The Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced this week that the city of Chicago was selected as the host for the 2024 Democratic National Convention.
Democrats last visited the city for a convention in 1996 when former President Bill Clinton accepted his party’s re-nomination for president.
Since then, the windy city has been pretty quiet in terms of hosting any national political conventions but big in the news lately for a skyrocketing crime rate and an aversion to electing mayors with common sense.
Just last week, Brandon Johnson, an ardent progressive in favor of defunding police and lowering educational standards, was elected as Chicago’s next mayor:
Brandon Johnson winning the election to become Chicago’s next mayor was a significant moment for progressive organizations like the city’s teachers’ union, but a cause for concern among police who are worried about his policies on tackling crime.
Johnson, a Cook County commissioner endorsed by the Chicago Teachers Union, won a close race against Paul Vallas—a moderate Democrat backed by Chicago’s Lodge 7 of the Fraternal Order of Police. During his campaign, Johnson was forced to defend past statements in support of “defunding” the police.
The new mayor will succeed Lori Lightfoot, who became the first incumbent in 40 years to lose a reelection bid after being criticized for her response to rising crime in the city.
The number of homicides in Chicago hit a 25-year high in 2021 with more than 800, according to the Chicago Police Department. That number decreased to 695 last year but is still far higher than when Lightfoot took office in 2019. Crimes including carjackings and robberies have also increased in recent years.
In a bid to shore up support for Vallas, John Cataranza, the police union’s president, had warned that up to 1,000 officers could leave the department if Johnson triumphed.
“If this guy gets in we’re going to see an exodus like we’ve never seen before,” he told The New York Times last week. Newsweek has contacted Cataranza for comment via email.
In other words, the previous mayor, Lori Lightfoot, was so bad she was kicked out in favor of someone arguably worse.
This is the city and the policies which the DNC has chosen to showcase next year as their best foot forward. A city run by Democrats for nearly a century with abysmal educational standards, ever-rising crime, and businesses fleeing due to embarrassing mismanagement.
While some Democrat-run cities are trying to slow the trend of urban decay, Chicago hit the accelerator last week plowing head-first into progressive policies which have proven to end in failure time and time again.
According to reports, Johnson is already trying to tamp down concerns over crime and perhaps terrorism threats surrounding the 2024 Democratic convention:
A group of state and city officials today promised that delegates to the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago will be safe and that the big show will benefit lots of neighborhoods and not just downtown.
But they offered few details on how, for instance, security will be assured at a time when mass shootings occur regularly in America and when Chicago’s violent crime rate, though finally dropping, still is well above what it was before COVID-19.
Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson, who actually will have the task of keeping visitors safe after he takes office next month, struck the same note, saying the city “will collaborate and work with our partners.”
But Johnson, who ran on a platform of downplaying traditional policing in favor of investing in social programs that curb the root causes of crime, couldn’t resist a little bit of a campaign pitch.
“Safe cities are safe when we have investments,” he said, adding in a lighter tone, “In case you missed it, the United Center (where the convention will be held) is located on the West Side.”
Other reports indicate that cities like Atlanta lost out to Chicago due to the lack of hotels operated by union labor. In that regard, picking Chicago is basically a big “thank you” to all the various unions that have a stronghold in the city and the state of Illinois.
