Who's Afraid of Rahm?

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf
By Jim Vail



I couldn't believe it when someone posted on Facebook about a possible challenger to Rahm Emanuel in the next Chicago mayoral election.

And the next contestant is ....

Drum roll pleeze!

Amara Enyia.  Amara who? Enyia what?

Is this serious? Really? If this person is going to possibly run for mayor, then I guess anyone can.

But to be taken seriously enough to warrant an article in the leftist magazine In These Times?  And written by a very credible journalist named Kari Lyderson?

When you read it, it's absolutely laughable.  Some Nigerian hailing "municipal consultant" who's dabbled in being a "community activist" (that seems to be the creds politicians are trying on this election season) has declared she will run against Rahm Emanuel to be our next mayor.

And she's not afraid of him.

Here's my best quote in the interview Kari had with Amara:

"With Daley, for better or worse, you knew deep down he really loved the city - it was in his blood."

Yeah, he loved his city so dearly, that he made deals like privatizing the parking meters to cheat the city out of a billion bucks, and then signs on to be a consultant with the law firm that brokered the scam on the city.

For he so loved his city, that he made a hell of a lot of money off of it, cheating the rest of us God-fearing tax payers!

Come on, Kari.

If the whole situation wasn't so sad, I guess I would be laughing.

But the whole political situation in this town is so depressing.

First, who will run against Emanuel?  Does it matter?  Can a real progressive get elected who would listen to the people?

First, and foremost on the teachers' minds is, will Chicago Teachers Union president Karen Lewis run for mayor.

A colleague pointed out today on a ride home after joining the courageous teachers refusing to administer the ISAT test at Saucedo School, that should Karen run and lose, Rahm can then say, well the voters chose me over the teachers. So you guys have absolutely no right to stop me from closing as many schools as I can, and ridiculing and destroying as many teachers' lives as I can!

Guys got a point, depressing as it may seem.

Then they are saying the CTU would like to back a progressive like Bob Fioretti, the fiery alderman seen at a lot of CTU events, to run for mayor.

The guy has taken good stands with the teachers to protest closing schools and support an elected school board.

But Fiorett, like any representative with the democratic party, has his demons as well. Supporting the TIFs that take more money than they give back to the schools is one of them. He bragged at one point about his support of giving tax payer money to the hedge fund group that bought the Sears Tower.

But a smile was brought to my face by my fiery fantastic Puerto Rican colleague and a fighter extraordinaire who sent me the In These Times email about the Nigerian not being afraid of Rahm.

She said she is a creature of Rahm.

Now that brings me back to the dark, sad reality of politics.

Many ruling parties around the world put up a front party to draw in disaffected voters so no split is possible to allow the opposition to win.

If you can't beat em, you pay them off when you got all the bucks. That's how this shitty system works.

So you had this wacky nationalist/fascist named Vladimir Zhirinovsky elected with a majority of votes in Russia back in the 1990s. Then it turns out he always voted with the government. Many Eastern European governments fund silly parties to draw in hippy leftists, dampen the opposition, and ... well, you got to vote, right?

That's how our intelligence services work. You had these funny-named organizations like the Democracy Fund, a CIA sponsored front, that people are lured into supporting cause it sounds sweet and innocent, until you find out the truth.  If you're a journalist and the political ruling party isn't solidified enough, you could well end up dead for reporting on it.

In this case, who knows. If I could devote more time to my journalism, it would be fun exposing all these frauds that lackluster leftist publications embrace.

Or maybe we should vote for dynamic Nigerian 30-year consultants who believe Mayor Daley truly loves his city and who are not afraid of Rahm.

To prove how dumb we really are!

http://inthesetimes.com/article/16321/amara_enyia_rahm_emanuel