The Party of ‘Whatever It Takes’: Illinois Democrats’ Descent Into Defiance

In the Illinois Democratic Party electorate, circa 2025, the fringe has gone mainstream.

Illinois Democrat rank-and-file actually support political violence

A substantial minority of Democrats support political violence (including felonies to stop federal immigration officers from carrying out their duties), and about 80% say that President Trump and his supporters are “Nazis” and agreed that ICE officers are “jack-booted thugs.” 

When asked whether they support Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker doing “whatever it takes” to keep ICE and other federal law enforcement out of Illinois and prevent them from apprehending illegal migrants, 84% of Democratic Party primary voters answered yes. 

The new survey done by M3 Strategies shows that Gov. Pritzker’s scurrilous rhetoric is in sync with his party’s most committed voters. Whether he’s “going along to get along” with the angry, deranged progressive base – or intentionally ginning up insurrectionist impulses with intemperate language – is, to be charitable, an open question. 

What is not in doubt is that millions of Illinois Democrats are rejecting the primacy of federal law, a foundational principle of our Union established by the Constitution, consecrated during the Civil War, and sanctified during the civil rights movement.

How our constitutional republic works

But before delving more deeply into the survey findings, a quick refresher on the basic principles underlying the structure of our constitutional republic:

• Federal law, including federal immigration law, is supreme and applies everywhere within the United States, including in Illinois.
• The president and his administration are solely responsible for implementing immigration law. As Alexander Hamilton put in the “Federalist Papers”: “Energy in the Executive is a leading character in the definition of good government.”
• Congress has limited the jurisdiction of federal courts with respect to immigration law under Article III of the Constitution.
• It’s a federal crime to obstruct, resist or impede a federal officer charged with enforcing the immigration laws.

Anyone who believes, as Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson pretend, that Illinois is a “safe haven” in which the state and local government can and should keep federal officers from enforcing immigration laws, and further believe that violence against federal officers who are apprehending officers is ever appropriate, is essentially advocating for an organized insurrection.

The rank-and-file, or a substantial portion of them, are actually ripe for insurrection

Consider in this regard the fact that 70% of Illinois Democrats surveyed in this poll say that it’s appropriate to follow ICE officers, while 63% think it’s appropriate to block the entrance to ICE facilities. In addition, nearly 40% think it’s appropriate to pull ICE officers off of someone they are apprehending, 14% think its appropriate to throw objects at ICE vehicles, 10% think it’s appropriate to spit on ICE officers and just under 9% think it’s appropriate to throw objects at ICE officers.

Asked another way, 42% of Illinois Democrats think violence to stop ICE agents from apprehending people is “sometimes,” “mostly,” or “always” acceptable.

The seething cauldron of Democratic Party opinion is not limited to the issue of immigration. A substantial minority of Democratic voters express open anti-Americanism, intolerance for other viewpoints, and a shocking level of support for political violence. 

For example, more than one-third of respondents view the American flag as a symbol of “oppression and hate” instead of an expression of “freedom and unity.”

And when asked if political violence under certain circumstances was always, mostly, sometimes, or never acceptable under certain circumstances, 21% thought violence was acceptable to silence “a racist or homophobe,” 11% found violence acceptable against a flag-waving MAGA Trump supporter, and 18% found violence against greedy corporate executives acceptable. 

ICE arrests twice as many lawful Illinois residents (for doing illegal things) as illegal aliens

Young Democratic voters express the most support for political violence: Of the respondents in the 18-30 year old demographic, 34% thought violence to stop ICE was always acceptable, 10% against a flag-waving MAGA was always acceptable, and 25% thought violence against a greedy corporate executive was always acceptable. 

Is it any wonder that last Wednesday, ICE arrested twice as many people in Chicago for obstruction as illegal aliens?

The results of this poll should give pause to Americans of good faith, especially those who have actively supported the Democratic Party. Their leaders are playing to a base that’s increasingly alienated from Americans who don’t think like them – and that hate those who disagree. The implication here is that the bracing ascendency of socialist Zohran Mamdani is no anomaly.

Why? In part, Democratic Party leaders have become upsettingly strident over the last 10 years.  Consider that we have regressed from Hillary Clinton’s description of Republicans as a “basket of deplorables” to Pritzker’s persistent Nazi allusions. 

Nor is, “But Trump!” an excuse that explains this behavior. Trump didn’t become the Democrats’ designated demon until he stopped supporting Democrats and became a Republican. Besides, the roots of the Democrats’ devolution into routine demagoguery predates Trump. When Barack Obama claimed that rural Americans in flyover country “cling to guns or religion…or anti-immigrant sentiment,” he was running against John McCain, not Donald Trump.

Rank-and-file, think about what (and whom) you are supporting

Democratic demonization has gone on far too long. Consider that now, practically the only Senate Democrat willing to acknowledge that the other party does not consist of murderous hateful Nazis is the one recovering from a stroke. 

Perhaps that’s an apt metaphor: Democrats must heal themselves, as John Fetterman did; or Democrats of good faith should follow Donald Trump, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard and so many others out – and ditch the Democrats.

This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.