53 Comments - Give Us Barabbas - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 9:18 am: “Am I out of touch? No, the children must be wrong” is the Simpsons meme for Proft - Roadrager - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 9:18 am: Losers in every sense except the financial one. We call this “Musking” nowadays. - Highland IL - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 9:21 am: Devore & Bailey are trying to complete their takeover of the ILGOP by ousting Tracy because he’s the “loser”, not the two guys on the ballot. - 47th Ward - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 9:22 am: I’m guessing Dan Proft does not own a mirror. - Ron Burgundy - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 9:23 am: “Why won’t they buy our terrible product?” - GOP, probably. As for Jesse Sullivan, perhaps unmarried women are a bit angry that you and your party want to control their bodies. What part of your body are you willing to let them control in exchange? I thought so. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 9:25 am: The reality is the simplest of all the simplest of simples. Sincerely. Every poll-able social issue.. (2A, Abortion, SSM, LGBQT+, etc)… the GOP and specific to the ILGOP… they are on the wrong side of each of these polling issues. Now throw in that each and every of these issues has a “cult” fascination that unless you agree with the zealot extremists, you are a R_N_ and cast out of the GOP/ILGOP. All 8 statewides, 5-2 ILSC, 14-3 Congressional, super majority legislature, largest seat holdings for the HDems since the cutback amendment… “The voters got it wrong” As a voter, who doesn’t identify with a party that embraces racist thinkers, insurrection apologists and conspiracy theorists… and a party that is completely on the wrong side of social issues in policy… It ain’t the voters. The voters actually got it right. - Norseman - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 9:27 am: Self-reflection is a rare characteristic for politicians. It’s considered an evil by MAGA GOP politicians and propagandists. - Baloneymous - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 9:34 am: All those Twitter posts and they still wonder why they keep losing elections in Illinois. - MisterJayEm - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 9:36 am: “These suburban voters aren’t swayed by our insults, so obviously we need better insults.” – MrJM - Homebody - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 9:37 am: Remember when, for a hot minute, Sullivan was pretending to be a reasonable alternative in the GOP race? - very old soil - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 9:41 am: I offered this link in an earlier post but it is also related to this post https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/why-did-single-women-vote-for-democrats-republicans-have-an-asinine-theory/ar-AA1489kI?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=44d970e507d84bb9a3a412f9a6dff064 - Pot calling kettle - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 9:41 am: “Illinoisans don’t want to be saved.” True. So, please, please, please stop trying to “save” us. - Larry Bowa Jr. - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 9:48 am: Sullivan’s fake holy man nonsense makes me want to get a divorce and abandon my family. Love to be lectured about morality by republican crypto grifter politicians. - Lt Guv - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 9:57 am: They are truly pathetic people. What a sad, sad way to live. - Old time Independent - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 9:59 am: By the sounds of Dans comments it looks like Uihlien like Griffin is done forking out Millions. The faucet looks to be finally shut off. - Joe Bidenopolous - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 10:04 am: Thank god the problem wasn’t their policy positions or messaging or they’d have a real problem - vern - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 10:05 am: From the Trib’s interview with McCombie: “We need to move forward after this last election and talk to the independent voters and commonsense voters, those folks that didn’t show up for us this cycle,” McCombie said in a Nov. 22 interview with the Tribune. “We have Republicans all over the state, whether it’s in the suburbs or in Chicago. We just need to get them to the table and show that we support them.” (https://www.chicagotribune.com/politics/ct-tony-mccombie-republican-house-leader-20221128-sf7cf3sxofa2zka4iodowudjvm-story.html) The ILGOP just will not try to win over Democratic voters, because doing so would require Rs to respect those voters. They would rather lose than try that. - Excitable Boy - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 10:08 am: - it looks like Uihlien like Griffin is done forking out Millions. - Not sure how you draw that conclusion. It looks to me like he’s already doubling down on his failed strategy because that’s what Uihlein likes to hear. The goal isn’t winning with these people. - H-W - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 10:11 am: = Unmarried women broke D by 37 pts! = It’s called abortion rights. - Suburban Mom - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 10:11 am: Someone should disambiguate the effect of marriage vs the effect of age on voting D or R. Like, yeah, more married women vote Republican … because they’re more likely to be older, and wealthier. One of the big things driving down rates of marriage (in the US and in many other countries) is the near-impossibility of setting up an independent household for young couples, due to stagnant wages and ridiculous housing prices. If the GOP wants more people getting married younger, they need to increase wages and drive down housing costs. But they won’t do that, because they don’t actually care about solving the problems that underlie falling marriage rates — they care about berating women and imagining they can go back to the 1950s of their (or their parents’) childhoods through sheer force of will. - Sir Reel - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 10:12 am: With those stats on who broke for who, there must be a whole lot of unmarried women in Illinois, given how the Democrats cleaned house. Where are they? - workingfromhome - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 10:14 am: Hey Jessie, we know plenty of married women who wouldn’t in a million years vote for you and the GOP as it is today. You’re just lousy candidates. It really is that simple. - TheInvisibleMan - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 10:16 am: –The faucet looks to be finally shut off.