It's time to kick the rascals out ... now

We only get what we deserve. We keep electing the same candidates to the state legislature year in and year out and then complain about corruption and crooked politicians. When are we going to wake up to the reality that we are in charge, not our elected representatives?

They should serve us and we have not been served. It's time to kick the rascals out and bring in a whole new crop of candidates who at least promise to change the old way of doing things in Illinois.

If the current legislature insists on raising our taxes, expanding gambling, rewarding contractors who "play to play" in massive new construction programs, while all the while refusing to pass any effective ethics reforms, then we have to do what is necessary, and that is to remove them from office. It's our choice, not theirs.

I see little importance in trying to contact any one of our elected representatives and to ask them to do what is right for the state of Illinois. They should pass a balanced budget, enact strong ethics reforms, and cut massive waste and unnecessary spending. However, they will not do this because they are mostly beholden to a leadership that is dedicated to the status quo, and they just hope we will forget their abject failures by election time.

I, for one, will not forget, and will vote them out, except for the few brave and courageous representatives who stand up to their entrenched leaders and vote for what is right for the citizens of Illinois.

Thomas Jefferson once advocated the removal of all congressmen every generation so as to bring new blood, new ideas, and new vigor into the legislative process. I think he was right on the money.

Chuck Bennett

Mount Prospect