Dear Governor Pritzker,
I want to sincerely thank you for your powerful and moving speech at the State of the State and Budget Address last week. Your comparison of the Trump administration to the Nazi era was both necessary and courageous. It was refreshing to hear a leader speak the truth so plainly and forcefully—something too many Democrats, from state legislatures to Congress, have failed to do.
Frankly, many Democratic voters feel abandoned by the party. From the suppression of Bernie Sanders in the 2015 primary to the ousting of Biden during his reelection campaign, to Kamala Harris aligning with right-wing military industrialists like the Cheney family, poor decisions have repeatedly weakened the party’s credibility.
Even more concerning, liberals across the board—whether my personal friends or strangers on social media—overwhelmingly believe that Democrats are not fighting hard enough against this ongoing coup d’état. Worse still, the party’s messaging has been weak and ineffective. If this continues, the Democratic Party will collapse—and with it, possibly, our country. To prevent this, Democrats must embrace an urgent, all-hands-on-deck approach.
To counter the relentless right-wing media machine—funded by Facebook, X, TikTok, and Russian bot farms—Democrats must unleash a powerful cultural response. We need a continuous and unrelenting surge of information, art, music, film, literature, and public discourse to combat fascism and reclaim the narrative.
This is why I am calling on you to establish a privately funded artist work program, similar to the WPA under Roosevelt’s New Deal. By keeping it independent from government bureaucracy, this program could mobilize artists quickly and effectively. It would function as a grant initiative supporting work that meets three core objectives:
Resist fascism.
Bridge the divide with our red-state neighbors. This is not a partisan issue.
Promote Illinois as a strong, unified community.
Now, who am I to make this request?
My name is Matt Schultz, and I am a multidisciplinary artist from Illinois. I’ve lived in all four corners of this great state. While in Chicago, I co-founded the band Pigface, helping to shape the industrial music movement in the 1990s. I earned my MFA in sculpture from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale on a full-ride scholarship. Over the past 12 years, I’ve taught Art and Design at multiple colleges and universities across the state.
I would like to work with fellow Illinois artists to manage this collective that you, Governor, are going to personally fund. Our goal is to distribute grants that empower artists to create meaningful, urgent, and persuasive work aligned with the three objectives outlined above.
We must act now—before it’s too late. This artist collective can amplify the Democratic message in a way traditional politics cannot. Art has always been a powerful force in shaping public consciousness, and in this fight, it will be no different.
I look forward to your response.
Thank you. Matt Schultz
If you are an artist working to fight fascism, please subscribe to my website.
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