The Midwesterner: Blogging the Global Midwest

Chicago: What's Changed? What Hasn't?

A few years ago, The Chicago Council published a book called Global Chicago, with two goals in mind. The first was a wake-up call to Chicagoans that their old industrial City of the Big Shoulders was gone, replaced by a global city with new strengths and challenges. The second was an attempt -- probably the first anywhere -- to study globalization's impact on cities by looking hard at one of those cities.

I was talking recently with the editor of the book, Charles Madigan, then a writer and editor at the Chicago Tribune (as was I), now Presidential Writer in Residence at Roosevelt University in Chicago. We were exploring what's changed in Chicago since the book came out, and what is unchanged -- or still undone.

A Skeptic's View on Midwestern Politics

With the mid-term elections a week away, some thoughts on the state of politics in the Midwest seem timely. This blog, like its sponsor, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, is non-partisan, so don't look for any endorsements. But I'm a journalist by trade and I spend a lot of time driving around the Midwest, so it might be useful to contribute some impressions from all this traveling and listening.

The Midwest, for the first time in years, went solidly Democratic for Barack Obama two years ago. Now the conventional wisdom, in the Midwest as elsewhere, predicts sharp swings back to the Republicans, perhaps even a landslide that would contribute to a GOP capture of both houses of Congress.

Well, maybe so. But put me down as a skeptic. It seems certain that the Republicans will make gains but possibly not as many as they expect. Polls throughout the Midwest are tightening. There remains a strong sense of independence, almost an ornery refusal to make up one's mind too soon. The results could be much closer than anyone expects.

Race and Racism in the Midwest

The Shirley Sherrod affair has ignited new charges of racism from left and right and raised the issue of whether -- and to what degree -- racism survives in a nation led by an African-American president. Let's take this issue and bring it home. Does racism survive here in the Midwest which is, after all, Barack Obama's home turf?

Well, sure. Racism survives in the Midwest, just as it does in the rest of the country (and, as any traveler knows, around the world). The real question is where it survives, and to what degree, and is it affecting the way people think and vote?

Any report on this has to be pretty impressionistic. If there any accurate studies on Midwestern racism, I don't know about them. But I've been traveling the Midwest constantly for several years now and have tried to take the region's pulse on racism, as well as on other issues. So let me take an admittedly imperfect stab at this.

Immigration and the Midwest

One of the most draconian immigration laws has just been signed by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer. The bill reflects the fact that different parts of this country have different vital interests and different views on big national issues like immigration. With anti-immigration politicians in places like Arizona grabbing the headlines, it's even more important that the Midwestern voice be heard on immigration policy.

The bill would require police to demand proof of legal entry into the United States from anyone suspected of being here illegally. Citizens could sue police departments that didn't enforce the law. The potential for racial profiling is obvious: any Hispanic who left all his legal papers at home could find himself across the border by nightfall.

I can't speak for the people of Arizona. The state lies on the Mexican border and apparently has been an increasingly important entry point for undocumented immigrants crossing the frontier. It's an emotional issue there, especially since the killing of an Arizona rancher by an apparently illegal immigrant.

Democrats there by and large oppose the new, tougher bill: so do most police chiefs, whose association issued a statement saying that the need for policemen to enforce the immigration law will hurt their ability to stop more important crimes. But the bill passed the Arizona Senate with unanimous Republican approval. A local poll shows that 70 percent of Arizona voters approve it. Some 82 percent of Tea Party members like it. Radio pundit Glenn Beck has called for armed militias on the border to start shooting at immigrants. And even Sen. John McCain, once a leader in immigration reform, has come out in favor of the bill.

Immigration -- especially illegal immigration -- is an emotional and political issue everywhere. Perhaps immigrants really add nothing to the culture and economy of Arizona. But in this issue, Arizonans do not speak for Midwesterners. With anti-immigrant fervor running amok in Arizona, Midwestern leaders need to look at what immigrants do for this region and state their own case for more -- not less -- immigration.