Understanding Illinois: An “Opportunity Democrat” or Do We Need a Third Party?

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•November 8, 2017•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

After a long life as a Main Street, Eisenhower Republican who has voted mostly for that party, I find I am an “Opportunity Democrat,” based on a survey I took from the Pew Research Center. Go to http://pewrsr.ch/2glDMkX to learn what you really are politically (look for The Quiz on front page).

Pew is a $5 billion nonpartisan, non-advocacy foundation in operation since 1948. I think they do great work in the public policy arena.

Based on their interviews, Pew found what they call, respectively, Core Conservatives, Country First Conservatives, Market Skeptic Republicans and New Era Enterprisers. On the Dem side, they categorized folks as Solid Liberals, Opportunity Democrats, Disaffected Democrats, Devout and Diverse. Read More

Understanding Illinois: We Need to Realize the State is a Terrible Parent

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•November 1, 2017•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

I cringe every time I see a news story, as I do frequently, about a helpless child who is killed by her mother’s boyfriend, or whatever, all while under the care of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS).

I wince not because I doubt the professionalism or caring of the DCFS staff, but because they have absolutely impossible jobs.

The latest tragedy to hit the news is about a burly 25-year-old man who assaulted a 59-year-old DCFS female caseworker in Carroll County in northwestern Illinois. The woman suffered serious brain injuries and was in a coma at last report. It’s a tough, dangerous business. Read More

Garden of the Gods Where the View Goes on Forever

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•October 25, 2017•

Coming from a part of Illinois that has more trees than people Oh Brother grew up with a natural appreciation for autumn.

Southern Illinois is the home of Garden of the Gods, located off Karbers Ridge Road where Saline County meets Pope County.

As a kid my uncle Kenneth hauled my brother Randy and me down gravel roads from Harrisburg in his 1952 Chevy for our first visit. As we turned onto the one lane gravel access road I remember seeing the sandstone walls reaching to the sky.

They were 100 feet high and might as well have been a thousand feet to this six year old. My amazement led to a stop along the side of the road before we reached the park.

There Uncle Kenneth stood at the base while he let me climb a few feet up the wall. When I was an adult, I took my little brother Jeff back to the Garden where we scaled the wall all the way to the top. Read More

Understanding Illinois: The Middle Must Be Heard-Who Can Speak for Us Now?

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•October 25, 2017•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

I worry a great deal about the polarization of what’s left of our two major parties. The Democrats are in thrall to African-American leadership plus party identity culture wars; all they seem to want from government is more.

Within the GOP a battle for dominance is underway among Establishment conservatives, the Tea Party, and the Trump program, spelled out to us in 144 characters every morning.

Nobody speaks for me anymore.

I think most Americans are somewhere in the middle, between the 30-yard lines of the field. We are not necessarily centrists, yet pragmatists who want to see big problems solved and provide order, harmony and prosperity. Read More

Understanding Illinois: Will Rauner Win in 2018 or is He Withering on the Vine?

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•October 18, 2017•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

Politics is fundamentally a game, a serious one certainly. So, like racetrack handicappers, political junkies are captivated with prognosticating the winners in top races.

And thus it is at the moment, following GOP Gov. Bruce Rauner’s recent controversial signature on a Democratic bill that provides taxpayer funding for abortions in Illinois.

This enraged many in his social conservative base, prompting the question: Whither Rauner in 2018? What do readers think?

I “ran the traps” of nine respected junkies, bipartisan, though most lean Republican. These friends have either run for and won important offices, managed big campaigns, or as top lobbyists have determined which candidates were to get big money from their interest group employers. Read More

Thinking About Health: Medicaid Still a Target of Healthcare Reform

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•October 11, 2017•

By Trudy Lieberman,
Rural Health News Service

What’s going to happen to healthcare now that Senate Republicans have failed to pass their bill, which would have replaced much of the Affordable Care Act? In particular, what’s going to happen to Medicaid, the government’s largest insurance program, which covers 74 million Americans? This is a good time to clarify what was at stake and may still be up for grabs in the months to come.

Despite its importance to so many people, Medicaid has always been the health system’s stepchild. Many doctors and dentists have avoided taking Medicaid patients saying the program didn’t pay enough. Until recently, editors haven’t been keen to feature stories about Medicaid believing that their audience was not interested in reading about people most likely to be on the program – the poor, the disabled, kids, and seniors who needed it to pay for their nursing home care.  Read More

Understanding Illinois: The way we were, and are today

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•October 11, 2017•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

Garrison Keillor has a gift for recalling the softer, warmer, quirky side of growing up in small-town America after World War II. And he is on target, but only in part.

Here is what I recall from my childhood back then in Lake Wobegon Ill., a town of just 1,200.

Life was pretty good in my town for the expanding white middle class. Decent jobs were plentiful at nearby factories.

On hot summer evenings, sans AC of course, couples would sit on their front porch swings to catch a breeze and call out howdys to neighbors strolling by on the sidewalk, trying to do the same.

Saturdays just about every farm family came into our town’s bustling main street. Wives would do their marketing at one of the four groceries. Read More

Understanding Illinois: The World As We Know It May be Passing America By

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•October 4, 2017•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

I worry that much of the world is in the process of passing America by, and that most of us are either unaware of same or are resigned to our fate.

Over recent years, I have taught American government for six-week periods at Fudan University in Shanghai, one of their top schools. This past week I hosted one of my former students in Chicago and rural Stark County, prior to his resuming graduate studies at Stanford.

Xudong Yang, 22, is bright as a new penny, outgoing and has a great sense of humor. He has been working his tail off to succeed since grammar school. He told me he worked morning through evening and had no time for outside, extracurricular activities. Many, many Chinese young people are doing the same, strongly encouraged, even pushed, by their parents. They are hungry for success, and the things we take for granted.

Xudong told me he attended an elite high school for seven classroom hours a day, 230 days a year (half days on Saturday). In Illinois and most states, students are in school about six hours a day for 175 or so days. I figure my former student spent the equivalent of 1.6 more years in high school, based on classroom time, than does the typical American student. Read More

Letters to the Editor 10-4-2017

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October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month and with elections coming up, it’s important to keep in mind how judges can help stop domestic violence and assist in the survival of victims.

First, the judge must listen carefully and show by his demeanor, his caring and concern.

Second, identify the abuse. Don’t deny, rationalize or minimize the situation. Use the court and any resources available to provide for the safety of the victim(s), but realize that the corrective steps recommended by the court may be overwhelming for the victim to follow through on.  Read More

Understanding Illinois: Illinois is the Best Place by Far to Build Toyota-Mazda Plant

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•September 27, 2017•

By Jim Nowlan
NP Guest Columnist

The Wall Street Journal has been relentless in its criticism of Illinois in recent years, largely because of our budget and political problems. To read its editorial pages, you would think we had contracted The Plague.

For a book I co-authored a couple of years on “Fixing Illinois” (University of Illinois Press, 2014), I was invited to visit Rochelle, in the central-northern part of our state. This small city belies the rap that business won’t come to Illinois.

Below is an op-ed I submitted recently to the WSJ. The short piece is an illustration of how I think we must change the narrative about Illinois and stop flailing ourselves with barbed whips: Read More