CHICAGO IS WHAT DEMOCRATS DO,

Chicago Tribune columnist Dahleen Glanton says, "so much winning, I'm sick of it."

While hardly anyone was paying attention, black women rose up and took charge of the most high-profile positions in our city and county government. If you throw in the African-American men also in top spots, the changing political tide is even more astounding.

I have a question, though. If our city really has become the black political mecca it appears to be, why are African-Americans leaving Chicago in droves?

"Good question," notes Craig Newmark.

Ms Glanton continues, "Obviously, something is wrong in paradise."  Yep.

Chicagoans are beyond being shocked when an African-American lands in a high position. Most of us have come to accept it as the norm. We elected Carol Moseley Braun as the nation’s first African-American female U.S. senator more than 25 years ago. The first African-American president gained his political footing in Chicago as well.

Does that really make a difference, though, to the average Joe in West Garfield Park, among the city’s communities with the highest poverty rates, highest homicide rates and lowest life expectancy rates?

It’s nice to be able to pat ourselves on the back for being a progressive city when it comes to electing diverse leaders, but it’s mostly a facade.

(Advantage, Cold Spring Shops? To wit:  "Chicago is still fifteen square miles of privilege surrounded by the Third World.")  Read on:

Most people don’t have a lot of confidence in politicians, regardless of their skin color. For African-Americans on the South and West sides, areas that historically have seen more broken promises from City Hall than any other group, the apathy is unfortunate, but understandable.

Not only are black people not voting. They’re packing up and leaving by the thousands.

While all of these impressive political moves have been taking place in the upper echelon of government, black people have been pouring out of the city — and state. These alarming statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau might help explain why.

Though African-Americans represent a third of Chicago’s population, about 34 percent of African-Americans live in relative poverty, earning less than half of the minimum wage. Only about 43 percent of blacks own their homes here, compared with 72 percent of whites.

According to recent statistics, 15 percent of African-Americans in Chicago are part of the labor force, compared with 57 percent of whites. Statewide, things aren’t any better — the black unemployment rate in Illinois hovers around 9 percent, among the highest in the nation.

And how can anyone write about blacks leaving the city without mentioning the almost daily ritual of violence.

In the final analysis, it might not be about the color of the public officials' skins. It might not even be about the content (or lack thereof) of their character. It might be about the failed public policies still revered by Democrats.

What’s the point in breaking through barriers if your success isn’t going to make anybody else’s life better?

Getting re-elected?

That’s the problem with celebrating historic elections. We tend to bask in the moment of someone breaking through a glass ceiling, but we don’t stick around long enough to see how deeply others get buried in the debris.

We assume that if one woman or one African-American makes it to the top, all women and all African-Americans will soon follow. More often than not, it doesn’t happen.

More disturbing, though, is when a person’s groundbreaking achievement does nothing to further the cause of those they were put in place to help. Unfortunately, we’ve seen a lot of that in Chicago over the years.

Too often when an African-American makes it to the top in politics, it becomes nothing more than a personal achievement.

Since when did a corrupt ward-heeler politician ever prosper by moving a dependent base closer to prosperity?  Perhaps in those prosperous people, of all races, creeds, colors, leaving Chicago is the normal course of things.