Glenn Reynolds: Chicago sings blue-model blues

Glenn Reynolds: Chicago sings blue-model blues:
"Around the nation, this year, you can see two phenomena at work:

• One is the collapse of what Walter Russell Mead calls the “Blue Model” of government, one based on unions, racial/ethnic politics, high regulation and high taxes. 
• The other is the steadily more desperate efforts of Blue Model politicians to keep kicking the can down the road.

For starters, look at Rahm Emanuel’s Chicago. Rahm Emanuel, a major inner-circle supporter of both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, is not a stupid man.
Nonetheless, he’s finding it harder and harder to hold things together.
Right now, Emanuel is facing problems over the police shooting of Laquan McDonald.
Video makes it pretty clear that the shooting wasn’t justified, but the city withheld the video until, conveniently enough, after Emanuel had won a sharply-contested election.
McDonald’s family received a $5 million settlement (which some have characterized as hush money) and emails obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times last week show that city officials were more interested in managing the news than in getting to the bottom of what happened.
Meanwhile, Chicago faces other problems, including a secret jail where prisoners were kept from their lawyers, numerous other instances of police misconduct and racial discrimination and a sinking school system.
...Plus, as in most large, Democratic cities, the police and other city workers are unionized and, effectively, almost impossible to fire.
As Mead notes, “There is a harsh conflict of interest between the city’s employees and the city’s voters. ...
It is in the interests of public sector unions to shelter employees from oversight and threats to their job security, regardless of how well they perform.”
And, also like most large blue jurisdictions (and some red ones), Chicago is in financial trouble, not least because of the high pensions secured by those unionized workers, pensions that the city can’t really afford to pay.
In May, Moody’s downgraded Chicago’s credit rating to “junk,” with a negative outlook, based on this and other problems..."