Editor’s Note: Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson speaks on his takeaways from the November 5 elections. These comments are transcribed from a video on the Chicago Mayor’s Office Facebook page.
I have to be just brutally honest here. It is absolutely frustrating as much attention as we’re getting around the the corporate head tax [that would charge 3% of the largest corporations to pay their fair share rather than balance budgets over the backs of working people] at a time in which people are crying out desperately for government to respond to the basic fundamentals. And we are in a moment where there are more billionaires; we’re close to having a trillionaire, maybe a couple of them. And people are asking for about a third of a percent to keep people safe.
And we just saw the election results across this country that people want government and particularly Democrats to stand up for working people. Why won’t we do that? This is freaking Chicago. We are the global capital of the world. The working class was defined here. And now you want to reshape our economy that capitulates to the ultra rich at a time in which people are hungry, without homes, without access to transportation.
It is deeply disturbing right now that we have leaders in this state that are prepared to defend millionaires and billionaires and not the people in Austin and not the people in Roseland. What is wrong with us?
And so the election is a clear example that we can lead with boldness. We can lead with an emphatic position around protecting working people. The ultra rich do not need defending. They already have their defender in chief. Why are we standing alongside of Donald Trump to protect corporate interests? Well, we saw the largest upward transfer of wealth into the hands of the ultra rich than anytime in our nation’s history.
Justice Brandeis made it clear you can neither have a democracy or you can have wealth concentrated into the hands of the ultra rich, but you cannot have both. And what people voted for this past Tuesday was to secure and protect our democracy.
Brandon Johnson is the mayor Chicago, Illinois.
