You know I've striven mightily to keep my cynicism in check ever since Romney went down.  But try as I may I can't help but conclude this county is going down the toilet - - and the only thing this election will determine is the velocity of the swirl. 

As, oh so mercifully, election day finally arrives the one thing this big campaign is supposed to be about is the one thing I nearly completely lack - - HOPE.

This is both a fair warning to all wishful thinkers and hopenchange kool-aid drinkers, but also a pre-emptive I told you so.      

On a cold February night back in 1983 I was driving the 18 hour Massachusetts to Chicago by way of Pennsylvania trip, alone, overnight.  The only company I had was A.M. radio and at that time the best thing in post midnight national radio programming was Larry King, who was later replaced by cosmo nutbag Art Bell, with no apparent decline in quality. 

Anyway, it was an historic occasion that night because returns for the Chicago mayoral election were starting to come in and it was all but certain Chicago was about to get their first black mayor in the person of Harold Washington Jr., from Hyde Park.  I thought this would be an exciting time to be in Chicago when after so many years being ruled that the ruler would be black.  Hope abounded.  Maybe now the deteriorating school system, rampant crime, and corrupt political system of the second city would finally change.  Little did I know, but I was young and idealistic at the time.  
 
I reported for work the next day at the grain room in the Chicago Board of Trade.  As was the rule, no one was allowed on the trading floor without a coat and tie.  Traders who rightly consider themselves a renegade bunch, did everything in their sartorial power to stretch that rule to the limit.  I swear one wheat trader wore the same leather Budweiser tie every single day for almost 2 years.  The "coats" were more like lab coats than blazers, doublestiched at the seems to withstand the rigors of the trade pit with pockets big enough to hold the 3 x 5 trading cards where traders recorded their otherwise spontaneous trades during the hectic session.  Some even had the coats cleaned once in a while. Companies were identified by their coat colors.  Independent traders or speculators wore whatever color they wanted.  

The jackets then, was the medium for personal expression, adorned with all sorts of buttons, patches and what not.  This being an election year political buttons were in abundance.  My political naiveté showed when I asked about one of the most popular buttons that struck me as odd.  There were no words, names, clever  messages or double entendres, it was blank - - just plain white.  That, I was told, was the message.  Welcome to Chicago politics. 

For the first time in Chicago history a black guy was elected Mayor.  It promised to be "transformational", a word being bandied about quite a bit lately.  Indeed things were in for a change, but it was anything but transformative.  The only thing that changed was the skin color of the new party bosses elbowing there way to the public trough.  It was payback time.

Obviously I do not hate blacks, but any one who looks at it objectively could be justified in hating black politics.  I mean with examples like corporate extortionist Jesse Jackson, riot fomenting perjurer Al Sharpton, security guard punching Cynthia McKinney, impeachment obsessed John Dingell, tax evader Charlie Rangell, just to name a few, it's not all that hard a case to make or attitude to justify.  Virtually all of my black friends are embarrassed by these clowns, and to be honest, there are plenty of embarrassing white politicians as well. .  The truth is though, that this really isn't black politics, it's Democrat politics, only more honest.  In Democrat politics, and Chicago politics in particular, it's all about the Benjamins baby.   

It's all about money, power, and their interaction.  The only difference between Washington Democrats and Chicago Democrats is that in Washington money is used to gain power and in Chicago power is used to gain money. 
 
So for all the hope and change leading up to and following the election of Harold Washington Jr. the only difference we got was that the hand in taxpayers pockets was a different color.  Crime did not drop, schools did not improve, corruption did not decline.  It was business as usual, only under new management. Now the black party bosses and their friends were sharing in the spoils of victory.

Here is a snapshot of Chicago today.  I apologize for non attribution so if anyone of you know the author please tip me off.

Body count.  In the last six months 292 killed (murdered) in Chicago, 221 killed in Iraq.

So with Obama leading a Democrat monopoly we are in for The NEW GREAT MALAISE DEAL.

Democrats indebtedness to unions will guarantee the ban of secret balloting for unionizing a workplace.  And that's just for starters.  We can expect the so-called Fairness Doctrine will come up again, even though Obama said he's against it.  We should start a pool to pick the date the Congressional Black Caucus reintroduces the reparations issue, a true no-brainer for the "spread-the-wealth" types.  If it's not about the Benjamins this won't happen.  My bet is somewhere between Thanksgiving and the New Year.

The one refrain, little inner voice, that keeps my tiny sliver of hope alive is GOD Save The Senate and long live Mitch McConnell!