What will guide our critical choices this election
It seems at nearly every level of government, we face crises these days.
In Washington, virulent partisanship from both major parties means we will have huge health care changes made largely behind closed doors. And the Democratic majority's spending is spiraling out of control.
In Illinois, we have a senator none of us chose after a former governor was impeached following charges he tried to sell that Senate seat.
In Illinois, our state government largely is bankrupt - financially and ethically.
In Cook County, we've witnessed a tax rebellion. In DuPage County, we're still awaiting answers about how $19 million in reserve funds at the water commission was accidentally spent.
And in three short weeks on Feb 2, every one of us who has registered to vote can begin to do something about our dissatisfaction. We've campaigned in this space for nearly a year now for incumbents to clean up the money and ethical messes. Some attempts have been made, but the primary election provides the best chance we've had so far to exert and reassert our control. So we continue that campaign today and starting Sunday, when the Daily Herald begins its endorsements.
Forces are conspiring against the citizenry. The primary is being held much earlier than usual, a change made last year to give the state more sway in the presidential election. Now it is crammed in the middle of winter, just after holidays when most of us are distracted, a date that greatly benefits incumbents and the status quo.
And so it is more vital than at any time we can recall, that all voters push past the obstacles, that we do our homework, that we get out to cast ballots.
Voters' choices always are imperfect. As we sat down to spend hours with the candidates up and down the primary ballots, we saw that it is nearly impossible to say with ease or sweeping finality that all current officeholders should go. Some have tried to clean up the corrupt systems that plague us; some have tried to find ways around the obstacles to progress in the halls of power.
They will win our support and should win yours. Those who did not must go. Then, we all must demand better from the victors.
We believe we need a return to bipartisanship, moderation and compromise. We need to protect ourselves from al-Qaida terrorists here and in Afghanistan and Yemen. We need a procedure for drawing districts after the next census that stops political powers from fixing who wins. We need limits on legislative leaders' power to stymie ideas they don't like and on their power to give unfettered donations to their candidates. We do believe we need to rebuild our transit system and our schools, but, like the local leaders in many of our communities, we question whether video gambling in every bar is the funding answer. We look skeptically at candidates who claim they can cut their way to a solution, just as we don't favor those who seem to want to tax us to oblivion. We need to elect people who see cutting spending and reining in pensions and entitlements as the top priorities, but we believe we must solve our debt problem and understand some revenue raising likely will have to be part of the solution.
As we considered these primary endorsements, we questioned incumbents more and will expect more of them. We asked ourselves who will truly tighten spending? Who will work to change corrupt systems? Who is more likely to do the right thing rather than the political thing? These are our guiding principles; this is our call to a commitment to action from every frustrated voter among us.