as heir to his crown and scepter, thus explaining the coronation of a princess, another Garcia who no doubt will take good care of the Two Six-er criminal crown prince on the low down.
The new royal families
Democrats love to insist they’re the party of “no kings.” But they’ve quietly built their own royal court — complete with hereditary succession. The game of thrones remains the same, only the complexions have changed.
When Alderman Walter Burnett Jr. hung up his hat, his son conveniently materialized as his successor. When Chuy García steps aside, another García magically steps in. It’s monarchy by machine.
This city has gone from the patronage politics of Mike Madigan, Ed Burke, and Ed Vrdolyak — old-school grafters who at least believed in capitalism — to a new breed of “progressives” who are socialists in all but name. The old Irish and Italian bosses skimmed a little from the top but kept the city’s economic engine running. These new “reformers” want to dismantle the engine entirely, replacing industry with ideology. They violate the first rile of being a parasite: don’t kill the host.
The only thing that’s really changed in Chicago politics is the complexion, not the corruption.
The party of hypocrisy
For decades, Democrats have sneered that Donald Trump and his followers dream of monarchy. Yet it’s the Democrat Party (let’s drop the “-ic,” since there’s nothing democratic about it) that practices dynastic succession.
In the old ethnic Chicago, the Irish had their wards, the Italians had theirs, the Jews and Poles had theirs. Now it’s the “people of color” coalition running the same racket in new uniforms. They’ve just traded the white shirts of the old machine for the woke slogans of the new one.
The difference? The old bosses built things — bridges, expressways, housing, businesses. The new ones build only victim narratives and patronage armies.
Crime, chaos, and the new Praetorian Guard
Meanwhile, the people who suffer most from this corruption are the same voters the machine pretends to champion. Nearly 90 percent of Chicago’s murder victims are Black or Latino, but their so-called leaders care more about virtue signaling than public safety.
Mayor Brandon Johnson (“Mayor Six Percent,” because that’s all the city approves of him) preaches defund-the-police theology while surrounding himself with 150 armed guards. Governor J.B. ‘Jelly Belly’ Pritzker, whose ego outweighs the Merchandise Mart, refuses National Guard help even as gangs carve up the South Side.
They call it compassion. I call it criminal neglect.
This isn’t progressive governance — it’s kabuki theater, performed by hypocrites who think you’re too distracted to notice the stage lights. Pritzker imagines himself the next great hope of the Democratic Party, maybe even the first Jewish president. But good luck getting the nomination from what’s fast becoming the most anti-Semitic political movement since the 1930s. The left that once said “Never Again” now says “From the river to the sea.”
These people are so out of touch they make the old ward heelers look like philosophers.
The fix is always in
So here’s what happened with Chuy:
He ran out the clock. He froze the field. He handed his seat to his protégé — or relative — under cover of darkness, while the press looked the other way. That’s the modern Chicago way.
It’s not democracy. It’s feudalism with better branding.
And make no mistake: the voters never had a say. In this city, the Democratic primary is the election. By gerrymander and inertia, it’s one-party rule. The rest of us — independents, conservatives, moderates — are spectators at a coronation.
What needs to change
If we want to end the rot, we need competition. We need a second party — any party — with money, message, and muscle enough to challenge the Democrat monopoly. Chicago hasn’t seen real political pluralism since before Richard J. Daley ran City Hall like a family business.
Our politicians represent criminals against the interests of their victims: gang bangers like Chuy’s son, illegal immigrants, and the criminally insane. They betray their own hard working, tax paying constituents of color who constitute 90 percent of the victims of these predators, and conspire to hollow out the tax-paying commercial sector with high taxes and high crime, leaving the city broke and its residents in retail deserts.
The fix will stay in until we flip the tables, just as the real Jesus did to the money changers in the temple. It’s time to throw out the grifters, the socialists, the professional activists who’ve turned public office into private property. Let’s build a movement based not on race or grievance, but on competence, law, and common sense.
The bottom line
Chuy García’s little stunt isn’t an anomaly; it’s the system working exactly as designed. A city that once exported steel now exports corruption. A state that once bred innovation now breeds entitlement. And a political class that once feared voters now treats them as a formality.
They say democracy dies in darkness. In Chicago, it dies in broad daylight, under a banner that still reads “For the People.”
