That tells me Sampson [a supporter of Mayor Sawyer who argued that not supporting a certain candidate would lead to racial unrest] doesn't understand how an election works. The person with the most votes wins. If you don't get enough votes, you lose. That appears simple and fair enough. But Sampson doesn't see it that way.
-- Mike Royko [Mike Royko: A Life in Print]
Doonesbury has a wicked column today, following up on another. The previous had ED annoyed he had to keep up with all the factions in the Middle East. This one had his advisor explaining to him that every country doesn't have a Supreme Court to fix elections when the wrong person wins. In other countries, they are stuck with the "terrorists" that a majority of the population choose. This was upsetting to him. Why don't they vote Republicans? Karl Rove clues him in: they hate America. The humor is barbed and goes beyond the tiresome (and in fact usefully simplistic ... for the other side) "he is dumb" theme.
One wonders how Mike Royko, patron saint of Chicago and newspaper columnists (the right sort), would have thought about 2000 and its aftermath. We need more pointed commentary like his these days, and not just in blogs. Frank Rich hits hard, but has a pointed headed liberal sort of vibe that is a bit tiresome after awhile. The redhead also hits home sometimes, but other times seems a bit too trivial or over the top with her at times childish sounding barbs. In fact, a NYT editor, Gail Collins, once reminded me of Royko. She used to have a column in the NY Daily News, pointing out all the foibles and idiots found in the city government. As she noted in one ad, Collins once wrote about pigeons, and received much more feedback worried about their well-being than of that of public officials.
The NY Daily News doesn't really have someone like that any more. Juan Gonzalez sometimes provides a left of center bit of truth as does a few others, but they always seem to be on a somewhat out of the way place in the paper. Surely, not on the editorial page or anything. Thus, one valuable column on immigration and civil service issues is deep in the paper, mixed in with want ads and other matters people skip over to read comics and supports. A bit of verve, especially one that takes no prisoners, is a bit harder to find these days. We need more Roykos.
I speak as someone who only had a passing knowledge of the man, but appreciated him all the same. His column used to be syndicated in the Daily News and I enjoyed it enough to purchase one of the volume of his columns. I don't believe he was there any more when he died in the mid-1990s, surely not consistently. I also checked ... no longer have the collection, but I remember some of them, a few that are also excerpted in a biography by a former editor, friend, and reference in his column, F. Richard Ciccione. For instance, his tongue in cheek review of the Roykoesque film Continental Divide, or his discussion of his new high rise (with picture pointing out the necessaries of such living) apartment. It showed his, forgive me, eclectic tastes and romantic side.* Such things appeal to me as well. I also remember a column annoyed that some moron alderman nixed honoring the writer Nelson Algren with a street sign.
The book was an enjoyable read, especially since it had a healthy citation of his columns (and love letters to his first wife ... who died way before her time). His respect for hardworking ethnic Chicagoans was also noted. I think he might have liked my dad. He too was of the first generation born in America, his family, did in his time in the military (stateside though), and was a deep believer in hard work. Such basic things puts matters in a certain perspective. I did not know he and his second wife ("the blonde") adopted two children (a boy and a girl, the latter no girly girl -- she gave him the finger before she was three), but overall the book provided a picture of Royko that fits my image of the man.
[I didn't know of his computer loving side, including his penchant of hanging out in chatrooms. He might have liked all these online message boards.]
As a fan of the Billy Goat tavern, and its "curse" on the Cubs, he would have appreciated a recent post by the Slate fray wag doodahman on the subject. And, the 2003 fiasco would have been quite understandable to him -- the book notes that it was almost hard to take when the Cubs actually went to the playoffs in the '80s, and won the first two games. But, he had more perspective them some. He would not blame that one fan alone. Like his column noting the public ultimately was to blame for Nixon, his last column noted the delayed introduction of black players to the team. The author noted that he said that it "was racism, not the Goat, which haunted the Cubs."
I think he would appreciate these times. Ciccone noted that the Chicago politics changed since the Boss Daley days and the tenor of Royko's columns changed with it. The incompetence, cronyism, and linguistic stupidity (and vulgarity) that we must deal with these days would have be quite understandable to Mike.
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* The book reposts what appears to be most of a touching column, told through the eyes of alter ego Slats Grobnik, about a young married couple that clearly had very money buying a Christmas tree. They bought two cheap trees ($3), both half crummy. SG later saw a tree in their window, and it looked wonderful. Turns out, they tied the two together, and "if you put them together just right, you can come up with something really beautiful." You know, "Like two people, I guess."
[Slats was introduced in the 1960s, when a major policy role in the poverty administration was given to a poor person. This seemed off to Slats. He was drunk for as long as he could remember, but was never offered the presidency of Seagrams.]