“STEP RIGHT UP, FOLKS, STEP RIGHT UP…”

5/17/11

The Chicago and national news media insist on continuing their, if reports are to be believed, unrequited love affair with now Mayor Rahm Emanuel. This morning, the news radio stations were all agog about Mr. Emanuel “hitting the ground running” on his first day in office. And what was Mr. Emanuel doing this morning? Shaking hands with commuters at the CTA station at 95th and the Dan Ryan.

This is “hitting the ground running”? Mr. Mayor, the campaign is over and it’s not the morning after the election; it’s the day after inauguration. Now the governing begins, and there is plenty to be done. Shaking the voters’ hands is not going to do anything about our fair city’s gaping budget deficit, horrific schools, or crumbling infrastructure. It’s time to get to work on the less glamorous aspects of the job.

How Mr. Emanuel spent his first day in office provides a stark illustration of one of my fears about Mr. Emanuel; i.e., that he is perhaps the archetype of the new politician who cannot distinguish between style and substance, between campaigning and governing. Further, having made his bones in fundraising, Mr. Emanuel shows no compunction about continuing to shake down businesses (and, having spent no time, beyond an influence peddling stint before running for Congress, in the private sector, sees no bottom to the pockets of business people) in order to finance this permanent campaign (See my 3/28/11 post HEY, THE BOYS NEED A LITTLE LUNCH MONEY…), this triumph of style over substance that his mayoralty may turn out to be.

The permanent campaign, financed by people who want something from government or who simply want to be able to conduct business without too much government harassment, is by no means a new approach to government; it is one of the reasons our society is fast heading toward the footnotes of history. What frightens some about Mr. Emanuel is the extent to which he engages in this approach to governance. And while famous pols of the past who paid close attention to style, sometimes at the expense of substance, knew what they were doing, one sometimes wonders if Mr. Emanuel and his ilk are capable of making the distinction.