HOME STRETCH ELECTION 2015: Red Friday Every Day Everywhere... It's 'Red Tuesday' (followed by Red Wednesday, Red Thursday, until April 7) to show the subtle flag of victory
Although like many Chicago Teachers Union retirees I can't work a precinct going up and down stairs and sharing family stories with neighbors while getting out the vote, I do certain family chores every day, including most of our food shopping. Usually, I wear my CTU red tee shirt, and often a red CTU hoodie or red CTU jacket. For the past several days, every trip to the local Jewel, Family Market, or other stop has been a "Vote for Chuy!" campaign event. And not once has a comment been negative.
Some of the striking teachers marching down LaSalle Street on September 12, 2012. Substance photo by David Vance.Yesterday while I was getting supplies at the local Family Fruit Market, four people wanted to talk about how Chuy was going to win, despite those silly ads and silly phone calls. The advertisements are obvious to everyone. The phone calls seem to be coming based on some unusual computer selections. Yesterday, for example, I received a call from our old (and former) friend Bob Fioretti, who tried to tell me (via a voice call, not in person) that Rahm was the "best" for mayor because Rahm had a "plan" and Chuy supposedly didn't.
Bob's call reminded me of the bad old days with Bob Fioretti, when Bob was "Mr. Charter School" at the monthly meetings of the Chicago Board of Education. (It was only after CORE won that Bob began rethinking his massive support for charter schools, which had left the second ward with the greatest density of charters of any ward in town).
I have decided to make every day from now until Election Day a "Red Friday." Why? So that those conversations about Tuesday's election continue. Everyone wants to talk, so it will probably take more time to do grocery shopping and do other chores. It will be worth it in time, since I can do as much door-to-door election work as once I could.
During the massive marches during the Chicago Teachers Strike of 2012, thousands of individual signs expressed the wishes, hopes and dreams of the striking teachers, our families, and the thousands of parents and children who turned out, picketed and marched during the strike. Above, one striking teacher with her message in front of City Hall on September 12, 2012. Substance photo by David Vance.Every day, let's discuss how our "Red Every Day" program might work. I'm looking forward to the next seven days, and to waiting for the results on April 7. I already had the mustache, so I couldn't join others in that bit of theater. But I suspect that a "Red Every Day" day will get even more information than I might by dong a "Chuy" on my upper lip. We'll see.
But one more thing. This morning's Tribune is claiming, based on its polling, that Rahm is "pulling ahead" of Chuy. This kind of psychodrama is what you would expect from a plutocracy that is panicking that one of its most loyal "Democratic" party hacks is going further down than what he has gone as a result of the February 27 debacle. What matters is the polling that is going on now and ends at seven in the evening (at most polling place) on April 7.
Another Tribune "poll" that got it wrong was on Election Day 1948, when the editor of Substance was two years old.And this fight is going to be won with the "ground game." One of the things that the Tribune's editorial writers (most of whom can't vote in Chicago because they have decamped to some of the wealthier suburbs) can't see is that Rahm's "supporters" include a huge percentage of mercenaries (paid) and have since the day he began paying people to circulate his nominating petitions in 2010 and 2011. Mercenaries lose wars. Watch the Tribune the next couple of days for a case study in ruling class propaganda as "news." Then go back to 1948 for another edition of fun-filled moments in Chicago Tribune history.
