Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker tries to chart a path for national Democrats to counter Trump

As a DNC Strategist I think the BEST way to Counter Trump is to Give him EVERYTHING he Wants and then run Kamala Harris again!

Seems legit.

Obtain fleet of excavators to dig heads out of sand.
Scrap the pink shirts and auction bid signs.

The path is through AoC and Bernie. While I appreciate Pritzker's seemingly well-intentioned efforts he's part of the elites and can get fucked.

As a former citizen of Illinois, I have some context for you. Yes he is a billionaire and I had to hold my nose when I voted for him over Rauner in 2018 because I thought the way you currently do. However, his performance as Governor of Illinois since then has been nothing short of amazing. The Illinois economy was in the shit at the time thanks to 20 years of horrible, sometimes criminal, management. The state was in junk bond status thanks to billions of dollars in unpaid debt. The previous Governor, Quinn, averaged one credit rating downgrade per 181 days in office. Rauner, the last Governor, actually managed to do worse averaging a downgrade every 101 days in office.
Pritzker came in a managed to turn it all around. In 2024, Illinois ranked near the top for economic development including number one in the Midwest for workforce development, and Fifth in the nation for cost of living. The bond status is vastly improved. As of November 2023, Pritzker's policies had earned the state 9 credit upgrades over the prior two years. Economically, Pritzker has been a big win for Illinois, and not just for the wealthy.
Socially, he has also been progressive.
Pritzker, a billionaire once known to many voters as the Democratic rich guy running against the Republican rich guy in a dysfunctional state, has pursued a robust activism defined by the kind of Democratic social policies that marked the nineteen-thirties and sixties. That means more funds for schools, child care, health care, college tuition, and roads.
Pritzker has pushed progressive policies since being elected including using $10 million dollars of state funds to purchase and cancel $1 billion is medical debt for Illinoisans. He has pushed to increase minimum wage in the state to $15/hour, universal preschool, legalized weed and established a regulatory system for adult use. He pushed for and signed HB4664, the Healthcare Protection Act, which among other things, bans per-approval by insurance for crisis mental health care and protects health care providers and their patients who receive abortions, reproductive, or gender affirming care in Illinois from attacks neighboring states.
Frankly, if he chooses to run for President I would be giddy. I would love to see him do for this nation what he's already done for Illinois.
- Chicagoland resident checking in. I agree with everything you said here. Pritzker is an amazing governor and his handling of Covid was fucking rad!
- Seems like the right guy for the time.
  Depressing to me though that “progressive” policies from 100 years ago are now considered ultra-progressive and sometimes radical.
The path is through AoC and Bernie. While I appreciate Pritzker’s seemingly well-intentioned efforts he’s part of the elites and can get fucked.
He may be one of the elites, but he has been doing much more to fight for working class workers than many/most politicians even in the Democratic party right now. I agree AOC and Bernie are great, but that doesn't mean they can do it themselves alone.
As an Illinoisan, Pritzker is the exception that proves the rule. He uses his money for good, and has been amazing for the state. He really shows that billionaires can do good but the vast majority choose not to.
So, with that said, I'm all for letting him lead with AOC and Bernie. He can really bankroll efforts.
There are elites in every society.
We're not against elites, we're against people who participate in corruption and subverting democratic systems and laws.
In this fight, we welcome all allies.
- I'm against elites. I will happily classify some as clearly worse than others but anyone with more than a few million in wealth got there by stealing from others and declined many opportunities to make their income highly productive for society.

Anything other than pushing aoc and Bernie is going to fail and they’re absolutely going to do it again because they’ve learned nothing.

Formorer chicagolander:

I was never the most informed of pritzker, as I didn't start payong attention to politics until covid. The first thing I remembered hearingvabout him is that he tried to evade some property taxes in some houses he owned by removing the toilets, didn't work though. I found it more amusing than anything else

I remember when the covid crisisvstarted, he he did his best to reassure people with daliy press briefings. I also remember that pritzker was always at odds with trump. I hear he still is. Yeah I'd vote for him, maybe not over sanders, or aoc (I'd have to think about it), but I think he'd do a good job. Hasn't got any complaints from me, more than I can say from most Democratics.

Oh yeah, counter a billionaire with a billionaire... No thank you.

Have you tried doing something, anything, yet?

He’s trying to draw a chart; does that count?

I wish Walz and Pritzker and AOC and the handful of other Democrats who have more than two neurons in their skulls would just say “fuck this, fuck you, new party”. The DNC got us here. The DNC isn’t going to get us out of this, if we even can get out of this.