Is Ives the Trump of Illinois?

The political buzz has state rep Jeanne Ives nipping at Governor Bruce Rauner's heels in the GOP gubernatorial Primary. Ives' blistering attacks on Rauner's largely imagined liberal 'social agenda' as being traitorous to the GOP base has made inroads in Rauner's early, seemingly insurmountable lead. Ives is riffing on Trump's successful 2016 Primary run which demolished the 15 establishment candidates using a canny combination of not so subtle racism, xenophobia and personal attacks. While not nearly as crass and incoherent as Trump, Ives is playing to her largely affluent, white base to rail against immigrants, people of color, the LGBT community and people in need, whom she claims Rauner is favoring over the true Republican base. Like Trump, she appears to enjoy, even encourage, the withering criticism from progressives over her tactics, including an ad that congered up every stereotype of the 'other' whom her base despises.   

Many progressives, including me, felt Trump was the easiest Republican candidate to defeat in 2016. How wrong we were. Let's not make that mistake again with the Illinois governorship. Jeanne Ives, like Trump, seeks office to govern solely to her base; not all 13 million of us. And like Trump, Ives, though unfit to govern, may end up the Republican candidate in the general election.