As H.L. Mencken said: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”

It will be interesting to see if last night’s results prove him right.

EDITOR’S NOTE: We hope not, but we expect it will.

PW – thank you for your consistent and straight-forward analysis and perspective on the local politics around Park Ridge. As a longtime follower, your views and voice stand out more than ever as one of reason, accuracy, responsibility, and principle. We are fortunate to have you as a leader in our community even when you’re words can be tough to hear personally. Keep doing what needs to be done!

EDITOR’S NOTE: You’re welcome, Commissioner. And thank you for your kind remarks, even if your characterization of this editor as a community “leader” is much too generous – especially when the principal purpose of this blog has always been to inform the taxpayers and challenge our public officials to expend public funds and conduct their operations with the same foresight, judgment and economy that the majority of our citizens would employ in acting for themselves, based on the following principles:

• Responsible government requires broad public participation by an informed citizenry that can be achieved only through the timely dissemination of complete and accurate information and vigorous public debate;

• Government operations must be transparent so that both our elected and appointed officials can be held strictly accountable to their constituents;

• Fiscal policies must be value-based and focused on common sense cost-effectiveness that, whenever possible, complements rather than competes with private enterprise and investment;

• Government initiatives that further special interests or place long-term demands on public resources require the highest level of public scrutiny;

• The best way to maximize the value of our public resources is through synergy and cooperation between the units of local government who consume them; and

• Partisan party politics have no place in local government, which should operate free of external political influences.

One thing is for sure. You, Char & Mel should keep your endorsements to yourselves if you really want to help candidates. Your time has past.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Don’t confuse us with Char or Mel: We don’t play their Republican/Stupid Party endorsement game. And one election like yesterday’s does not make or break an endorsement career, especially when we only endorsed 2 of 10 candidates in contested races.

But if you go back to 2017, we were 9 of 10 in contested races; in 2015, 2 of 2; and in 2013, 7 of 10.

If you’re still making anonymous comments two years from now, “Has Been” (or “Never Was”), feel free to check in with us.

My hope is that all of these new people take the job very seriously and are not rubber stamps for the annual increases put on the tax payers.

Also, it seems to me that the Park District Park Commissioner roles have been increasingly more challenging because the Community Center does not bring in the volumes or dollars before the down the street competition opened up. So this whole Oakton proposal is going to have to be tax payer funded and that will be a tough sell.

EDITOR’S NOTE: When it comes to D-64 and D-207, you might as well wish for an entire herd of unicorns.

As for whatever the “Oakton proposal” might be, it shouldn’t be any kind of a “sell”: The Park Board and staff should come up with the best idea, put it on the referendum ballot, and see if the voters agree. Any time a unit of government – say, like D-207 back in November – has to “sell” the taxpayers on some idea or plan, you can be pretty sure the idea or plan is a bad one.

It look like the Pink P***y Hats won the D64 school board elections. Congratulations Park Ridge. A group of progressives with slick flyers calling themselves the ‘mommies in the room’ (according to the Trib article celebrating their win) – but it won’t be long before these League of Women Voters force our children to learn that mommies can be daddies and daddies can be mommies, and who knows what other progressive propaganda they’ll indoctrinate our children with. My daughter today brought home some socialist propaganda disguised as educational material glorifying a corrupt municipal union strike and the new board hasn’t even taken their oaths yet!
This just another crest in the unfortunate ‘blue wave’ that swept over the state last November. This state has really gone down the tubes.

EDITOR’S NOTE: We saw no “Pink P***y Hats,” nor did we hear any “raging, screeching vaginas.”

Ray Davies authored the iconic “Lola” lyric “Girls will be boys and boys will be girls” back in 1972, and this state has been predominantly “blue” for the past 35 years. So unless you’ve been frozen in Carbonite since then, it’s time to get “woke.”

“Ray Davies authored the iconic “Lola” lyric “Girls will be boys and boys will be girls” back in 1972, and this state has been predominantly “blue” for the past 35 years. So unless you’ve been frozen in Carbonite since then, it’s time to get “woke.” ”

Illinois from Cairo to Rockford and Galena to Mt. Greenwood is a Red state. There are unfortunately a handful more blue voters than red voters in one corner of the state and those elected politicians from that area control the Illinois legislature. They’ve managed to gerrymander the state so well that they now total control of every aspect of the state. Illinois is not Chicago. Park Ridge even recognized that many years ago when it incorporated rather than be annexed into Chicago. But Chicago does control the state.

EDITOR’S NOTE: JB beat Rauner 2,479,746 to 1,765,751, a margin of 713,995 votes. That’s hardly “a handful.”

And the Illinois Republican Party is, in reality, the Illinois Stupid Party that couldn’t run a 1-car funeral. So Chicago (actually, Crook County) controls the state by default.

“JB beat Rauner 2,479,746 to 1,765,751, a margin of 713,995 votes. That’s hardly “a handful.””

Rauner had 1,823,627 votes in 2014 compared to Quinn’s 1,681,343 votes. Rauner 2018 vote total was only 58,000 less than 2014.

BUT 740,000 more people showed up the polls in 2018 than 2014 to vote out a millionaire and replace him with a billionaire. There is still a sizable R presence within the state.

Even though I vote for the ‘stupid party’, I try to stay out of state politics because, lets be honest, the voting population of IL is even stupider than the ‘stupid party’. It just upsets me too much to watch the state I was born in go down the tubes. Moving to Park Ridge a few years back was a step in the right direction to be around like minded people, but as a member of the middle class, I, like most middle class members of the state, have already made up my mind to exit the state within 10-15 years. Mark my words, I will not be retiring in this date. I’ve had countless friends and family leave for greener pastures in the last decade, I’m one of the few left. The morale is so depressing among members of the middle class. But hey, we’re about to have the most progressive abortion laws in the country. yeaaaaaaah!

EDITOR’S NOTE: Park Ridge is decidedly not “middle class.”

We also find it interesting that you moved to Park Ridge “a few years back” but are already planning “to exit the state within 10-15 years.” That sounds like a classic “freeloader” move tied to “free” public education of kids. Why don’t you do us all a favor and leave now?