Progressives Have Knocked the Wind Out of Chicago Since the 1996 DNC Convention

Most politically conscious Americans of a certain age remember the disaster that was the 1968 Democrat National Convention in Chicago and the violence that ensued there, but few remember that Bill Clinton came to town with his re-election convention in 1996. That event may have become the forgotten Chicago convention, but it is instructive to compare the state of the Windy City from Clinton’s era to today to see how progressive policies have caused the city to decline since the previous convention.

Breitbart’s Joel Pollak noted on Friday that in 1996, as the Clinton era entered into its second term, Chicago was in a good place.

“Crime was down. The economy was soaring. Notorious slums were being cleared, hopefully to be replaced by mixed-income developments,” Pollak noted.

But as the DNC returns to the city by the lake, conditions are not so rosy as they once were.

Without a doubt crime and taxes have surged in Chicago, but just stating the obvious is the least of it. A look at some of the numbers really lays bare just how badly the city has collapsed since the Clintons came to town.

Let’s start with the city’s population. In the 1990s, Chicago was a vibrant town full of people hustling and bustling, earning, and succeeding. But since the 1990s, the city’s population has collapsed. And if anything shows how bad things are it is that the town’s own citizens don’t have enough confidence in Chicago to stick it out.

In 1990, for instance, Chicago had a population of 2,783,660, but by 2023 it had fallen to 2,664,452.

While that might not seem so bad, the fall was particularly bad for the city’s black population. In 1990, Chicago had 1,187,905 black residents. By 2023, that number had fallen to 784,078.

Between 2017 and 2023, the black population fell three percent, according to the Chicago Urban League.

Though it may be cynical, some may say that one reason there are far fewer black citizens in Chicago is because they are being murdered by the thousands every year. The Center Square recently reported that in 2023 black Chicagoans made up 77 percent of all homicide victims.

But there are many more reasons for Chicago’s African Americans to flee the city, and economics tops the list. The city’s black population suffers wildly high unemployment, much higher than the national average. Black unemployment in Illinois in general is bad enough and stands at around 10.9 percent, more than twice as high as the white unemployment rate of 4.7 percent, according to Crain’s. But it is far worse in Chicago. The paper noted that in 2021, unemployment for black men in Chicago was a disastrous 57.4 percent. At 60 percent, it was even worse for black women. And for black teens it is is a horrendous 87 percent.

So, it appears there is plenty of gang violence for black Americans in Chicago. But apparently not much else.

The unemployment problem is not solely among minorities. According to the Illinois Policy Institute, Chicago has the worst unemployment rate of the entire country for all workers.

Speaking of jobs, the Windy City is also a leader in another dubious metric: the shutting down of businesses. Recent data published by WirePoints finds that in 2021 Chicago suffered the third highest loss of businesses in the country.

Sadly, for those left still working, Chicago also suffers with some of the worst inflation in the country. Financial services company Wallet Hub recently placed Chicago as one of the worst in the nation for inflation; it ranks fourth worst based on the Consumer Price Index.

On top of all that, there is the real estate crisis that threatens to prevent any new businesses from even bothering to set up shop in Chicago.

The city’s real estate sector has suffered a “continuous decline in the demand for office space.” Worse, since the end of the pandemic, Chicago’s market has been one of the slowest in the nation to rebound.

All these terrible metrics have coincided with nearly 100 years of Democrat rule. The last Republican who sat at the top in city hall left office 93 years ago in 1931. But it has only gotten worse since the progressives began taking control of the city in the 1980s. By the end of Clinton’s era, the takeover was complete and the heydays of “The City That Works” were officially over.

The Clinton era marked Chicago’s high-water mark and when the DNC came to party in 1996, it was truly a celebration. But today, 28 years later, the good times are long in the rearview mirror and the 2024 DNC event might seem more like a funeral for Chicago.

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