– I’d be careful in assuming that at this point. We’re in a lull between elections. The money is going to go where it has more of a chance, which is going to be local races, like school boards and village/county boards. The Koch money started flowing into my local library elections a few years ago, and my area seems to be a bellwether for what is to come. The anti-abortion crowd is already trying to go hyper-local in attempting to convince local municipalities to change zoning laws to prohibit abortion clinics on a per town basis to ‘get around’ the legislation at the state level to protect reproductive rights. The money isn’t going away until Citizens United is addressed. To expect otherwise will be to be caught off guard. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 10:22 am: ===there must be a whole lot of unmarried women in Illinois, given how the Democrats cleaned house. Where are they?=== You don’t know any adult unmarried women, even in your family? I guessing this is… snark? - Streator Curmudgeon - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 10:36 am: ILGOP reminds me of a story I heard about a janitor at Streator High School who once said (half seriously): “We could keep this school pretty clean if it wasn’t for those darn kids.” - Grandson of Man - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 10:38 am: The personal responsibility people don’t like taking responsibility for their own failures. If they want to keep running losing campaigns and blaming others, please proceed. - Dr. M - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 10:39 am: To Sullivan’s bizarre observation: My Democratic women friends are practically all married, but they also married later in life. This is characteristic of most women (and men) with college degrees. Also, people with college degrees are more likely to ever marry than folks with only HS diplomas. Sullivan fails to understand that non-marriage at any given time, but especially under the age of 35 for women with college degrees, does not equal political opposition to marriage and the family, or permanent non-marriage. I’ll be 40 when I get married because that’s how it worked out, it’s not a political statement. And Republicans wonder why they are losing college educated women? - Suburban Mom - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 10:41 am: ===I guessing this is… snark?=== I think it was a self-deprecating joke about dating. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 10:46 am: ===I think it was=== Really? Huh. Even in a context as such, where exactly is the joke? - Hamlets Ghost - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 10:49 am: I believe Jesse Sullivan re-tweeted national statistics from Brad Wilcox. IL numbers would be more Democratic in all categories. - Bruce( no not him) - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 10:51 am: “The voters are too stupid to understand we know what’s best for them.” - We’ll See - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 10:52 am: ILGOP -that 19th amendment is a real problem and we need to figure out how to repeal it. /s - JS Mill - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 11:03 am: =where exactly is the joke?= I will be honest, it kinda made me chuckle. The ILGOP just cannot get over their loses. Rural Illinois is red and they cannot figure out why the rest of Illinois (where the people live) was not red too? These are the effects of living in an echo chamber and purposely shutting out all information to the contrary. If all they ever here is that which confirms their bias, anything to the contrary is mind blowing. This is why they will continue to lose in Illinois. - Just Me 2 - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 11:18 am: Users usually bemoan that they didn’t adequately get their message out. In this case Proft acknowledges that voters heard their message and rejected it, and that it is the voters who are wrong. Interesting. - Demoralized - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 11:18 am: Well, I guess it is true that we should blame the voters. They didn’t buy what the Republicans were selling. Republicans still insist that they ain’t changing so they’ll continue to get the same result. Understand the electorate and quit whining that you are losing. Insisting you are right and calling the voters stupid isn’t going to win you any elections. - MisterJayEm - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 11:20 am: But seriously — those are not the thoughts of people who’s goal is actually winning elections. “Suburban voters are broken,” isn’t a tactical reassessment. “We need to get these single women married off,” isn’t an actual strategy. “Illinois can’t be saved,” is in no way the thoughtful postmortem demanded by a thorough electoral thrashing. Any Republican seriously interested in winning an election should be asking two questions: 1) What did the IL-GOP do wrong? and 2) How can the IL-GOP do better? That’s it. That is all that any thoughtful Republican, much less any political professional, would be doing between election night and next spring — asking themselves and their allies those questions and desperately looking for the answers. But these hucksters and hate-peddlers can’t even bring themselves to feint in the direction of such introspection. Why? The first reason is, of course, money. The hateful performances above make their donors happy. They are demonstrations of fealty, reconfirming that they despise the same people whom their donors despise. Hateful rants, not thoughtful inquiry, keep the money flowing, and that is always the first priority. The second reason is the answers to the questions above. 