Illinois Editorial Roundup:

Here are excerpts of editorials published in Illinois newspapers.

December 14, 2020

Chicago Sun-Times

The Electoral College makes it official but don't expect Trump to ever admit defeat

In normal times, the Electoral College vote designating the winner of a presidential election would be carried out under the radar with little public notice.

These times have been anything but normal. Yet Monday's votes by state electors went smoothly once again.

And thankfully, with none of the violence that erupted over the weekend in Washington D.C., Washington State and elsewhere at 'œStop the Steal'ť rallies led by delusional supporters who still believe Donald Trump is the victim of a vast conspiracy to defraud him out of a second term.

The 2020 presidential election is officially over. Nearly eight in 10 Republicans still believe Trump won, as one poll found, but the majority of Americans can tell the difference between reality and dangerous fantasy.

As New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu said just before that state's electors cast their ballots for Biden early Monday, 'œIt's not just out of tradition but to show folks, especially now more than ever, our system works.'ť

In Michigan, it worked, though police took extra precautions and escorted electors from their cars to the state capitol building that was shut down because of 'œcredible threats'ť of violence. In Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada and Georgia - states that Trump has repeatedly insisted he won - the system worked.

In the end, Biden got his 306 electoral votes, far more than needed to win.

And there was no repeat of the mayhem and chaos that erupted over the weekend at 'œStop the Steal'ť rallies in Washington D.C. - where four people were stabbed and dozens arrested after a demonstration led by hundreds of far-right white nationalist Proud Boys - and in Olympia, Washington, where an armed right-wing protester was charged with shooting a leftist protester.

We expect Trump to continue trying to subvert the democratic process. We expect some of his supporters in Congress and the Senate will continue, without shame or self-respect, to enable his delusion.

On Jan. 6, when Congress counts the electoral votes on the floor of the House of Representatives, we would not be surprised to see one or more Trump sycophants, egged on by one of his tweets, raise some baseless objection during the House proceeding.

None of it will mean a thing.

It's official, as of Monday: Trump's done.

___

December 11, 2020

Chicago Tribune

Mike Bost and Darin LaHood, Illinois' congressional enablers

President Donald Trump lost his reelection bid. Joe Biden won. Biden will be inaugurated on Jan. 20, whether Trump and his Republican allies acknowledge that reality or continue challenging it in court.

Two members of Illinois' congressional delegation, U.S. Rep. Mike Bost of Murphysboro and U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood of Peoria, are among the disbelievers. They would rather be deadenders for Trump than defenders of the American election system.

Bost and LaHood joined more than 100 House Republicans who signed on to a court brief in support of a specious late effort by Texas to overturn the election. The Texas suit asked the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate Biden's victories in Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin based on unfounded, debunked claims of fraud and other nonexistent irregularities. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit on Friday, including the three Trump-appointed justices. Concerns about the late appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett and other court conservatives somehow committing subterfuge with the election result proved to be unfounded.

Trump and his backers already have been rebuffed at least 40 times by the courts, including the Supreme Court previously, in their efforts to gin up claims Trump was swindled out of victory. He lost the electoral vote 306-232, with all 50 states certifying the results. The Electoral College will meet Monday to cast their ballots. On Jan. 6, Congress should ratify that vote because there is no evidence of widespread fraud that could overturn the result.

'œCalling an election unfair does not make it so,'ť Judge Stephanos Bibas, a Trump appointee to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, wrote in rejecting a Trump campaign case in Pennsylvania. The Texas suit provided one more echo chamber for unsubstantiated assertions.

In the days after the election, Trump and others had every right to monitor ballot counting and mount legal challenges if they suspected wrongdoing. Those challenges have been batted away, but still the lawsuits, appeals and denials keep coming. On Saturday, Trump supporters again converged in Washington, D.C., to question and protest the results.

