When people talk about Illinois or Chicago they almost always stop at politics. They mention how corrupt our government is and how everything is tied to "Chicago style politics." Chicago style politics are, according to most, inherently corrupt and inept. My view is that it is not inherent but that they are made that way by the voters. The voters of Illinois like to keep things the way they even though they may complain about how bad it is. It seems that as soon as they are familiar with a candidate or politician they are ready to keep voting for them no matter what. If most of the population thinks Daley is corrupt and has only his best interests in heart, why is he still in office?
My only solution other than getting people to change, which is damn near impossible, is to impose term limits. Daley's been in office for 20 years now and can "buy" every election. Now I'm not saying he pays for votes or is doing anything illegal but he has so much money for campaigns he can probably run and win for another 20 years.
This opens up the issue of "career politicians." After 20 years in any position you begin to amass a ton of favors done and favors owed. We see this is trading votes in congress and we saw it with President Obama's seat with Blagojevich. If the political landscape continues to change we greatly diminish these issues as the "favors" become useless as the politicians leave office. Think of yourself in your own private life and all the people that you have done favors for and people that "owe you one." Now imagine if those people went away after 8 years. People would be more reluctant to do you a favor as they might not see their return. They would start doing things based on their own principles rather than what they could get in return for swaying slightly from them.
Just a few thoughts on our ties with "The Machine." Happy primary voting to all my fellow Illinoisans.
1 comments:
First, love seeing 3 posts in a row - if you are doing NaBloPoMO - I will get 30 posts - yay! Second, I love the way that you put the responsibility on the voters as well because that is SO true. Even worse, people who complain and don't EVEN vote. Great post!