Do you know why Chicago is called the Windy City? It’s windy. But do you know what causes the wind?
The hot air from all the politicians.
It’s about to get windier in Chicago.
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) chose Chicago, IL, to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention from August 19-22.
The choice comes a month after Gov. JB Pritzker and other wealthy people in IL told the DNC if it chose Chicago, they would foot the bill.
The United Center will be the main site. Other business will take place at the McCormick Place Convention Center.
Officials expect up to 7,000 delegates and over 50,000 visitors. They will take up 30 hotels for the delegates.
Despite the corruption, crime, and slime, Chicago is the greatest city in the world (no bias from this native)! It’s also the center of the “Blue Wall” in the Midwest. Chicago is the reason why Illinois is a blue state:
Chicago’s convention backers highlighted the abundance of downtown area union hotels; the large, centrally located convention venues near hotels; Midway and O’Hare airports; and the restaurants and museums in the city.Then there were the political considerations. One of the main political arguments Chicago backers used was putting the convention in the Midwest reinforces the “Blue Wall” battleground states beyond the solid blue Illinois.Last month, Democratic officials from Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri and Indiana — all supporting Chicago’s bid — wrote to Biden and DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison, underscoring the importance of Michigan and Wisconsin in retaining the White House in 2024.Wisconsin’s election last Tuesday also reinforced the “Blue Wall” when voters in the Supreme Court contest, for the first time in 15 years, switched the court to a liberal majority when Milwaukee County Judge Janet Protasiewicz beat former Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly, a conservative supported by Republicans.The convention will showcase the Biden agenda, values and the president’s accomplishments. The policies and agendas of Biden and Pritzker are closely aligned.Illinois has an assault weapons ban, abortion rights locked in and workers’ rights laws. Pritzker’s Rebuild Illinois capital plan and the city has been boosted by Biden’s signature infrastructure law. In January, Vice President Kamala Harris visited Chicago to announce $144 million in federal funding from the infrastructure law to rehabilitate the Illinois International Port Calumet River Bridges.
In March, Pritzker told the DNC he and his buddies would pay for the convention if they brought it to the Windy City:
In the city’s battle with other finalists, New York City and Atlanta, the governor, his sister and former Commerce secretary Penny Pritzker, businessman Michael Sacks, Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts and Illinois AFL-CIO President Tim Drea have been in talks about funding Chicago’s effort. It’s a lineup of resources designed to blunt the fears of repeating the 2012 convention in Charlotte, N.C., which ended with an $8 million tab.“We have a strong fundraising community that will be able to raise the money for the convention and not create any debt for the DNC, the city of Chicago or the state of Illinois. It would be a win for everyone financially and electorally,” Chicago Federation of Labor President Robert Reiter said in an interview. “And it would put thousands of people to work.”
Shocked to see Laura Ricketts on there. I thought she was a conservative like the rest of her family. I guess not. She’s a prominent Democrat.
Chicago has held the most political conventions. Unfortunately, the only one anyone remembers took place in 1968.
People protested the Vietnam War, which was in its 13th year. Mayor Richard Daley delayed granting protesters permits, which only worsened the situation.
Nothing would stop the anti-war protesters, groups made up of mostly students.
It all started at Lincoln Park on August 25, the day before the convention started. The police forced out people at 11 PM. And then:
August 26, 1968Mayor Daley officially opens the 1968 Democratic National Convention at the International Amphitheater, which closed in 1999, on the South Side of Chicago near the Union Stockyards. Thousands protest the start of the convention in the South Loop and Grant Park. The Festival of Life continues in Lincoln Park.Inside the convention, tensions in the party become obvious as delegates argue long into the night. Outside in Lincoln Park, police use tear gas to clear protesters at 11 p.m. Demonstrators and reporters covering the protests are beaten by Chicago police.August 27, 1968Protests continue in multiple locations. In Grant Park, the protests are largely peaceful. In Lincoln Park, they are violent. Tensions continue to rise inside the convention. Dan Rather, then a reporter for CBS, is roughed up by security as he attempts to interview a delegate who is being escorted out of the hall. The incident is broadcast live on television.
It went overboard on August 28:
The only permit issued by Mayor Daley for a protest is for August 28. Approximately 15,000 people attend the demonstration in Grant Park. Chicago police form a human barricade around the protest to prevent demonstrators from marching to the convention. As a result, protesters end up on Michigan Avenue and outside the Conrad Hilton Hotel.Police and National Guardsmen beat protesters and some reporters, despite the large media presence. A strike by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers prevents the scene from being broadcast live, but television networks shuttle the footage to their hubs at the convention hall from which the shocking images are then broadcast. The riot becomes known as the Battle of Michigan Avenue. Hundreds are injured and hundreds more arrested.
Don’t be shocked if something like this happens again.
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