A happy warrior in Illinois

From the Chicago Tribune:

Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday sought to assure Illinois residents that he would fight to preserve the state’s protections on fronts including reproductive health, immigration and LGBTQ+ rights during Donald Trump’s second term in the White House.

“To anyone who intends to come take away the freedom, and opportunity, and dignity of Illinoisans, I would remind you that a happy warrior is still a warrior. You come for my people, you come through me,” Pritzker said Thursday at a news conference in Chicago, where he made his first public appearance since the election.

“You come for my people, you come through me”: I like that. And I like “happy warrior,” which I’ve known only in relation to Alfred E. Smith, who’s now camped in our living room, in the pages of Robert Caro’s The Power Broker. I had no idea that the phrase “happy warrior” derives from a poem by William Wordsworth (inspired by Lord Horatio Nelson) and that it’s been applied to any number of post-Smith politicians.