Readers who share my dismay at the ways that the structure of our national political system frustrates the will of the majority have a sympathetic ear in blogger Jason Kottke, who offers links to useful video lessons in how the system works, or rather doesn’t work. As Kottke says, Fairness and justice should not be […]
James Krohe Jr.
Posted inOpinion
Not the pick of the litter
Among the original items in Mr. Rauner’s Turnaround Agenda (he counts 44, I get a little more than a dozen) are several sensible reforms that the saner Democrats ought to at least be talking about. Alas, according to today’s news accounts, the governor he has settled on the two dumbest as his conditions for approval […]
Posted inOpinion
Country blues
Looked at in one way – actually, looked at in several ways – Donald Trump’s win was the revenge of the countryside against the city. While the billionaire common man couldn’t carry Illinois, he did prevail in every county outside greater Chicago. He did least well in the most urbanized counties, but very well indeed […]
Posted inOpinion
Fitzgerald and Maxwell, from the archives
Alert readers will know that two mid-Illinois writers, translator and poet Robert S. Fitzgerald and Lincoln novelists and editor William Maxwell, have been much talked about in these pages over the years. I essayed a piece about Fitzgerald’s boyhood in the capital (“All is not well forever”) in 2009 and in 2012 the late Rich […]
Posted inOpinion
Krohe khronicles
In “As the crow is bent” (perhaps my worst title ever), I explored the ramifications of my unusual surname. Unusual, that is, outside Cass County and environs. My father, on his travels around the country, would study local phone books in search of other Krohes and found none. I understand the name is uncommon in Germany […]
Posted inOpinion
Minority wrongs
I am among those dismayed by the outcome of the November elections – not because people I disagree with elected the next President of the United States, but because they didn’t. Voters were asked to choose from among four candidates, and the one who was awarded the most votes was Hillary Clinton, the pride of […]
Posted inOpinion
Rural clout
Rural America, even as it laments its economic weakness, retains vastly disproportionate electoral strength. Rural voters were able to nudge Donald J. Trump to power despite Hillary Clinton’s large margins in cities like New York. In a House of Representatives that structurally disadvantages Democrats because of their tight urban clustering, rural voters helped Republicans hold […]
Posted inOpinion
“People, not Pontiacs,” uncut
For readers with a taste for the archival. Here is the full version of my column abut the Y block in downtown Springfield, an abridged version of which we ran on Nov. 10, The original that follows appeared in my Prejudices series in the IT of Oct. 8, 1981. Honestly, I didn’t know whether to cheer […]
Posted inOpinion
As the crow is bent
Some say that names are destiny. Surely jurist Learned Hand was doomed at his christening to take up the law, just as John Wisdom took up philosophy or Brandon Belt picked up a baseball bat. I am indebted to New Scientist magazine for what I know about “nominative determinism,” a spoof discipline that purports to […]
Posted inOpinion
Boomer bust
Note to baby boomers: Now’s your chance to relive the ’60s for real — only now Bull Connor is in the White House.
Posted inOpinion
People, not Pontiacs!
Ever know a kid who never quite grew up because her parents wouldn’t let her? The Y block in downtown Springfield is a lot like that. I described the partial clearing of that parcel in 1978. (See “A shooting,” Dec. 30, 2015.) I returned to the topic of its unrealized promise in 1981 in “People, […]
Posted inOpinion
Rigged
Turns out the election was rigged, after all. Voters were asked to chose from among four candidates, and the one who was awarded the most votes was – Illinoisan Hillary Clinton. She lost, however, in the only tally that counts, the Electoral College. The college was set up by the Founders as a political hedge. […]
