They Don’t Want to Run Chicago—They Want to Break It

Chicago has always been a political battleground. But here’s what used to be true: the people who ran it needed it to work. Machine bosses were transactional, petty, brutal—but they still needed the garbage picked up, the schools open, the city standing.

Today’s MAGA-aligned operatives—some in office, others in media or lurking in think tanks—don’t want to run the city. They want to collapse it, then point at the wreckage and say: See? Government never works. The Left ruined it. Now give us everything.

This isn’t some isolated Chicago clown show. This is part of the Trump-era national strategy to gut public trust and dismantle democratic institutions.

We’ve already seen the dry run:

• Trump’s 2020 budget cuts targeted Chicago’s public housing, education, and health care infrastructure.

• Stephen Miller’s immigration war that directly fueled the local migrant “crisis” narrative—now parroted by aldermen like Ray Lopez.

• A federal disinformation machine that frames any Black-led or progressive city as inherently broken.

This is the same game the Right plays everywhere:

Starve public institutions.

Manufacture crisis.

Flood the narrative with anti-government bile.

Offer privatization and police as the only way out.

Here are three of the biggest threats locally —and why they matter.

Raymond Lopez (Chicago Alder, 15th Ward)

What He’s Doing:
Lopez started as a traditional ward boss-in-training, a protege of Ed Burke. But lately, he’s gone full MAGA-adjacent, leveraging right-wing media to attack migrants, unions, and any progressive policy he can spin into a talking point.

Example:
Lopez appeared on Fox & Friends and Jesse Watters Primetime no fewer than six times last year, blaming rising crime on “woke” leadership while opposing actual investments in violence prevention programs like Treatment Not Trauma [Source: Fox News transcripts, 2023]. He’s also flirted with conspiracy-adjacent rhetoric, calling migrant shelters “national security threats.”

Why it Matters:
Lopez is not just a troll—he’s the prototype for a local version of the GOP’s national agenda: break the system, blame progressives, and ride the outrage. And because he still has a (D) next to his name, his anti-city, anti-governance posture gets framed as a legitimate internal debate. It’s not. It’s sabotage.

🔥 Darren Bailey (Failed Gubernatorial Candidate, Proud Secessionist)

What he’s doing:
Bailey may have lost the governor’s race by over 10 points, but he’s still the ideological North Star for Illinois Republicans. His campaign labeled Chicago a “hellhole” and openly championed separating downstate Illinois from Chicago—a fantasy pushed by reactionaries for decades [Source: Chicago Sun-Times, 2022].

Example:
During a televised debate, Bailey doubled down on his calls to “take back our state from Chicago” and has continued speaking at right-wing rallies promoting armed resistance, “God’s law,” and the end of abortion access [Source: Capitol News Illinois, 2022].

Why it matters:
Bailey doesn't need a seat to pull the party right. His brand of apocalyptic anti-urban rhetoric fuels attacks on state funding for Chicago schools, public transit, and healthcare. He’s creating the cultural permission structure for GOP leaders to write off cities entirely.

🏚️ Paul Vallas & The Privatization Blob

What they’re doing:
Vallas might’ve lost the mayor’s race, but he’s still shaping Chicago politics through PACs, punditry, and a loose network of right-leaning think tanks and charter school evangelists. His model? Replace public services with private control, blame unions when things fall apart.

Example:
After decades of pushing failed charter school policies in New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Bridgeport, Vallas is now calling Chicago schools “on the brink of collapse” and arguing for more “public-private partnerships” [Source: The 74, 2023]. He’s also backed by hedge fund donors aligned with the American Enterprise Institute and other anti-public-sector groups.

Also? He’s STILL leading hypothetical GOP-fueled mayoral polling—thanks to platforms like Elon’s Twitter pumping anti-Chicago propaganda 24/7 [Source: M3 Strategies, 2024].

Why it matters:
Vallas is the “respectable” face of MAGA-lite authoritarianism. He gives wealthy centrists a way to oppose progressive governance without wearing a red hat. But the end goal is the same: weaken public schools, crush unions, and funnel power to the private sector.

How To Stop Pretending This Is Normal

Lopez, Bailey, and Vallas aren’t just making noise. They’re part of a machine that rewards participation, protects its worst actors, and gets its message out first—every time. Right-wing media doesn't argue. It floods the zone. It laundered Trump’s worldview into suburban Nextdoor posts and mainstream headlines. And it’s doing the exact same thing with Chicago right now.

If we keep treating this like a normal political fight, we will lose.

So if you’re:
📰 A journalist: Stop covering MAGA aldermen like they’re just part of the spectrum.
🗳️ A voter: Treat every school board, City Council, and budget hearing like it’s a federal election—because it might as well be.
💼 An organizer: Build communications strategies that anticipate this attack—not just react to it.

We need coordination, volume, and clarity—and we need it yesterday.

🧨 Forward this to the person in your group chat who still thinks “Chicago’s always been corrupt” and hasn’t noticed that this time, they’re trying to make it collapse entirely.