I’m not conceding anything. I’m making an observation that IL is too liberal to elect a conservative now, otherwise a conservative would have won today.
I don’t know how much you know about this state, but Illinois politics goes beyond “Liberal vs. Conservative.” It’s Combiner vs. Anti-Combiner. Discerning which is which can sometimes be a challenge. Most Democrats are Combiners, as are many Republicans. Anti-Combiners pose an enormous threat to the bipartisan cabal.
In 1972, an anti-Combine Democrat was elected Governor and the Combine (in the form of Mayor Daley, Sr.) spent the next 4 years destroying him until he was run out of office. The current Governor used to be a vocal anti-Combiner up until he was Lieutenant Governor. When Blagojevich was forced out, Quinn became a Combiner.
State Sen. Pat Brady, when he was the nominee 4 years ago, was an anti-Combiner. Despite running on the same ticket with Mark Kirk, a Combiner puppet, they might as well have been running in different parties. Despite carrying virtually the same counties, the Combine made sure Kirk “won” his race while simultaneously making sure Brady “lost” his.
The Combine, their respective puppet parties and candidates, and the media count on the enormous confusion all of this creates in order to maintain a hold on power. They try to spin this as all Democrat vs. Republican when it simply isn’t. You can even find “Conservatives” just as deeply in bed with the Combiner as liberals. It can be confusing for us political experts, so just imagine how it is for laymen in Illinois.
I cringe at what my g-g-g-grandfather would think of his state today and the horrific level of corruption. His father-in-law, Seth Gard, was one of Illinois’ founding fathers and member of the original state Constitutional Convention of 1818 and a Speaker of the Territorial Assembly.