Idea Fest was no clash of ideas
because there were no ideas!
Paid my $25 to witness the grande finale of the weeklong Capital Times Idea Fest featuring J.B. Pritzker, failed governor of a failed state.
Riding my Moto Guzzi V7 to the University of Wisconsin campus on a beautiful 80-degree evening was a wise choice. Easy parking. Surprised to find Shannon Hall in the Memorial Union was packed nearly to its 1,165 capacity! This is Madison WI, where every day is an NPR pledge drive.
The Illinois governor’s platform is pretty straightforward: he hates Donald Trump. That’s it. Every cheap shot at the current President was greeted with lusty cheers. (Said Chicago residents flip the middle finger when encountering Trump Tower in Chicago. What mirth!) Reform K-12 education? Not on this Democrat’s agenda! No jibber jabber about creating Abundance. Crime? What crime? Utah’s governor is urging the national temperature be brought down a few degrees. The governor of Illinois ratchets up the thermostat.
Charlie Kirk was the first question posed to Gov. Pritzker and damned if he didn’t avoid the subject like it was a dead-end Chicago alley during a gang turf war. Didn’t touch it. Not even “thoughts and prayers.”
Trump Trump Trump
Shannon Hall Saturday evening 09-13-25 played like Dr. Peabody’s Wayback Machine: Close your eyes and you’re hearing Joe and Kamala’s losing theme song: Trump is the End of Democracy!
Pritzker posed as Cerberus at the gates, defending fair Chicago from Trump’s jack-booted occupation force. Speculated that sending the militia to blue cities was Trump’s gambit to steal the next presidential election. How whacko is that!
Let’s think this through, people. Where is Trump sending the National Guard? Not to Chicago but to Memphis — one of the most crime-ridden cities in the country. At the invite of the Republican governor. As constitutionally permitted. BTW: Tennessee’s electoral votes are not in question.
On-stage interviewer Karen Tumulty may have been an actual news reporter back in the day but on this evening she pitched batting practice with questions like: How were you so brave when other Democrats were afraid to confront Trump?
Well, Karen, it’s like this …
No introspection on where his Democratic party might have lost middle America and the youth vote at a university that canceled the noble name of alumnus Fredric March and banished a 42-ton glacial boulder, both accused of racism.
→ “My liberal friends are completely oblivious about how radicalizing the last week has been for tens of millions of normal Americans.”
Is Illinois a failed state?
Chicago is the murder capital of the nation. Fortune 500 companies are taking the off ramp. Taxes are among the highest, the state is already gerrymandered, the pension fund deficit is unsustainable, the Democrats’ legislative speaker is the latest criminal convict. Even the Chicago Bears are leaving town!
This was no Bill Buckley debating John Kenneth Galbraith on college campuses. J.B. Pritzker was hermetically sealed in an echo chamber of the already converted whose average age was about 70, it appeared.
Your irascible bloggeur hit the eject button to avail himself of a frosty brew at one of the student union’s many dispensaries, which he enjoyed on the Union’s famed terrace. In the setting sun, Lake Mendota was dotted with sail boats and other craft while young people enjoyed the evening — many of them quite babe-a-licious in the late summer heat.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Say what you will, but Charlie Kirk met these young people head-on, took their questions, parried their objections. He did not pander.
15 responses to “J.B. Pritzker is what is wrong with the Democrat(ic) party ”
Average age of 70…more proof that age does not necessarily beget wisdom.
And this on a college campus! So where were all the college-age kids? Probably writing their term papers on the topic of “The persistence of racism in [fill in the blank]”. I’d like to think that at least some of them were watching videos of Charlie Kirk rallies.
The college crowd tends to prefer that social media serve them their propaganda, not interactive forums with real people.
Anybody light up any ditch weed?
Sounds like the attendees were all part of the pony tailed, black socks and Birkenstocks brigade.
Seems like the thinking Democrats are always shut out of events like this. I think Tulsi Gabbard has good ideas… oops too late. Ok how about RFK Jr. Oops too late. Well certainly Elon Musk… Oopsies!
Well dang it they still have Fetterman! Admittedly I haven’t read the news today.
I wonder why JB hasn’t gotten the jab yet. No the other jab. Also wonder if the Lizzos of the left become more conservative as the weight drops off.
Add Joe Manchin to the above list. And read his new book.
70 year old Liberals: “frosted flakes”. Democrats are on the wrong side of every issue. It’s glorious to watch it die.
Dave, didn’t anyone recognize you? And try to throw you out? Thanks for doing the dirty work of attending that the rest of us would not. And it cost you $25 bucks, too!!
Thought about booing but at least sat on my hands when everyone else applauded, which they did for every pronoun, adjective, and dependent clause.
“Right-wing extremist disrupts Ideafest”
– The Nation Magazine, probably
Especially for the pronouns they, their, and them when applied to a singular antecedent.
I fervently hope Pritzker is the Democrats’ presidential candidate in 2028–if only for the pleasure of watching JD Vance skewer him like the prize hog he is.
[…] Donald Trump is not Hitler — not even close. Nor does the President represent the “end of democracy,” Gov. Pritzker. Like the idiots who burn flags, you are telling the world you’re out […]
Pritzker/Hogg in 28′. Ya Baby!