East Central Reporter

An Oakland lawmaker fumes Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s days of tyranny are over.

“For these small businesses to have any chance of survival, it’s time for civil disobedience,” Republican state Rep. Chris Miller told the East Central Reporter. “He’s already destroyed countless small businesses. For this to end, we have to take a stand or the damage will only get worse.”

Miller argues the handwriting is on the wall with the governor now moving to reenact COVID-19 restrictions in at least 24 counties and threatening to hit others. Despite the governor pointing to rising infection rates, the move has sparked nonstop outrage and instant pushback among small business owners already hard hit by earlier shutdowns.

With a Facebook page dedicated to businesses planning to defy his order already created and launched, Pritzker is now threatening to send the Illinois State Police to the regions where restaurants and bars are deemed to be in violation. Miller expects all the governor’s threats to fall on deaf ears.

“No one down here cares what he says,” he said. “He’s already been sued in court and lost on these same issues. He has no constitutional authority to be doing any of this. If we have to go to court, we will and he will lose again.”

Miller argues more and more voters are now sensing the governor has ulterior motives for making many of the moves he has. 

“In beginning people were pretty cautious in terms of what he was saying,” he said. “But people aren’t stupid, they know all he’s trying to do is continue a narrative that ends with the state getting a buyout that covers up for their inability to manage the state as they should have.”