If
To
Because here, in the aftermath of establishment Mayor
And Rahm is its ring bearer.
It is a template so old that it could have been carved into the cornerstone of
And it could apply not only to
Here's how it works in
You've beaten the liberals into the ground. And the Iron Throne is yours for as long as your head remains on your neck.
The establishment steered
Rahm would have had no hope had
He was also helped by the ostentatious and awkward silence of
Garcia was an accidental candidate. A decent man, yes, but he got in late and his lack of political cash hurt. Rahm was able to go negative, hard and early and often. That was the real key to this election.
Former Mayor
The white puffs of smoke appeared on the
"One day," Emanuel told Rose, he "would like to run for mayor of the city of
It was done. Rahm returned to
In recent weeks, journalists from outside of
But should this be a surprise to anyone who knows of the Combine?
Republicans have long subsidized the Democratic machine. This is the mortar that binds the
This is not medieval. This is Roman. And it's
Yet even with the millions and millions he used to outspend Garcia with TV ads, and support from editorial boards, Emanuel's re-election wasn't easy. If I wore a hat, I'd tip it to him.
By his own admission, Rahm is not very likable. Hence the TV spot in which he wore a soft and fuzzy sweater and promised to be a kinder, gentle Rahm.
Rahm had another problem. He has no core constituency to speak of.
Still, Rahm was able to use a combination of ideas and rhetoric and TV ads to seed fear of Chuy, and piece together enough for a win.
It is what Rahm is best at.
"You might have to change his nickname to 'The Cobbler,'" a prominent Democrat said. "There is no core constituency for him. You've said it yourself. It's true. And that was what his campaign was about: cobbling bits and pieces together."
There is of course, a cost to Emanuel's victory: The broken political teeth of the idealistic young people of the Democratic left now littering the
They saw
This collection of youths and the political left is the same demographic that Hillary and the Democratic establishment will need in 2016. They are the base. And Hillary will try to energize them against some similarly situated establishment Republican candidate.
Surprised? Establishment Republicans apply the same harsh force against their idealist young as do establishment Democrats.
It's all about control. On the liberal left and on the conservative right there are important ideas about freedom and government.
And in the middle there are those with the money.
To the establishment, politics isn't about ideas. Politics is about keeping the money by wielding the government hammer to impose order upon chaos.
Hillary is famous for saying, "What difference, at this point, does it make?"
But she wasn't talking about
She's from
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John Kass is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune who also hosts a radio show on WLS-AM.