Cultural Imperialism and the Chicago Way of Politics

by Rob Morse
Clash Daily Guest Contributor

Chicago politics has gone main-stream. The business of government is no long concerned with keeping the peace and seeking the common good. Now, those who control the government have a different business in mind. They reward their friends and punish their enemies. Sure, governments have imposed themselves on the weak since, well, since there has been a government. Selling political favors is timeless. That isn’t how government is supposed to work, but here are a few examples I noticed this year.

Bakers, photographers and musicians are owned in New Mexico. Customers can demand their services and be backed up by the power of the state. The merchants have no right to refuse a customer. The state says the merchants must sell to politically-favored sexual or religious minorities. Having personal convictions threatens the power of the state.

Personal convictions also limit the political favors the politicians can sell. The state can demand these vendors provide their services as directed by the politicians.

Welcome to New Mexico, and you can close your business or leave if you don’t like our laws. As the Muslims say to dhimmi subjects, you pray to our God or pay the jizzya tax.

States regulate charities in particularly appalling ways. The state sticks its regulatory nose into how charities feed and clothe the homeless even if the food and clothes are free. In Louisiana, a rescue mission can’t serve venison donated by hunters, so charity scares the bureaucrats. And if the government provides free stuff, well, you can forget about the charities having any discretion.

Government cheese for the poor comes with a stack of regulations. Religious sisters can’t display religious symbols as they give the government food away. Obviously God scares some bureaucrats to death.

The state of California outlaws modern guns for civilians. And by modern I mean firearms designed in the last hundred years. The common rifle used to teach boy scouts and girl scouts is now called an illegal assault weapon in Krazyfornia.

Air rifles that were once legal in New Jersey are now banned and treated like federally regulated machine guns. The Chicago model of gun regulation is held out as an ideal solution. Self-defense is condemned and a rape victim has no right to armed self-defense. But Chicago is not Mayberry: citizens might very well need to defend themselves.

Of course, the police are exempt as long as they remain loyal to the politicians. I bet the politicians’ bodyguards are exempt, too. Armed citizens frighten the political class. Again, you’re free to leave California, New Jersey or Illinois if you don’t like their laws.

Churches and schools can be taxed or shut down because of their “bigoted” views like Christian beliefs or academic teaching that isn’t approved by the state. Common Core curriculum is setting us up for regulating the amount of class work required in support of global warming and other politically-favored “facts.” We can allow illegal alien sex offenders to repeatedly enter the US. But the federal government went to extraordinary lengths to deport a German family whose only crime was educating their children at home. Who knew that home school frightens politicians.

The state literally taxes the air we breathe. Businesses in California pay a “pollution tax” even if they don’t pollute. The state is not there to protect and serve, but to regulate and tax. The state is no longer there to protect citizen’s rights. The land of the free and the home of the brave looks more and more like the land of the regulated and the home of the cowering.

The ray of good news in all this is the recall election in Colorado. Citizens banded together to recall two Colorado Senators who deliberately ignored their constituents. The recall might be a new mandate from the voters for more political responsibility. That mandate must spread to the other states to force politicians to listen. Then freedom will ring again.

Rob Morse is slightly intelligent with a serious sense of humor. He has been driven crazy as a design engineer is several bleeding-edge high-tech companies. He remains faithful and committed to marriage with his wife of 29 years. His two children have successfully escaped into the wild. He writes about technology and society from his home in southern California.

Image: http://www.oldbookart.com/2012/01/15/middle-ages-medieval-dress/; author: Paul Mercuri; public domain; copyright expired