[img]1640|right|Arthur Christopher Schaper||no_popup[/img]Rahm Emmanuel, the Democratic mayor of Chicago, has a lot of issues. As a kid, he was a bully. An associate of his shared that in yesteryears, he loved to beat up kids and take their money. His desire to take people's money has not gone away with time. As a state legislator, then a Congressman, Rahm loved to go “Bam! Bam!” among his colleagues. A tax-and-spend liberal-progressive, he became chief of staff for President Barack (The One, the Change We've Been Waiting for) Obama in 2008.
Quite a hothead, Rahm got really heated up in the White House. Still very much a bully, Bully Rahm Emmanuel (who acts as if he is God, not just as if God is with him) started the bully ball rolling with “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” From the 2009 stimulus, which did not stimulate, to costly healthcare now more costly because of the (Un)Affordable Care Act (or Obama-WaxmanCare, to South Bay conservatives such as myself), Rahm has become anything but a savior for the United States. He once confronted a disgraced Democratic Congressman, Ed Massa of New York, the one with whom Glenn Beck wasted a lot of time post-resignation, in the men's showers in the capitol building to force a vote on a key issue (nothing more, hopefully). The Congressman resigned in disgrace (because he harassed male staffers, not because of Rahm, of course). As for Rahm, he remains a disgrace. He does not do people well, according to any sense or sensibility of human dignity. When he is in charge, people don't do to well, either. Ironically, the boy-man bully from Chicago created more chaos and crises as chief of staff under President Obama.
Thankfully for the country, although perhaps not for the Windy City, the Daley cult of Chicago signaled its desire to diminish, and Rahm rammed his name to the front for consideration for the office. He won, and Chicago lost. Now a heated executive, a Type-A personality who can't take No for an answer, he has gotten to know No a lot more. For a city with a tough reputation, Chicago gave the Bully Mayor little time to settle into his new role in his old stomping ground.
The bully got bullied, big-time.
Only Bullies Allowed
When Rahm stood up to the teachers union, they proved to be bigger bullies than he ever was. Still, Rahm had to be the adult, so he started closing down schools with declining enrollment, declining because of boredom or death, since pupils tend to draw blood more than pictures or conclusions from what they read in school. Then the Newtown, massacre shot gun control back into the national consciousness, with no consensus from state or federal leaders. Liberal bully Rahm (a telling tautology) is as much a gun-control advocate as a control freak. He bullied Chicago-based Bank of America to give up investments in gun companies. Chicago has been headquarters for B of A for years, so it seemed that the bank was backed up against the wall. In stepped Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) with a warm letter of welcome: “We have a modest view of government” down in Texas, Sen. Cruz assured the CEO of B of A. “Come down and bank here in the Lone Star state,” he said. “Contact me if you have any questions.” Rahm got beat that time.
Shabby by Comparison
Then came the end of 2012, and Chicago, the gun-control capital of the United States, witnessed five hundred murders , the highest number in a major city. In Los Angeles, crime rates are down. New York is looking good, too. Chicago? Not so good.
Taking advice from NRA President Wayne LaPierre – a good guy with a gun beats a bad bully with gun every time – the Illinois state legislature in conservative Springfield passed a conceal-carry gun law. Residents are sighing relief because they can pack heat instead of waiting for The Heat to temper down the heated crime rate.
A moment of optimism, perhaps? Big Government Rahm must let the individual protect himself, like letting the picked-on kids now fight back. This anti-bully libertarian beat is breaking forth throughout the land. Not just in Washington state with its mean, green, libertarian streak with marijuana legalization, but also the advancement of concealed-carry laws throughout the country. The former liberal governor of Michigan refused to repeal the Wolverine state’s concealed-carry laws. Now Illinois, and Rahm will have to allow the citizens in his unfair city to protect themselves, too. To his credit, Bully Rahm evinced a willingness to curb Chicago’s marijuana laws. He might want take a toke or two and mellow, leave his bullying ways, and let fellow Chicagoans live and let live.
Arthur Christopher Schaper is a teacher-turned-writer on topics both timeless and timely; political, cultural, and eternal. A life-long Southern California resident, Arthur currently lives in Torrance.
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