While Bost and LaHood stand with the stubborn, U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a Republican from Channahon, makes a level-headed plea to fellow party members to accept the election result. As he explained, even if there were instances of election fraud, there weren't enough to alter the result. 'œYou may not like the outcome, but that doesn't mean our 2020 election is fake,'ť Kinzinger said in a video posted to Twitter. 'œIt was real - it counts - and we need to move forward.'ť

Kinzinger's video is worth watching. We agree with his warning that Trump's refusal to accept the result feeds cynicism in a system of government that relies on trust to function properly. 'œAs a society,'ť Kinzinger said, 'œwe've become unmoored from facts and from reality and we're now in danger of failing to properly carry out the duties that previous generations have entrusted us with, like the peaceful transfer of power.'ť

America in danger? Perhaps even Kinzinger goes too far. When politics veers from constitutional actions, the courts are there to correct and protect the system. Nothing's changed on that account. That's why the results of the 2020 election will be upheld. But the cynical claims of a rigged election need to stop because unfounded insinuations of electoral foul play do have consequences. They feed divisions and sow mistrust in the political system as a whole.

Biden won. Trump lost. Republicans, including Bost and LaHood, need to say that.

___

December 13, 2020

The (Champaign) News-Gazette

The tax-hike waiting game

There's a time and a place for everything.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker was evasive the other day when he was asked, quite legitimately, what he thinks about House Speaker Michael Madigan's plan to support a state income-tax hike if Pritzker gives him the all-clear to do so.

Instead of raising tax revenues, Pritzker said, somewhat disingenuously, that he's 'œfocused on the cuts that need to be made in state government.'ť

Pritzker said he will be 'œlooking to Republican and Democratic leaders. ... asking them for their best proposals are for what cuts need to be made.'ť

'œI'm waiting for their responses,'ť he said.

Pritzker's decision to distance himself from Madigan's surprising statement is not a surprise, just as Madigan's pledge to House Democratic Black Caucus members also was not a surprise.

The pair are playing a political game that requires Pritzker to say no-no while Madigan says yes-yes.

It's been six weeks since voters overwhelmingly rejected the governor's proposal for a massive tax increase - $3 billion-plus - in the form of a progressive income-tax amendment to the Illinois Constitution.

Even though he disagrees vehemently with voters' decision on the issue, Pritzker has been put in a position where he needs to show that he got the message that reducing the size and cost of government comes before further increasing the size and cost of government.

So everyone will get to endure a bit of kabuki theater on taxes before Pritzker announces in the months ahead that, yes, he considers an income-tax increase necessary to support his spending plans.

As for Madigan, he's trying to retain his job as speaker in the face of internal party opposition driven by the Commonwealth Edison bribery scandal in which he's been ensnared.

His past practice has been to wait until the last minute before expressing support for an income-tax increase and then only after he has persuaded Republicans to join him in that position.

Now, however, he's trying to secure support for another term as House speaker, and that, in his view, requires taking the steps necessary to raise revenues for programs that serve the interest of the caucus members' constituents.

Madigan, however, could not resist leaving himself an escape hatch on the tax issue.

'œI'm prepared to vote for a (state income-tax increase) presuming it's the governor's request,'ť he said.

That will be coming forthwith - few public officials have been more averse to spending cuts and supportive of spending increases than Pritzker.

But there's a big problem, one already in place before the coronavirus economic lockdown made circumstances even worse: Illinois is effectively bankrupt.

To address that serious problem, Pritzker has asked state department heads to cut current-year spending by 5 percent and spending in the new fiscal year beginning July 1 by 10 percent.

But those cuts won't come close to erasing the state's $4 billion-plus budget deficit, its more than $300 billion in unfunded state pension and retiree health insurance obligations, and its $7.8 billion in unpaid bills.

Pritzker clearly is hoping the incoming Biden administration will come through with a bailout plan for beleaguered states like Illinois. But that, at best, would be a financial Band-Aid, not a solution. So the time will come when Pritzker will climb back on the tax bandwagon and start beating the drums for more revenue.

But that time has not yet arrived. That's why he moved quickly to distract public attention from Madigan's tax-hike trial balloon, not pop it.