Just a few days ago, April 7, 2015, the city of Chicago had a mayoral election and its  political dynamics will shake the DNC to its foundations. A relatively unknown Hispanic politician gained 44% of the vote against the powerful machine incumbent Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The media like to say Emanuel’s vulnerability was due to his rough demeanor and failure to fix the city’s finances, but there are far deeper and more powerful political forces at work. 

This election took place 30 years after Chicago’s Mayor Harold Washington issued an Executive Order declaring Chicago the first big city sanctuary for illegal immigration.

Democrats have given Hispanics every entitlement government can give them. All they asked for in return is for Hispanics to support the Chicago Democrat machine candidates. 

But in a stunning, unprecedented act of rebellion, Chicago Hispanics voted for their own mayoral candidate, Jesus Garcia. Garcia’s showing surprised the once all-powerful Democrat machine, a machine that has ruled Chicago politics for over eighty years.

Garcia started as a classic Chicago Democrat. He rose up in the ranks and behaved as a loyal party member. He was rewarded with a secure and non-machine-threatening position as a county commissioner. 

Chicago machine Democrats expect Hispanics to be a loyal minority like the black voters in the city. Chicago has had strong black political leaders since the 1920s but they always knew their place and toed the party line. 

Since 1985 Democrats have nurtured the Hispanic population of the city. They have bent over backwards to enable them to vote. In Illinois, the state passed a law stating that the matricula consular, a form of I.D. an immigrant obtains from his nation’s consulate, is as valid in the state as an official state I.D. Also Illinois, like many other states, passed a law stating that illegal immigrants may have a driver’s license.  With these two forms of I.D.,Democrats expected Hispanics to follow the example of black voters before them and vote only for machine Democrats. 

When, not if, Chicago gets a Hispanic mayor the machine’s very existence will be threatened, if not ended. The mayor of Chicago, as Barack Obama learned, rules as an autocrat, and writes the city budget, and makes all deals and union contracts behind closed doors. If Garcia eventually becomes mayor he can have a field day with his newly acquired autocratic powers. He will name new heads for the Departments of Education, Fire, and, Police and renegotiate labor union contracts on a take it or leave it basis with the goal of avoiding Chicago’s now inevitable bankruptcy. He can declare that Chicago is in a financial crisis and use his powers to say that the only way to save the city from bankruptcy is to completely dismantle the patronage hiring system. This will permanently neuter the old machine’s power. He will replace it with his own system of patronage.

Thanks to the sanctuary policies promoted by Democrats, Hispanics will soon have the numbers to take over the Democrat machine of the city. For example, there are now about as many Hispanics in the city as white residents. And in the public school system 46% of the students are Hispanic, compared to 39% African-American and 9% white. And Mexican families, who make up the majority of illegal immigrants in Chicago, have twice as many children as white families. They tend to stay in the city and not move out to suburbs. 

In order to secure Hispanic voter support Democrats have unwittingly empowered Hispanics with what has become a nationwide ground game. The players in this political network are the biggest contributors to national political campaigns. For example, while the SEIU is closely allied with the DNC, the Illinois Council of the two million member SEIU broke ranks and supported Garcia. One-fourth of the SEIU’s members are Hispanic immigrants. According to the Center for Responsive Politics the SEIU are the largest campaign contributor to any party, giving $220.6 million to political candidates, with 99% going to Democrats. 

Another government-based labor union, AFSCME, is the third largest contributor to national political campaigns. In the past ten years AFSCME gave $93 million to campaigns with 99% going to Democrats. Immigration Reform and employment opportunities for immigrants are goals of AFSCME.

Educators already support Hispanic causes. The two largest teacher unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, combined give $160 million. The NEA has 3 million members and with the AFT control the political messages children receive in most of the nation’s school districts. In Chicago and other big cities only the Hispanic portion of the public school children population is growing. This is also true nationally: while the national number of white and black school age children age 5-17 has barely increased, the Hispanic segment of the nation’s school age children has tripled since 1980. White school enrollment is declining due to high mortgage costs, high property taxes -- going to support Hispanic dominated public schools -- and the high cost of having children. 

The American Federation of Teachers, whose members work at public schools that are increasingly Hispanic in enrollment, is backing immigration reform. AFT represents 1.6 million teachers. This all means that a pro-Hispanic political movement is already united in its political platform, well funded and organized throughout the entire U.S.  And most importantly it exists not in the private sector but in the public sector, in virtually every school district, government office, and bureaucrat department in the nation.  This makes its funding federal and more reliable. 

Democrats may feel that Republicans are their greatest adversary, but they have far more to fear from the Hispanic infrastructure than from the GOP. This sea change in their party will all be accomplished by persons who were enabled to vote through the Democrats’ strategies of Constitutional corruption, mostly recently expanded by President Obama’s executive action on immigration reform. 

At some point Democrats will have to fight this takeover. When Obama ran for president he was immunized from criticism because Democrats wanted to use his race as a shield. But they can’t criticize Garcia or other Hispanic candidates too much because then Hispanics may perceive that as racist. 

It will be difficult for Democrats to suddenly ask for voter I.D. laws, since they have been so adamantly against them. And it’s difficult for them to complain that the southern border isn’t closed, since they are the ones who want it kept open to their potential voters. 

Democrats have established the illegal Hispanic vote with the goal of enabling their party to maintain power throughout the 21st century. But apparently Democrats never imagined that the Hispanics would rise and take over the party. Fittingly, this has happened first in Chicago, the first official big sanctuary city. But in other big cities the Hispanic population is the only segment that is growing, and while Democrats have always played racial politics, for the first time this tactic has worked against them; as Hispanics, with the help of disgruntled African-Americans, have united behind one candidate and rebelled against machine control.