Pritzker and Abortion Rights: Political Coat of Arms
Leaked Roe v. Wade overturn document hands Illinois governor perfect diversionary distraction away from real issues facing the state
Sometime today, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker greets President Joe Biden’s arrival in Chicago with a firm handshake and earnest ‘thanks for coming, Joe’ small talk.
Pritzker and other Democratic big wigs host the president Wednesday. Biden speaks at a fundraising event downtown with a reported top ticket price of $365,000.
(For the same price, a benefactor could purchase 10 Chevy Bolts and donate them to an auto exchange for a consumer giveaway. If we’re going to reduce our dependency on oil, someone has to lead the charge, right?)
Biden’s speech writers will likely deliver copy for a keynote address with what marketing experts call a “unique selling proposition.”
That can be summed up in one word – diversion.
Why are gas prices still hovering around $5 a gallon?
Putin’s Price Hike.
Food prices up almost 10% from a year ago?
Putin’s Price Hike.
Trillions in market cap erased?
Putin’s Price Hike.
The White House admitted the one beat elucidation for the country’s problems in a press release to reporters in advance of Wednesday’s fundraising speech and Biden’s trip to a Kankakee farm.
This self-indemnifying messaging will be lapped up tonight by Democratic dignitaries and Pritzker, who over the last week has religiously followed the advice of a well-oiled Chicago machine politician, former mayor Rahm Emanuel.
It was Emanuel who once famously said, “never let a crisis go to waste.”
It took less than an hour for Pritzker to tweet his response after news leaked last week of the Supreme Court’s likely overturn of Roe v. Wade.
OK, then. No margin for ambiguity there.
Prtizker’s hard line stance on abortion rights is consistent with the state’s “safe haven” climate, one he re-enforced all weekend long in rallies held in downtown Chicago.
To steal a line from Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot – it was a ‘call to arms’ in the Loop Saturday; teacher’s and nurse’s union representatives descending around Federal Plaza, all united in efforts to protect abortion access.
Notice Pritzker’s choice of words in this video:
Democrats are the heroes. Republicans are the enemy.
We do have to grudgingly give Pritzker credit when due.
He’s bad at governing but he sure as heck knows how to politic.
While Pritzker’s opponents in the gubernatorial race held separate press briefings in stale, benign conference rooms, blaming him for the LaSalle Veteran’s Home tragedy, he marches downtown with a backdrop illuminated with Instagram-filtered optics and passionate speakers.
The abortion rights rallies led Chicago newscasts all day Saturday and received prominent ‘A’ block filler on Sunday.
No candidate for office could possibly spend enough money – not even Pritzker – on ad placement for that type of gleeful corporate media coverage.
All over an issue made moot in Illinois by Governor Moot.
Since he came into office in 2019, Pritzker has expanded abortion rights across the state in anticipation of future higher court rulings.
Just five months into office, he signed a large scale abortion protection law. In press conferences unrelated to abortion rights, Pritzker has gone out of his way to criticize states that restrict abortion.
Said at an event in the summer 2021:
Shame on those Texas lawmakers for taking away, not just women’s rights, but women’s health. Banning abortion does not keep women safe…I am very concerned and focused on making sure that here in Illinois we are a beacon of hope for women who need reproductive health, and we’re seeing that people in states like Missouri have had to come across the border in order to just protect their own rights to see a doctor for goodness sakes.
After signing the 2019 legislation piece:
In a time when too many states across the nation are taking a step backward, Illinois is taking a giant step forward for women’s health. In this state, we trust women.
Pritzker used the same type of “abortion as health care” language in comments all this past week.
In an appearance on MSNBC, Pritzker told a national audience that Illinois will be “an island in the Midwest. But there will be women all around us that will be swimming to get onto our island to exercise their rights and guarantee their freedoms.”
Governor Moot also lobbied on MSNBC for abortion rights to be the front and center issue in other election campaigns this year in the United States.
And why wouldn’t he?
What we are seeing from Pritzker since the infamously leaked document is a master class in communications game planning with these outcomes in mind:
Retain customers
Improve brand perception
Solidify brand consistency
Deepen engagement and loyalty
I’ll add one that may or may not have been discussed in strategy sessions with his Comm Team (although judging by the pathological hubris in the Pritzker administration, I doubt it):
Distract from real life shit show
You know, like, the every day problems millions of Illinoisans deal with on a daily basis.
Escalating gas prices.
Absurd inflation.
Obscene pension debt.
Increasing population loss.
2,000 carjackings in Cook County in 2021.
And there’s the substantial development of multiple small courts, an appellate judge and the Supreme Court rejecting Governor Moot’s unlawful mask mandate.
We’ll stop there. All of these are genuine issues for voters in this state.
Not abortion rights.
Or making Illinois an ‘island’ for out-of-state abortion seekers.
So tonight, while mingling with the other Masters of Diversion over $100k Poulet de Bresse, Pritzker will receive back slaps and political reinforcement.
When Biden talks about the Putin Price Hike, the governor will chuckle and thank the document-scanning paralegal who handed him a brilliant f**king divergent coat of arms symbol.
Abortion is Pritzker’s Putin.
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