In his administration’s first six months, Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson has delivered key victories for working people. No one can do that without making some enemies along the way, though the absurdity and dishonesty of those enemies seems to have reached new lows in recent months.

The mayor’s agenda since taking office earlier this year includes passing legislation phasing out the city’s subminimum tipped wage, guaranteeing all Chicago workers ten days of paid leave, and placing a binding referendum on the March 2024 ballot to address the city’s homelessness and affordable housing crisis, funded by raising the real estate transfer tax on property sales of over $1 million. Socialist alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa has been central to the passage of these measures in his positions as the mayor’s floor leader on city council and chair of the council’s zoning committee.

One reading of these measures is that they are relatively modest, economically redistributive policies for a city that badly needs economic redistribution. For the city’s business interests and the conservative elected officials who supported Johnson’s mayoral race opponent, Paul Vallas, these measures are intolerable and grounds for a declaration of war against the mayor and his allies. No surprises there: this is what the rich and their electoral allies do.