For a number of years, many people, including myself, have been waiting for the moment at which the majority of the public will decide it’s had enough of the insane slaughterhouse that has become what used to be the United States of America.  At that moment, or so we expected, people would wake up from the fever dream that has featured Antifa burning down cities, Black Lives Matter marching, burning, shooting, and then extorting 10’s of millions from feckless business leaders, defund the police, the Green New Deal, dueling pronouns from gender non-specific gargoyles, and the insane musings of Corrupt Demented Imbecile Joe Biden.  When that day came, we thought, sanity would reassert itself, and normal, sane people would send the messages that we really do want laws enforced,  criminals punished, and gee, maybe it’s not such a good idea to keep printing nonexistent money.  But on reflection, now I’m not sure that day will ever come.  No city in America is in worse shape than Chicago.  Crime was out of control before Rahm Emanuel left town.  He was succeeded by Beetlejuice impersonator Lori Lightfoot, who only made things worse.  Dozens of city residents were shot and killed each day.  Every weekend was a new contest to see how many men, women and children would be gunned down.  The 2020 riots destroyed the city’s Miracle Mile shopping district.  Residents and companies like Boeing, Citadel, Tyson Foods and Caterpillar fled, and even grocery stores shut down.  Mayor Lightfoot lost her bid for reelection.  There was a runoff election between two Democrats, Paul Vallas and Brandon Johnson.  Vallas, a former city budget director and CEO of city schools, ran on a platform of enforcing the law, community policing and protecting riders on mass transit.  His main concern was for restoring public safety, which is supposed to be the first duty of government.  None of these things should have been controversial, and Vallas was hardly a right-winger.  He was supported by Senator Dick Durbin, no conservative he, and Congressman (and former Black Panther) Bobby Rush.  So a Vallas victory wouldn’t have been a victory for Republicans or conservatives, just a return to sanity and normalcy.  He lost to Brandon Johnson, a progressive community organizer (not again) who was backed by the teacher’s union and the likes of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.  Comrade Bernie denounced Vallas as being supported by “billionaires and speculators.”  I guess he wasn’t talking about people like Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Bankman Fried, because they supported Bernie he Red.  But Johnson won, so what does he have to offer Chicago?  Nothing but more Progressive pie in the sky. Johnson promised to reduced public transit fares and to increase social services spending, but not to raise property taxes.  He says he will fund this new spending by increasing taxes on big businesses, which, I guess means the ones that haven’t already left town.  Johnson would make “suburbs, airlines, and ultra-rich pay their fair share.”  Sound familiar?  Just how he’s going to tax people who don’t live in the city is unclear.  And Johnson is for all the right, that is to say Left, things.  His policies are a festival of Woke nonsense, doubletalk, and bullshit.  He’s for environmental justice.  Translation – he’s opposed to industries that create jobs.  He’s committed to gender equity and justice, “and will make the structural changes necessary for all girls, women and transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) persons in Chicago to thrive.”  If you understood that, you’ve got me.  Johnson says “our public schools must be sanctuaries for all children by investing in dual language programs, ethnic studies and English as a Second Language.”  That actually would be an improvement, as the Chicago schools haven’t managed to teach natural born Chicagoans to speak, read, and write English proficiently.  80% of students are below grade level for reading, and there are 22 schools in the city where none (0%) of students are reading proficient.  By the way, Johnson was a teacher, and he says that puts Chicago on par with other big cities.  Maybe that’s why the teacher’s unions supported him.  His crime plan is a Civilian Office of Police Accountability and the Police Board.  He’ll end the gang database and support Treatment Not Trauma, reduce inefficiencies in public safety spending, and direct more funds to violence prevention and community safety programming that address the root causes of community violence. Translation – he won’t enforce the law.  Johnson promises to get the city budget in order – by spending more money.  That ought to work.  So let’s see, spend, tax, spend other people’s money, don’t investigate crimes, don’t punish crimes, but have lots of rainbow flags everywhere so people know you care.  Forgive me, but it sure doesn’t seem like the long-awaited day when sanity returns is coming to Chicago anytime soon.  H.L. Mencken said people get the government they deserve, and they deserve to get it good and hard.  I’m afraid Chicagoans are about to get it again.  I never thought I ever would quote the likes of Peter, Paul and Mary on these pages, but as I surveyed the wreckage of the City of the Broad Shoulders, their song, Where Have All The Flowers Gone, ran through my head.  You remember –

Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?
Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?
Where have all the flowers gone?
Young girls have picked them everyone
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

That was  written almost 70 years ago.  We’ll have to update it.

Where have all the normal gone, long time passing?
Where have all the normal gone, long time ago?
Where have all the normal gone?
The Woke have chased them everyone
Oh, when will they ever learn?
Oh, when will they ever learn?

I don’t think they’ll ever learn, and what’s worse, they’re about to put their Woke dystopia on full display, as next year the Democrat National Convention will be in Chicago, the mass shooting capital of the world.  Those of you who are old enough may remember the 1968 Convention, when protesters rioted against a war and in support of those who were denied the protection of the law.  Latter-day Progressive Democrat rioters have a different motivation.  They rampage through the country denouncing anyone who dares to seek the protection of the law.  I guess that’s progress.