By now the shock, awe and embarrassment of Donald Trump’s stunning upset of Hillary Clinton should have begun to subside.
Yes, Trump is president-elect in spite of his vulgarity, lewd insults toward women, racist insults of African Americans, Mexicans, Arab-Americans, his tangential association with the KKK and David Duke, and his selection of Steve Bannon, known for his racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric, as his chief strategist.
And America asked for it. In fact, a majority of white women and one-third of Hispanics voted for Trump, while many African Americans apathetically sat at home (part of the 46.6 percent who didn’t vote) in spite of the threat that Trump represented.
But good old Bubba went to the polls and voted, to rescue America from eight years of a black president and the prospect of a woman further hijacking America’s entitlement to have a white male in the White House. And, for good measure, they won the House and the Senate too.
But in Illinois, more specifically St. Clair County, the game pretty much remained the same. Despite the passionate rants of Belleville radio renegade Bob Romanik and the concerted efforts of the non-partisan Freedom Coalition, the Democratic political plantation managed to harvest enough votes to maintain control of their power base, but not without the usual tricks.
It was business as usual, with some Republican challengers actually winning. Then, shortly after midnight, an avalanche of votes from the East St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners were released, paving the way for Democratic incumbents’ victories.
For example, Laninya Cason, a Republican judicial candidate from ESL, was winning by nearly 1,000 votes; that is, until just the right amount of late ESL votes were harvested, resulting in her defeat by about 2,000 votes. Coincidence? Or “poli-tricks”?
There were a couple of upsets, though. Chief Judge John Baricevic and his son C.J., a candidate for the state House, were defeated by Republicans when ESL didn’t produce enough votes to seal their victory.
St. Clair County Chairman Mark Kern won in a close race, despite far outspending his opponent Rodger Cook. But, in winning, Kern will maintain control of the ESL political plantation, which wastes $400,000 annually on an antiquated Board of Elections when that money could be better utilized for additional policing of East Boogie, versus “finding” votes for St. Clair County election bosses.
But, if ESL is ever to be great again, she must cast off the shackles of her political oppression by finally operating in her own best interest and negotiating a new relationship with St. Clair County, not continuing to remain in political servitude.
That new relationship must demand funding for the development of ESL and a safer ESL. This would include a developed East Side riverfront that augments and mirrors the St. Louis riverfront and creates a future and jobs for its citizens, and not just political patronage crumbs on election day.
Email: jtingram_1960@yahoo.com; Twitter@JamesTIngram.
