Telling voters what they want to hear

In a letter to the editor, the writer informs us that Plato considered the greatest threat to Democracy to be politicians who want to be elected so badly that they will tell voters what they want to hear, not what they need to hear.

That is why our Founding Fathers envisioned a part-time government of people who would serve a spell and then go back to their regular lives.

George Washington set the example by serving two terms, the second one reluctantly, and then returning to Mount Vernon to farm.

But as government grew more powerful, with more favors to hand out, it started attracting professional politicians who had no other life apart from talking and handing out other people's money.

Until 1967, our Illinois legislature met only every-other year.

Now, instead of citizens in a part-time legislature, we have professional politicians talking full time about giving scholarships to illegals, providing free health care, and buying Wrigley Field -- at the same time there is no money to fill potholes.

It was not ironic that on the same day the above mentioned letter to the editor appeared on the opinion pages, the Daily Herald editorial above it warned us that we were just hours away from repeating last year's legislative budget deadlock.

It was inevitable.

Lou Eisenberg

Buffalo Grove