It’s primary election day here in Illinois. It’s also St. Patrick’s Day, March 17. Erin go bragh! That translates from the Gaelic as “Ireland forever” or “Ireland till the end of time”. In the Chicagoland area, another phrase is “Everyone is Irish on St. Patty’s Day!”. Okay. In that spirit many a person without a drop of Irish blood in their veins indulges the celebration. It’s a good marketing slogan for the corned beef and cabbage purveyors. And Irish adult beverages. The fact that this year in Illinois the Irish mojo converges with the primary election, it invites the thought of some people voting under the influence, possibly compromising the clarity with which their ballot choices are made. However, given that Illinois is a pretty Blue (as in Democrat) political part of the country, even a polling place infested with people with one level or another of Irish beer or whisky having been imbibed will still vote for some Blue candidate or another. It’s sort of an auto-pilot function of large swaths of voters keeping Illinois Blues in office, for better or worse.

The primary election in Illinois sets the stage for the upcoming mid-term election this fall. In many cases, whomever wins the primary race will likely defeat the Red (Republican) candidate come November 3, 2026. Why? Well, Reds don’t do as well in Illinois like they do in many other states. Regardless of what state, or when they have a primary, and who wins what primary race, the entire country will be run by some mix of Red and Blue. Right now the Reds have control of everything. Except perhaps their sense of human decency. I mean, just look around. We are on the verge of either a global economic convulsion, or nightmare of nightmares, nuclear WWIII. And I am not fear mongering when I write that. We have a lot to be worried about right now. But keep in mind, our current Red/Blue established, exclusive two-party system produced this current dangerous, unaccountable political modus operandi.

Getting back to St. Patty, maybe getting smashed before or after voting today in Illinois in very understandable. As noted up there in the previous paragraph, things are very unnerving right this moment. However, also getting back to that virtual certainty that Blue will will do better than Red by the end of this day, the underlying motivation for any voter in any state is that he or she wants their party to win, convinced the System can be made to function much better than it is the case right now (with the exception of a certain batshit crazy segment of the voting public endorsing current mis-leadership).

Reality check! The entrenched Red and Blue chokehold on choices for the electorate has shown it is in collapse. Metaphor time: If the Duopoly were a car, its dashboard would be an dazzling display of disturbing red light warnings indicating a coolant leak, a broken water pump, worn spark plugs, (hey, it’s an internal combustion political car engine, okay?) a broken timing belt, worn bearings, worn pistons, leaks everywhere due to worn gaskets, seals or an old oil filter, a clogged radiator, worn hoses, broken engine mounts, broken connecting rods, defective rings, underinflated tires, broken tie-rods, and worse yet, a driver who ignores all such warning lights.

Regardless, the entrenched political Donkeys and Elephants who dominate the electorate,;say let’s tinker with the jalopy, get it back in gear with a new driver and problems solved. It can still be salvaged! A programmed, propagandized display of delussional magical thinking, I say.

The Duopoly is a Jalopy! Its is about to implode, with its massive amount of malfunctioning systems. Why keep trying to fix what is now clearly an unfixable piece of junk that is endangering the lives of all the unregenerate tinkerers who lack critical thinking skills. And adding insult to injury in this scenario, the petrol that one must pump into this rambling wreck may soon cost $15 a gallon.

As a long standing advocate for more choices in our political showrooms, I have and am still supporting alternate models that run on a much different type of engine. A very Green, well planned and easily maintained political transport that gives its customers value for their investment. The Jalopy Duopoly has successfully kept such other options from being seen, let alone be test-driven, nationally or even in local outposts if it senses losing its long standing customers, and especially those younger shoppers who indicate they already know a lemon from a peach. It might be “Forever Ireland” and such but it does not have to be forever Red or Blue.

The Green Party is one of the best alternative models to invest in. You won’t find any Greens on the The Jalopy primary ballot here in Illinois. That’s intentional. Ballot access is much harder for any 3rd party. We’ll try to break through and gain ballot access for the mid-term in November. It won’t be easy but we are going try. We’re convinced if we can offer a new showroom, with better choices, making a vehicle for change that can be seen and test driven as easily as the showrooms full of generational lemons, this fall might be a very peachy improvement on moving forward.