“Mayor 1%: Rahm Emanuel and the Rise of Chicago’s 99%” is a compulsively readable, timely, and well researched new book that examines the current state of Chicago politics.
As the title suggests, the book is both despairingly critical and hopeful. It discusses both the current mayor’s policies which have tended to support the status quo at the expense of the poor, and also the various movements (and individuals) that have risen to oppose him.
The book was written by Kari Lydersen, a longtime political writer with a decidedly progressive voice. Lydersen is a frequent contributor to “In the Times” and “Midwest Energy News.” She has written for the “Washington Post” and the “New York Times,” providing some balance against the media corporatists.
“Mayor 9%” includes accounts of how Emanuel tried to suppress free speech during the Nato Summit, how he tried to minimize the power of the teacher’s union (proving he’s not all that far ideologically from Scott Walker), and how he closed many schools and clinics that serve the lower class.
Some of the most memorable sections concern how Emanuel’s political actions have negatively impacted particular vulnerable constituents including a patient that was affected by Emmanuel’s mental health clinic closing in Woodlawn.
The bipolar, Helen Morley confronted Emmanuel at a public event, and argued that if he closed the clinics, “We’re going to die… there’s nowhere else to go….” but Emanuel was seen ducking out to avoid her. Sure enough, within a month she was deceased. This is not all that surprising since many of the former patents in the closed clinics have fallen through the cracks and disappeared. According to Lydersen, some police also argued that closing the clinics would also increase the crime rate.
Lydersen historically grounds her arguments when she discusses Emmanuel’s background and his role as a leading Neoliberal architect. She discusses his advisory role as a fund raiser for Clinton, and as his stint as the Chief of Staff for Obama, and shows how Emanuel prophesized his future hardline mayoral actions by pushing many of the biggest Neoliberal compromises such as Clinton’s welfare reform bill, and encouraging Obama to abandon the public option in the Affordable Health Care Act. Emanuel also savagely attacked supporters of the Single Payer Plan.
One of the most fascinating sections explores how Emmanuel fell out with Obama, when a “Washington Post’ article came out which gave Emanuel credit for most of Obama’s accomplishments. Despite this. Emanuel was able to win a majority of African American voters because of his association with Obama. But as the book shows many of his cost cutting, budget saving tactics have disproportionately impacted black workers.
The only big flaw or downside of the book is that there are no interviews with Emanuel included, but according to the “The Reader,” after he saw Lydersen’s proposed topics, the mayor declined to be interviewed. There is also not much on how he stacks up against previous mayors.
But still, all in all, “Mayor 1%” is a lively, hard hitting, and fearless piece of journalism which sheds light on how the reconstituted political machine works and how its new “boss” keeps it running.
