What do Democratic voters in Cook County look for in a political candidate? Innovative thinking? Check. A strong sense of service to their constituents? Check. A keen eye for fiscal responsibility? Check.
Blind loyalty to the county’s Democratic machine? Well, yes, but only if you happen to be the people running the machine.
Blind Loyalty is precisely what the Cook County Democratic Party is demanding — not asking, demanding — of office seekers gearing up for the June 28 Democratic primary next year. Candidates seeking the party’s endorsement have been told to sign a so-called loyalty pledge to join the party’s slate. Candidates must commit to a “solemn oath” to not support candidates for other offices who haven’t been slated by the party.
In other words, endorse the people we tell you to endorse. Otherwise, get out of our tent.
Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who also heads up the county’s Democratic Party, defends the loyalty oath as an expression of unity.
“If you’re on a boat, you want everybody rowing in the same direction. We’re going to support people and we expect them to row in the same direction,” Preckwinkle said earlier this month “If you’re not prepared to work with other people that are on the slate, you shouldn’t ask for slating.”
Permit us, Madame Chairperson, to abandon ship.
So should any office seeker who values independent thinking, who bases their decision to support someone else on that candidate’s intelligence, integrity and stances on issues that matter to the county. Requiring loyalty oaths from Democrats seeking party endorsement turns those Democrats into lemmings blindly hewing to the party path.
Party unity has its place. Democrats who think and legislate like a conservative Republican shouldn’t be surprised when they’re shown the door at slatemaking sessions. But forcing a candidate to stick to the script, or else, is antithetical to the notion of vibrant, free-willed politics. Frankly, it’s downright despotic.
Loyalty pledges waft the foul scent of McCarthyism. Back then, Red Scare paranoia gripped post World War II America. Government workers, teachers and academics were routinely requested to sign loyalty oaths and undergo background checks aimed at rooting out “subversives.” Even in the 1990s, anti-Communist loyalty oaths were given to candidates in Illinois to sign.
The Tribune wrote in 1996 about Metropolitan Water Reclamation District board member Terrence O’Brien, who two years earlier signed a loyalty oath as part of his nominating papers for a board seat. Though at the time no longer mandatory, the oath’s questions still were archaic and inane, particularly since the Soviet Union had already collapsed in 1991.
The Tribune paraphrased at the time: Do you swear you are not affiliated directly or indirectly with any communist organization or any communist front organization? Do you swear you are not affiliated with any foreign political agency, party, organization or government which advocates the overthrow of constitutional government by force or other means? Do you swear not to directly or indirectly teach or advocate the overthrow of the U.S. or Illinois governments?
Of course, the current Cook County Democrat pledge asks something quite different. But a loyalty pledge is a loyalty pledge, and loyalty pledges inherently run against the grain of free choice and independent thought.
Worse, such a pledge can inhibit choice for voters. Candidates with a skill set sorely needed in county governance may opt not to run because they doubt their chances without party endorsement. That endorsement, by the way, would carry much more weight with voters if it were based on what candidates bring to the table with their intellect, policy stances and track record — rather than their willingness to toe the party line.
At a time when we need people to question what’s wrong in government, when we need a broad array of talent at the voting booth to choose from, loyalty oaths send the wrong message.
Here’s a pledge we’d like Cook County Democratic leaders to make. Endorse candidates based on their positions on issues that affect the citizens of Cook County and on their strength of character — not their forced fealty to the Democratic machine.
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Editorial: Get rid of Cook County Democratic Party's loyalty pledge. It's anachronistic, silly and undemocratic. - Chicago Tribune
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