The Daily Background

Living in Chicago, I saw this ad on Facebook and thought the framing was interesting. Instead of it being a question of whether Emanuel has the right to run as mayor here, the question the ad poses is whether or not voters have the “right” to vote for him. Gee whiz, you mean our rights as lowly citizens are at stake here? Give me a break.

Also somewhat arrogantly backwards: the name of the URL. Similar to the name of the third party Joe Lieberman was elected to his Senate seat the last time around (Connecticut for Lieberman), Emanuel’s website is Chicago for Rahm.com, not Rahm for Chicago.com.

The whole messaging here flies in the face of the idea of being a public servant and flips the equation on its head, as if all Chicagoans should be angry that their right to vote for somebody who hasn’t lived here for two years may be trampled on due to a pending inquiry into his eligibility due to residency status (in fact, it’s arguably longer than two years if you consider that he hasn’t held a job in Chicago since 2002 and may have spent most of his time in DC from 1993-1998 when he worked at the White House, and 2003-2010 when he worked in the House of Representatives and later the White House).

Filed under: Z-TDB Blog