By Jacqueline Garretson, Opinion Contributor
It has been more than five years since COVID-19 changed our lives, but for many Illinois families, the consequences never really went away. Businesses were lost, jobs disappeared, families drained their savings, and children lost something that can never be replaced: their childhood.
Under Gov. JB Pritzker, Illinois families spent 1,155 days under some form of COVID-era emergency declarations, restrictions, and executive orders. For more than three years, Illinoisans lived with a government response that repeatedly changed how we worked, learned, worshiped, and interacted with one another. What was initially presented as a temporary emergency became a prolonged period of government intervention that affected every aspect of daily life.
But the people who paid the greatest price were often those with the least ability to understand what was happening: our children.
In a matter of weeks, their entire world changed. Schools closed. Sports disappeared. Friends became faces on computer screens. Birthday parties, school activities, graduations, and family gatherings were canceled.
Children were isolated during some of the most important developmental years of their lives, and many are still dealing with the consequences. Parents watched their children struggle with anxiety, fear, isolation, and academic setbacks. Years later, many students remain behind where they should be.
Yet instead of confronting those failures honestly, Illinois continues to lower the bar and declare victory.
Changing standards doesn’t change reality. If students are struggling academically, lowering expectations doesn’t make them more successful. It simply makes the numbers look better. Parents in Illinois deserve an education system that tells the truth about where our children are; not one that manipulates the measurements to make politicians look more successful.
And here’s the part voters should not forget: Democrats weren’t the only politicians who supported the COVID response. Some Republicans did too.
Former Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin, along with others in the party, supported restrictions, defended the status quo, and failed to challenge the system, while families and businesses were suffering. Politicians shouldn’t be more concerned with maintaining political relationships than standing up for the people who elected them.
Today, former Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin has endorsed JB Pritzker for Governor. Durkin’s endorsement is a political nod of approval to the very Governor whose COVID policies left such a lasting mark on Illinois families.
To me, that endorsement says a lot. It is a reminder that the old political establishment has never been as divided as the party labels would have us believe.
There was, however, a Republican who was willing to challenge the governor when it mattered: Darren Bailey.
I watched Darren stand on the House floor and tell the political establishment that the path Illinois was taking was wrong. He challenged Pritzker’s restrictions. And while others were willing to go along to get along, Darren was willing to stand up and fight.
You don’t have to agree with Darren Bailey on every issue to recognize the importance of political courage.
Leadership isn’t simply agreeing with the majority when it is politically convenient. Sometimes leadership means standing alone and telling the people in power that they have gone too far.
The next crisis will eventually come. When it does, Illinois families need leaders who understand that government power must have limits and that emergency authority cannot become a blank check.
We need leaders who will listen to parents, protect children, support small businesses, and question the establishment when its power becomes unchecked.
Because those 1,155 days weren’t just numbers on a calendar. They represented birthdays that couldn’t be celebrated, seasons that couldn’t be played, businesses that never reopened, jobs that disappeared, and children who lost years they will never get back.
Five years later, Illinois families are still picking up the pieces. They don’t need politicians to tell them everything worked. They know it didn’t.
They deserve the truth. They deserve accountability. And they deserve leaders who will put people before politics.
That leader is Darren Bailey.
