“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein
The Ever-Too-Short Route to Chaos
“When statesmen forsake their own private conscience for the sake of their public duties…they lead their country by a short route to chaos.” – Sir Thomas More, “A Man for All Seasons”
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From this morning’s “Illinois Playbook”:
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The Niles Township Democratic Organization is recruiting candidates to run against state Rep. Yehiel “Mark” Kalish, a Chicago Democrat who decided not to take a position on the Reproductive Health Act — the measure that made access to abortion and other women’s health procedures “a fundamental right” in Illinois.
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Kalish, the first rabbi to serve in the General Assembly, is one of 10 Democrats who didn’t support the bill, which was ultimately passed 64-50 and has since been signed by the governor. Six of those Dems voted no and another four, including Kalish, voted present.
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But Kalish is the only one taking heat: When he was appointed to the seat vacated by former Rep. Lou Lang, he promised Democratic committee members that his votes would align with Lang’s progressive record on gay rights, gun safety, unions and abortion rights.
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That was true through much of the session. But when it came time to support RHA, Kalish backed out. Apparently, it’s one thing to believe in the abortion-rights movement but another to support a bill that declares “a fertilized egg, embryo, or fetus does not have independent rights.”
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Lang understands now that Kalish’s non-vote was an act of “conscience.” Nevertheless, Lang told Playbook, “I wouldn’t have chosen him if I’d known how he was going to vote on this bill. It’s a gut bill. It’s a bill about the present and future of the Democratic Party.”
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What does it say about our politics when the present and future of the Democratic Party takes precedence over a man’s conscience? It profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world – but for the Democratic Party? It just underscores the fact that the Lou Langs of this world have no soul.
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Mark, if this is the vote by which your service in the House will be measured, I’m proud to say I served with you.
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