Op-ed: Tracey: I am proud to be American

A member of a chat group that I am a part of recently shared a photo of a white man with love handles standing next to his blonde hoodie-clad wife, wearing a tee-shirt that said, “Support the Country You Live In or Live in the Country You Support.”

I couldn’t agree more with that statement. I share the description of the image of the couple because I, too, am white. I am proud to be white because that is what I am. The blood in my veins is a compilation of countries, including Lebanon, Ireland and Germany. But, my heart is red blooded, true blue All-American.

I write this opinion piece as I am returning from the great state of Florida back to my midwestern roots to be closer to my children. 

Upon returning, I am shocked to see the western suburban political landscape as unrecognizable and even further left than I thought possible. 

Could it be true that we have politicians voting to support Section 8 housing for “equity” in our small communities? Is it possible that these same politicians wear burkas and publicly celebrate Eid-al-Fitr to pander to their “constituents”? Is it true that illegal immigrants receive free tuition to attend college in the state of Illinois paid for by taxpayers, leaving citizens’ parents and legally born children to foot the bill? 

The answer to all of these questions is “yes, yes and yes!”

I don’t know about you, but I am done with identity politics. By singling out certain groups based on economic, religious or minority status, equal treatment under the law is being violated. This special treatment rewards benefits to a select few based on allegedly oppressed/oppressor groups. This premise is in direct conflict with our Founding Fathers’ principles in building America. The types of benefits that are designed to “uplift” these certain groups is state-sponsored discrimination and it’s wrong. And for those of you who don’t understand morality based right and wrong, it’s just plain illegal.

But, politicians thrive in this type of divisive environment. 

What is happening in the western suburbs is an experiment into victimhood. The above policies are not solving poverty or equity. Instead, these policies are politicizing them and siloing these “victims” into a permanent identity faction. This has been tried before in post 1960s US politics, post colonial Africa and the Balkans. It didn’t work then and it won’t work now. However, if power and resources are allocated by group status, the rational strategy is to amplify these specific groups’ grievances and lobby as a bloc. 

Preaching universalism and “there is no hate here” mantras are losing strategies. Promoting solidarity and merit-based systems are winners. Try them, you’ll like them…and so will your constituents.

As voters, we expect those who we elected to govern. With that expectation, governance requires accountability and competency, not opinionated Orwellian groupthink disguised as “policy.” 

When medical schools lower standards for “underrepresented” groups or the FAA prioritizes “diversity” over test scores, lives are lost. That is a real consequence. 

Currently, “policy” debates have become obsolete due to the inability to have a conversation between differing sides. The left has engaged in name calling and public shaming. They do not want to reasonably debate. The result is freedom of speech dies because dissent is reframed as harm to group faction. 

Disagreeing about whether a man can “become” a woman or whether affordable housing assists the needy is couched in negative slurs such as “transphobia,” “white privilege,” “systemic racism,” or worse. 

This is unsustainable in the United States of America.

Every major political experiment in “group think” governance has failed. Cue the historic tragic examples: Soviet nationalities policy, Yugoslav ethnic federalism, South Africa’s apartheid, affirmative action regimes in Malaysia or India to name a few. These experiments produced patronage machines, corruption and stagnation. 

Thinking that a state can engineer equal outcomes without tyranny is flat out denial. Continuing down this path will lead to further decline. The most successful modern polities succeeded by suppressing identity as a political variable and instead focused on neutrality and talent based achievement. 

Injustices happen. That’s life. Not everybody gets a trophy because not everybody deserves one.

It’s time to step up, Illinois. 

Let’s find some new leaders and let’s do it this fall. 

Know your options and know your history. Vote accordingly. Vote American. You’re lucky you still have the right to do so. 

Support the Country You Live in or Live in the Country You Support. Period.

– Tracey Head, 56, is originally from Dunlap, a small village in Peoria County, where she graduated from Dunlap High School in 1988. A first-generation college and law school graduate, she graduated from the University of Illinois in 1992 and later earned her law degree from Valparaiso University School of Law in 1995. A former Cook County litigation attorney, she stepped away from her career to raise her two sons. The family lived in Chicago before settling in Clarendon Hills in 2004. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they relocated to Jupiter, Fla., to support their youngest son’s in-person schooling and are now transitioning back to Hinsdale while maintaining their Florida home.