Anyone can stand on a platform and accept the gratification. Real leadership involves the humility to stand up straight and accept blame when you fail those you are responsible for instead of leaning on a readily available crutch.
But then again, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot was never a leader.
Lightfoot lost his re-election bid this week, receiving only 16.4% of the vote, trailing former Chicago Public Schools Chief Paul Vallas and Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson.
Lightfoot had made his crutches before the results came.
“I am a black woman — let’s not forget,” she told The New Yorker in an essay published three days before the election, providing the rationale for her inevitable defeat. “Some people, frankly, don’t support us in leadership roles.”
Local media condemned his loss, with the Chicago Tribune declaring it a “political embarrassment” that came as crime “skyrocketed” in the city during his tenure—the homicide rate in 2022 was nearly 40% higher than in 2019. And recorded an astronomical 800 kills. 2021, the highest in 25 years.
Lori Lightfoot spent four years walking around Chicago on an identity crutch because it was the only thing she could stand on with pride.
Lightfoot would declare that her loss was due to voters translating her identity as a black gay woman into a negligible leadership handicap, but she had no trouble running as an independent when she won the election in 2019 with nearly 74% of the vote. .
Chicagoans only get mad when she loses, apparently.
Lightfoot’s tenure as mayor can be summed up in one phrase, the famous line of football player Terrell Owens: “I love me some.”
She was elected to public service with a promise to reduce crime and ensure the safety of all Chicagoans. But in the short term, we saw that his priority was to satisfy his ego over his constituents.
During the protests and riots of 2020, when regular people demanded that his administration do something to protect their lives and livelihoods from criminals and agitators, Lightfoot put their safety before them.
He even had the audacity to say “I have the right to make sure my house is safe” as he banned protesters with enforcement by 70 police officers: security for me but not for you.
Lightfoot’s identity bench was manufactured by progressivism, and he had no problem bashing people with it whenever they tested its effectiveness.
When the local media began to question his managerial actions and results, he used his arm to deflect criticisms at the media and their lack of diversity.
“I have been struck by the overwhelming whiteness and masculinity of Chicago media outlets, editorial boards, the political press corps, and yes, the City Hall press corps, since day one of the 2018 campaign,” Lightfoot said.
When asked back in 2021 how much of the criticism had to do with the fact that she is a black woman, Lightfoot unhesitatingly said, “About 99%.” But the truth is that the criticisms stem from him behaving like a 1%.
While he is able to move around the city safely through police details, His solution For 99% the best way to avoid being robbed is to carry no cash at all.
She will ride a police-escorted chariot from her ivory tower to be the center of a parade for people but what happens to them after she dances and leaves is not her concern.
People who constantly reference their identity and project hatred against their identity when people try to hold them accountable do so to hide how mediocre a talent they really are.
I have never met someone who exemplifies leadership qualities looking for ways to make a scapegoat even though he easily could. They use those moments of failure as lessons so they don’t keep repeating them unnecessarily – because real leaders have the humility to understand that they are imperfect and you can’t grow as a person if you recognize your mistakes. be
Lightfoot did everything he could to point the finger at anyone who dared to challenge him when he promised the public and usually that finger was the middle one.
Lightfoot’s death is his own doing, and Chicagoans use their voting power to force the self-centered mayor out of office, like Winona Ryder in “Beetlejuice”: Lightfoot. Lightfoot. Lightfoot.
Adam B. Coleman is the author of “Black Victim to Black Victor” and founder of Wrong Speak Publishing. Follow him on Substack: adambcoleman.substack.com.
