By Paul Vallas
Unveiling in Illinois we see the signature of modern political gaslighting and moral posturing without moral clarity. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson both engage in performative indignation; they feign outrage, sling accusations and vilify opponents, anything to avoid offering solutions, being accountable for results or admitting the truth.
Pritzker rarely misses a chance to compare President Donald Trump, his administration, and even his supporters to Hitler’s Nazis. He does so while invoking his role as a major financial backer of the Illinois Holocaust Museum, as though his philanthropy grants him moral license to define who the “real Nazis” are.
But Pritzker has remained nearly silent when antisemitism originates from his own party’s far-left flank – where hatred of Jews now masquerades as “resistance” and “liberation.” When demonstrations erupted on college campuses and city streets rejecting Israel’s right to exist or defend itself, Pritzker chose to preserve his political standing rather than call out antisemitism. Because condemnation risked alienating the activist base he needs for his future political ambitions, Pritzker turned a blind eye to preserve his standing. (RELATED: JB Pritzker Said Cashless Bail Would Keep Cities Safe — Then A Woman Was Burned Alive)
When antisemitic rhetoric and behavior emerged from Chicago’s municipal leadership in October 2023, Pritzker again offered little more than disapproval, focusing attention elsewhere. Meanwhile, members of the Chicago Teachers Union organized rallies supporting a Gaza “cease-fire,” antisemitic social media posts surfaced among city leaders, including the CPS Board of Education’s president, and even Johnson called Israel’s military response “genocidal,” equating the Palestinian cause with movements for Black liberation.
Even as New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani claimed headlines, Pritzker has been silent on Mamdani’s focused targeting of Israel, calls to boycott and refusal to criticize Hamas for their Oct. 7 attack.
Yet while shielding the extremes within his own coalition, Pritzker has intensified his attacks on Trump, repeatedly likening his policies to those found in Nazi Germany. The truth is it’s about politics, not what’s good or right; dehumanization is a tool to be used for political capital.
Unfortunately, Pritzker is not alone in this hypocrisy – not even in Illinois.
Johnson has learned the script as well.
His words disguise that his own actions harm the very populations he claims to champion.
While directing hundreds of millions of dollars toward migrant relief – over $200 million — Johnson cut police resources from Black neighborhoods and CPS schools that wanted and relied on them. His budgets brought police 2,000 below full staff, while violent crimes in Chicago soared to over 28,000 instances in 2024. He sided with the CTU in blocking public school choice and charter school expansion, trapping low-income children in failing neighborhood schools. Johnson’s investments provided $324 million in subsidies to politically connected developers in exchange for only 505 affordable housing units. He raised the subminimum wage for tipped workers and doubled family leave requirements for private businesses – moves that disproportionately burden small and minority-owned businesses.
All the while, he claims Trump, his supporters, and even his critics in Chicago want to “return to the Jim Crow South.” And his warning to Mamdani was to be aware of “relentless opposition,” as if failing policies weren’t the problem.
These Illinois leaders preach “equity” while presiding over one of the nation’s most inequitable states: Illinois ranks among the highest in taxes yet among the worst in racial and economic equity. It is moral cowardice masquerading as caution.
Their antics work in one clear way: it’s increased their political visibility. Recent polling shows Johnson showed an uptick in favorability in October, after a month of visible and televised attacks on Trump for his focus on Chicago. Johnson’s 30% approval – low compared to most other major politicians – is an increase from a record-low 7% earlier this year. At the same time, Pritzker has been making the rounds on the national stage, becoming viral on social media and going as far as interviewing with Fox News’ Bret Baier. It was only in August that Illinoisans were split 50-50 on their approval of Pritzker.
The more these leaders provoke presidential backlash, and name drop Trump, the more they can posture before cameras as martyrs of “the resistance.” Meanwhile, Chicago and Illinois taxpayers, commuters and families absorb the cost and struggle without help.
When elected officials equate their opponents with Nazis, their police with the Gestapo, or opposition sympathizers with the old Confederacy, they destroy the shared moral vocabulary that keeps a democracy intact. Their words invite confrontation. Their rhetoric radicalizes the margins. And the activists who respond are not seeking reform; they’re engineering chaos.
This is not leadership. It is political theater performed at the expense of public trust and civic stability. While Pritzker and Johnson polish their resistance credentials, ordinary residents face rising taxes, violence, and asymmetrical inequality.
Illinois deserves serious solutions and accountability, not showmanship. Real leaders don’t gaslight their constituents, they serve them.
Paul Vallas is a policy advisor to the Illinois Policy Institute and was the first CEO of Chicago Public Schools.
