IS J.B. PRITZKER THE ONLY DEMOCRAT WHO UNDERSTANDS POLITICS IN 2025?

Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker is really good at this.

Gov. JB Pritzker on Wednesday signed an executive order that formally restricts the unauthorized collection of autism-related data by state agencies.

Pritzker’s order responds to federal efforts under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to create databases of personal information for those with autism “without clear legal safeguards or accountability,” according to a news release from Pritzker’s office.

“Every Illinoisan deserves dignity, privacy, and the freedom to live without fear of surveillance or discrimination,” Pritzker said. “As Donald Trump and (the Department of Government Efficiency) threaten these freedoms, we are taking steps to ensure that our state remains a leader in protecting the rights of individuals with autism and all people with disabilities.”

This is both an act of basic human decency and a well-deserved punch in the mouth for the most dangerous and arrogant member of Donald Trump's cabinet. I'm not sure how much this will inhibit Kennedy's mad plans, but it's a reminder to all of us that Kennedy's determination to use personal health data unethically in order to arrive at an erroneous and predetermined conclusions about vaccines is reprehensible.

Maybe what Pritzker is doing is showoffy, but it's 2025 and that's how politics works now. Pritzker seems to be the only Democrat who fully understands that and knows how to play on the court Fox News and Donald Trump have built.

And he does it while seeming like a happy warrior. We saw that a couple of days ago when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was about to make an appearance in Illinois:

A press release from Governor J.B. Pritzker's office advised pet owners in the region to "make sure all of your beloved animals are under watchful protection while the Secretary is in the region."

This statement appears to reference a controversial story from Noem's autobiography, where she recounted taking her family dog, Cricket, to a gravel pit and shooting it because it was not a good hunting dog.

There are fighters in the party who are doing good work -- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Chris Murphy, Pete Buttigieg, Tim Walz, Jasmine Crockett -- but they all convey the sense that Trump and other Republicans are getting under their skin. AOC and Murphy in particular, and Buttigieg and Walz to a lesser extent, seem to be pained by what's going on. You can't blame them -- what the bastards are doing is hurting people -- but American voters prefer politicians who buck them up. Even after Trump rattles off one of his endless lists of grievances, he invariably transforms himself into a power-of-positive-thinking con man who promises that he'll make everything awesome. Democrats don't need a liar like Trump, but they need someone who can really go upbeat.

You'll argue that "the politics of joy" didn't lead to a win for Kamala Harris, and all I can say to that is that she's a Black woman and this is a sexist and racist country. Pritzker has the advantage of being a white man. I don't want to believe that it's impossible to elect a female president, or, post-Obama, to elect a president of color, but our electoral record says what it says. Two women have recently lost. We elected a racist twice in the post-Obama era. Draw your own conclusions.

I know that Pritzker is rich, but so was Franklin Roosevelt. I suspect that the way wealth operated on Pritzker was to give him less fear than other Democrats, and more confidence that people will pay attention to him. These are bad traits to have if you're a rich person with no moral compass, like ... well, pretty much everyone in power right now. But in American politics today, they're good traits if you have a conscience.

Pritzker might be too far to the left at this moment -- Noem was in his state because he's a proud defender of its sanctuary-state status. Maybe swing voters would find the New Hampshire speech he delivered last month a bit much:

“It’s time to fight everywhere and all at once,” he told the group of Democratic activists, officials and donors, who jumped to their feet with hoots and applause. “Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption. But I am now. These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace.”

But even if he's not the leader we need, I think Democrats need to be more Pritzer-ish in this fight. They need a politics of not just joy, but aggressive joy. In a more emotionally mature country, that wouldn't be necessary. But it seems to be necessary here.