beerslurpy,
Why do you hate to admit that we're a battleground state and the battle can be won? There are many good people here working hard to win that battle. Just as an aside, we beat the Daley gun control legislation package back every year. Not only do we beat it back, but we counterattack and win. You Florida citizens got all the national press when you passed your so called make my day law. Guess what, we passed a no retreat law a year before Florida did and no one heard about it. Not only did we pass it, but the most blatantly anti-gun governor we ever had signed it.
Hopefully a federal prosecutor will end Daley's career in the next year or so. The ensuing power struggle for contol of the corrupt Chicago system will divide the Chicago block enough to render them helpless for a while. They will be too busy dividing up the spolis to pay much attention to statewide issues.
But the biggest thing we have to do to turn things around is convince the RINOs in the collar counties to see the light. Without them, the Chicago block is not big enough to stand against the rest of the state.
It's the democratic party that has kept Illinois from being Sarah Brady's dreamland. The southern Illinois Democrats to be exact. Daley made a grave tactical error two elections ago, when he failed to support Glen Poshard, the pro gun Southern Illinois Democrat for governor when he won the nomination. The failure to turn out the vote in Chicago let the the RINO (and soon to be convicted felon) George Ryan into office. The Democrats from down here haven't forgotten that.
The legislature goes back into session on the 25th for the Fall veto session. I'm sure we'll see Acevedo's assault weapons ban and more of the Daley package and we'll have to beat it down again. I'm sure the article that started this thread is just a warm up for the battle.
The republican party is in disarray. Real conservatives are pretty much locked out. The state organization thinks that only someone just to the right of Lenin can win here. But we're working on changing that at the precinct level.
We can turn the country around if we all just get involved. It won't be overnight, but if we spent half the time and energy we put into preaching to the converted and whining here at THR and other places online we could make a difference. I hate politics with all my heart, yet I am involved as a republican precinct commiteeman here. We can't change things from the outside. The system is set up against it. The two parties have set up the election laws in a way that allows them to share power and effectively shut out other parties. State and federal congressional districts are gerrymandered by the party that is in power after the census every ten years to benefit that party. Most states have written winner take all provisions for dividing up electoral votes so that it's easier and cheaper to campaign. Of course this effectively eliminates the voice of the people in less populated areas, which is what the electoral college was set up to prevent. Think how our political landscape would change if all congressional districts were pretty squars or rectangles starting in the Northeast corner of the state and were done strictly by population, and if every elector voted the way his or her district voted for president.
Jeff
And gun laws are fine. Shall issue, no waiting, no nothin'. 