Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot got thumped in Tuesday's primary election in Chicago. Lightfoot, who has presided over a crime wave and a crisis of police morale in the Windy City, responded — as she has done many times before — by blaming racism and sexism.

As her 17% showing in the election suggests, Lightfoot's popularity is in the toilet. Four out of 5 Chicagoans are glad to see her gone.

Lightfoot's biggest problem was not her race or gender. It was her weak performance on several issues, most of all crime, which Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lynn Sweet referred to as the No. 1, 2, and 3 issues in the campaign. Theft is up 33% in Chicago since 2018, the last year completely free of Lightfoot. Motor vehicle theft has actually doubled since 2018. In 2022, there were 695 homicides in Chicago, almost 40% higher than the 500 killings in the year Lightfoot first took office. And that 695 number is actually a slight pullback from the darkest days of Lightfoot's administration in 2021, when the annual homicide total cracked 800.

Yet, Lightfoot spent most of her mayoralty making the police the enemy. That's not to say that Chicago police are a choir of angels, but Lightfoot's tenure has been exceptional in this regard, precipitating a mass exodus from the city police force. Chicago PD lost a net 1,458 officers out of 7,660 over her time in office. The effects of this will be felt for years.

And of course, you can't blame the police officers who leave. Why would anyone work in a city whose mayor hates police officers and creates a toxic work environment for them? Why wouldn't any Chicago police officer just move to Des Moines or Boise and be done with it?

So no, nobody was unfair to Lori Lightfoot. She's just a terrible leader, whom Chicago had the misfortune of choosing from a crowded field in a time of political turmoil.