Trouble is, we can't vote them out

To John Stephens from 9-24-16 Your Views: You apparently don't know that you can't vote out 72 of 118 incumbents in the House, and 27 of the 40 Senate incumbents, because they are running unopposed.

They are running unopposed because their districts have been gerrymandered by the Democrats to make them undefeatable, and the Democrat-dominated Supreme Court of Illinois stopped an amendment to take redistricting out of political hands and put it into a bipartisan committee.

The Republicans would probably do the same thing if they had the chance.

What this all does is let politicians not have to respond to their constituency. They don't ever have to pay attention to the voters, only their political bosses.

Many other states run themselves on far less per capita income than Illinois gets and yet Illinois continues to plead poverty. Poor management, patronage, giveaways, and outright graft and theft have now put us in deep trouble, and our political elite have tied our hands behind our back to ensure we can't turn on them for what they have done, so I wholeheartedly agree "vote the scoundrels out," but first we have to take back our state by stopping gerrymandering and then, with term limits, make politics a service not a birthright.

Both of which will require the full attention and pressure from every voter to even begin to implement. The only alternative is to vote with your feet and leave Madiganistan to rot in its corrupt politics, which a lot of people are doing.

Robert Williams

Rolling Meadows