1) What did the IL-GOP do wrong? The answer is plain: The IL-GOP put their money and their futures in the hands of shameless grifters. Had the IL-GOP won, there would have been no doubt that the outcome was due to the people above and those like them in their party. But they didn’t win. And just as any GOP victory would have been their responsibility, so too this unalloyed thumping was their responsibility. Which brings us to the second question: 2) How can the IL-GOP do better? Again the answer is obvious — The IL-GOP should cut ties with the bilious people above and with those like them. What possible reason could there be for sticking with them? When someone gets beaten like they did in the last election, the problem is usually money or message. But they had money, lots of money. And with regard to message, they clearly refuse to even reconsider their failed and detestable message. That means that one possible problem can’t be improved upon, and — as they demonstrated above — they adamantly refuse to change the other. So until they put these dreadful people behind them, self-inflicted failure will continue to befall the IL-GOP. But please, Republicans, don’t take this woke, neo-pinko’s word for it. Simply ask yourself: 1) What did the IL-GOP do wrong? and 2) How can the IL-GOP do better? – MrJM - Commissar Gritty - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 11:27 am: Illinois wants to be saved from false Proftets. Sorry, had to make the dad joke. - LakeCo - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 11:37 am: What exactly is Sullivan saying there? Does he want to force unmarried women down the aisle to “rebuild strong families”? - Oswego Willy - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 11:39 am: Wow. What - MisterJayEm - has put to this post… … when - MisterJayEm - isn’t his pithy self. Dropping the knowledge. Appreciate this, his words. - Cheswick - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 11:39 am: How does Jesse think he or his party is going to “rebuild strong families,” not that I really want to know but I think we need to know. Or does he even know? - Excessively Rabid - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 11:43 am: Try running some Republicans Interested in Normal Operations. Or maybe Non Obnoxiousness. - Old time Independent - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 12:25 pm: Read Crains today as Hinz did a piece on money flowing into the Cook GOP all to the Chairman Sean Morrison. This also explains why the GOP continues to fail - very old soil - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 12:28 pm: From the link I posted earlier Yes, it’s true: Republicans are big mad that single women voted for Democrats, and their explanation for this is that Democrats of brainwashing those hapless, unfortunate women who don’t have husbands to make their decisions for them. “Unmarried women in America are lost, miserable, addicted to SSRIs and alcohol, wracked with guilt from abortion, and wandering from partner to partner,” wrote Joel Berry, managing editor of the popular right wing site Babylon Bee. “They are the Democrats’ core base now, and the Democrats will do everything possible to manufacture more of them.” - JS Mill - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 12:33 pm: =Unmarried women in America are lost= Maybe Sullivan and the gop should ask Lindsey Graham to marry one of these wayward ladies to help kickoff the saving of the “single ladies”? - Pundent - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 12:37 pm: =By the sounds of Dans comments it looks like Uihlien like Griffin is done forking out Millions.= I’ve seen no evidence of that. And when the current messaging no longer works Proft will simply change to one that will keep the cash rolling in. That’s what grifters do. His ideology is whatever folks are willing to pay for. - Anyone Remember - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 1:01 pm: Never understood the popularity of The Babylon Bee. Always struck me as recycled, modernized Phyllis Schlafly. For my money, beyond The Onion, the best satire site is The Duffel Blog (recently added paywall). This older post (on a different site), to me, is one of the best pieces of government related satire ever. https://bluebirdofbitterness.com/2015/03/23/military-working-cat-project-derailed-by-intriguing-empty-box/ - DuPage Moderate - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 1:14 pm: If you really can’t spot the problem Dan, you are the problem. How to start saving the Illinois Republican Party; first step, get rid of Proft, Ives and all of their ilk. - The Doc - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 1:17 pm: Is there a better example of “Florida Man” than Dan Proft? Human embodiment of a grift. - A Well-Regulated Commenter - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 2:07 pm: SafeSuburbsUSAPAC is just the pink slime vehicle for failed Naperville politician Kevin Coyne, FYI. - SIUEalum - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 2:40 pm: = Rural Illinois is red and they cannot figure out why the rest of Illinois (where the people live) was not red too?= I was visiting a friend in the Eastern Bloc over the holiday break and started talking politics with her extended family. I mentioned that my neighborhood in Chicago was less than 2 square miles and had over 4x the population of the county they lived in. A couple of them have never been to Chicago in their lifetime and just couldn’t wrap their heads around the population density of the Chicago area. - btowntruthfromforgottonia - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 3:16 pm: So after insulting Chicago nearly nonstop they blame the voters for not voting for them? Got it. - Shytown - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 3:54 pm: If Illinois can’t be saved does this mean Amy Jacobson will be moving to Florida as well? One can dream. - Oswego Willy - Monday, Nov 28, 22 @ 3:59 pm: ===Amy Jacobson will be moving to Florida=== Who will Dan get to stalk pols and other such folks in the appropriate swimwear in Illinois? Amy *has* to stay, otherwise the angry media personality bit is ruined. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.