Are Words Enough?
Chicago Demands Action, Not Platitudes
Two days. For two days after federal Jackboots treated downtown Chicago like an occupied territory, the official response from the state was silence. Then, finally, Governor Pritzker found a microphone. He came out swinging, at least with his words. He condemned the weekend’s Gestapo tactics, calling them “unacceptable,” “political intimidation,” and “a dangerous show of force designed to terrorize communities.” And he was right on all counts.
But that’s all they were: words. Fucking words. While his office was drafting that strongly worded letter, real people were being disappeared into the opaque federal machine. While the talking heads were praising his tone, families were frantically searching for loved ones. A statement, no matter how righteous, doesn’t free anyone from a detention center. It doesn’t undo the trauma inflicted on a community, and it doesn’t stop it from happening again. It’s a political shield, not a physical one.
Words
the governor speaks/
but his words can’t free the caged/
action is needed
Let me be clear about something: I don’t hate Pritzker. In the political hellscape we’re forced to navigate, he’s one of the better ones. He’s not some ghoul actively trying to destroy people’s lives for sport. I’ll take him over a Republican any day of the week and twice on Sunday. But that’s exactly what makes this so goddamn frustrating. My anger doesn’t come from a place of hate; it comes from a place of profound disappointment. It’s the frustration of seeing an ally, someone with actual power, stop short of doing what is truly necessary. It’s the agony of watching your side bring a strongly worded letter to a gunfight.
I understand the reality of the situation, the jurisdictional nightmare that is federalism. I know that the system is designed to protect federal agents, giving them wide latitude to operate even when their actions are morally bankrupt. The feds hold all the cards, and the deck is stacked to protect state power. But that argument only holds up if you believe the other side is still playing the same game. They aren’t. When one side uses the law not as a guide for just governance but as a cudgel for political intimidation, abiding by the old rules is a form of surrender.
Late
two long days go by/
then a statement hits the air/
the raid is all done
My radicalism makes me see a simple truth: when men with guns and no specific accountability start snatching people off your streets, you have a duty to stop them. Full stop. All the constitutional law and political maneuvering are just noise when faced with a kidnapping operation. The part of me that hasn’t been completely beaten down by this compromised system knows what should have happened. Pritzker should have mobilized the Illinois State Police and the National Guard, not for a press conference, but to form a cordon around these federal thugs. He should have ordered them to stand down and, if they refused, to arrest every single one of them for false imprisonment and terrorism against the citizens of his state.
Of course, we all know what would happen the second that order was given. The current occupant of the White House would be on Truth Social screaming “SEDITION!” and “INSURRECTION!” faster than you can blink. He’d claim Pritzker was leading a rebellion and threaten to send in the 82nd Airborne. It would be a full-blown constitutional crisis.
Sedition
draw a hard red line/
arrest the feds on the street/
a crisis would bloom
Politicians like Pritzker are programmed to view that crisis as the ultimate failure, the thing to be avoided at all costs. But radicals like me? We know you have to run headfirst into that crisis. You have to force the confrontation, because that’s the only place where real change happens. A crisis forces clarity. It rips the mask of civility off and reveals the raw power struggle underneath. That standoff on Michigan Avenue would have forced every politician, every pundit, and every person in this country to choose a side, not in theory, but in reality.
This is the source of my frustration. I wish our allies in power had the same fire in their bellies that we do on the streets. I wish they saw these federal thugs not as a jurisdictional problem to be managed, but as an invading force to be physically repelled. It’s like watching your favorite fighter pull his punches because he’s afraid of getting disqualified. But the fight we’re in isn’t for points. It’s for survival. So yeah, I like the guy, in theory. I’m just a radical who wishes our allies in power were as radical as the moment demands. I wish they were all willing to get disqualified from a game that’s already rigged.