The way out of the circus on display in Chicago

Well, here we go: the circus is in town.

No, I’m not talking about the Ringling Brothers or Barnum and Bailey — at least they’re entertaining — but rather the Democratic National Convention. This week we will be force fed speeches from Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, and endure the woke primping and preening spewed from the Democrat mouthpieces on stage.

Chicago is a fitting city for the Democrats to hold their convention: it is a great city in slow decay due to backward leftist and authoritarian policies. Crime is rampant in Chicago and has only gotten worse since Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the pro-criminal SAFE-T Act. Cost of living is sky high because Illinois is among the most-taxed states in the nation. All of these problems are due to blue rule, and they will be on full display for everyone visiting Chicago for the circus.

The Democrats have had a tough act to follow this year. The Republican National Convention in Milwaukee was a sight to see and an emotional event in the wake of the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. It was a display of unity that has been downplayed by the media across the country, and Republicans are united behind our ticket up and down the ballot. And I should mention — our top of the ticket candidate was actually voted for by the members of our party. We call that “democracy.”

Conversely, the Democrats’ convention will be one filled with what we’ve come to expect from Democrats here in Illinois: false promises, gaslighting and manufactured hype behind a candidate who won’t do interviews. We’re seeing the Democrat propaganda machine whirring in full force propping up Kamala Harris after she unceremoniously ousted her boss from his candidacy without a single vote from the people. Anywhere else, that’s called a coup.

Kamala Harris has yet to give an interview since being installed without a single Democrat vote. She chose a radical leftist VP who misrepresented his record. Stolen valor. Ask his own chaplain. The only candidate worse than Walz — and even Harris rejected the idea — would have been Illinois’ own failed governor, J.B. Pritzker.

Sadly, we have not heard about any of the real issues and how Democrats will attempt to fix them. They have not talked about fixing the open southern border that has festered under Kamala Harris’ watch. The Democrats won’t touch the high cost of living imposed on people in Chicago, Illinois and throughout the country. They won’t give any concrete or real solution to the crime plaguing communities across the country or the corruption within their own Democratic Party from the United States Senate to Dolton, Illinois.

Truth be told, there is a silver lining to the Democratic National Convention being in town here. Voters are seeing that there is no real plan coming from the Democrats. There are no real policies they’re running on. Americans are choking on their progressive nightmare, and the Democrats keep doubling down.

Make no mistake, we here in Illinois are hurting. Workers are hurting. Families are hurting. Children are hurting, small businesses are hurting. No matter your political persuasion. We are one big hurt under the supermajority, Democrat domination in Illinois. And what has it delivered? A flight from Illinois, an unbearable tax burden on ordinary people, an unsustainable pension crisis, crime-ridden neighborhoods, unaffordable food & gas prices.

All of this brought to us by the Illinois Democratic Party. Democrats control the governor's mansion, the two U.S. Senate seats, 14 out of 17 congressional seats and a supermajority in the Illinois House and Senate as well as the mayor's office here in Chicago. Their only use for the Republican Party is to ridicule its sound policies and trigger hatred in those from whom they seek money to pursue even more power.

We Republicans are scrappy and will fight, fight, fight our battle at the ballot box. In an analysis of those cities in Illinois run by Republican mayors here in Illinois, the air is fresher and the people happier.

As I pen this commentary, most families, workers and small businesses in Illinois are awakening to host of problems brought on by the mistakes of our political leaders, mistakes that have increased our tax burden, dumbed down our public educational institutions and made our streets unsafe in which to travel. During the rest of the Democratic National Convention, open your ears to the truth and ask yourself: does the carnivalesque display I am watching reflect the America that I know and love?

Illinois, there is a way out of this nightmare: wake up — Vote Republican.

• Kathy Salvi, of Mundelein, is chairwoman of the Illinois Republican Party.