Political Master

The pundits laugh at him, at the way he butchers the English language. They laughed at his old man before him, stumbling over phrases until he was vowing that the police were not there to create disorder, they were there to preserve disorder.

Laugh, yes, but they've never accused him of being stupid. Lifelong Chicagoans are too smart to believe that an inability to talk smoothly indicates low intelligence. Decades of rule by the Daley clan has demonstrated quite well that the ability of a man to speak eloquently has no bearing on his intelligence.

It was not that long ago that Time Magazine was lauding Richard M. Daley, the mayor of the biggest city in fly-over country. These days, the poor lad's under the gun, feeling a bit of heat in the seat of his pants as Federal investigators look at the corruption of machine politics. With all that going in, Mr. Daley is still sharp enough to battle the aldermen, who have earned their reputation for dim-witted-ness.

What a never-ending roll of hoopla over the so called 'Big Box Ordinance' and the cry for big pay. The unions jumped on the issue, stirring up the members and threatening the aldermen with opposition come election day. Push through a law that would require higher pay for this select group of stores, they said, or we'll work like demons to get your opponent elected come November. The aldermen listened and quaked in their boots.

Enter the Master Politician, the man who learned how to run a city at his Daddy's knee. The big box stores were looking at sites in the worst neighborhoods, the ghettos where empty lots march on for block after block. Unemployment is at record highs, and the residents have no hope of ever working because there is no place to work.

'Where were the unions when the big box stores were built in other places in Illinois?' our Master intoned. Just like that, he turned the tables on the aldermen, many of them people of color, and gave the residents of Chicago's inner city a little tidbit to gnaw on. Sure, the unions are up in arms now, when Wal-Mart and Target want to build in the black neighborhoods, Mr. Daley has observed. It was all right to build in the white suburbs, he implies, but the unions don't want these stores where you live. The unions are racist. They are discriminating against you, and they have convinced you to protest. They have convinced you to support their racist agenda.

What was Alderman Shirley Coleman to do? Wal-Mart wants to build a store in her ward, bring in jobs, and provide products to her supporters. And she was going to tell them that it was better not to have those jobs and goods? You'll thank me in the morning, impoverished residents, when you still don't have a job and you still can't buy anything because there's no stores around here. It's the residents who vote, not the unions. And now that Mayor Daley has implied that the unions are trying to keep the poor black voters in misery, how could she ever support the ordinance?

A masterful stroke indeed, and the unions are crying in their stale beer. Some of the aldermen who supported the new law have gone over to the other side, where a job paying minimum wage is better than no job at all. A store paying minimum wage is better than an empty lot that does not produce sales or property taxes. And why are the unions up in arms over wages at Wal-mart now, when the company was ready to build in the inner city? Why all the fuss when it's the turn of the poorest in Chicago to have a chance at a job?

The man might not speak with the tongue of angels, but he knows how to twist an arm and use a few choice words to express exactly what he wants to say. He didn't get where he is because he's a brilliant public speaker. It's all about the words, not the delivery.