Elections have consequences, but social stratification and media spin often make it difficult for the average citizen to evaluate the outcomes of many policies they support.  Take for example increasing minimum wage: how many restaurant employees would continue to support this policy when their employers can no longer afford to keep them employed?  How many middle-class customers paying higher prices at restaurants will believe that their loss in purchasing power is "helping" the poor?  

As most Illinoisans know, the billionaire cousin of our loo-less billionaire governor J.B. Pritzker is “Jennifer” Pritzker, a husky 69-year-old man who, after retiring from his 27-year Army career now pretends to be a woman—a Republican woman. Last week, in a commentary replete with overheated rhetoric that appeared in the Chicago Tribune and Washington Post, Pritzker (falsely) accused the GOP of “assaulting,” “demonizing,” “marginalizing,” and “persecuting” those who pretend to be the sex they are not and whining that Republicans won’t use incorrect pronouns when referring to him as Democrats will do. Maybe he’s right. Maybe more Republicans are committed to truth and reality than Democrats.

There’s a commonly understood, even if unspoken, rule for most opinion columnists, and that is: don’t read the comment section. It’s not that those forums can’t ever produce good thoughts or insightful observations. It’s that those sections are far more often havens for nameless trolls who are far more interested in name-calling and pejoratives than in seriously engaging the argument being made.

For decades, America’s southern border has been virtually non-existent. On a map, one would be able to easily identify the border between the United States of America and Mexico. But having an agreed upon border and enforcing that border are two different discussions. The problem that America has faced is that in most places there is no physical barrier to stop or hinder illegal border crossings. What has this led to?

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is ready to tax the rich to make her Green New Deal a reality. “People are going to have to start paying their fair share in taxes,” the recently elected New York Democrat told TV show 60 Minutes in an interview set to air Sunday. Speaking of prior decades’ taxation rates in the country, Ocasio-Cortez added, “Once you get to the tippy tops, on your 10 millionth dollar, sometimes you see tax rates as high as 60 or 70 percent.”