“Who cares about this stupid election?”
–Tammy Metzler, student council presidential candidate, Carver High School, from the 1999 movie “Election”
Ah, nothing like another exciting night of post-election coverage . . .
“Education and jobs!”
“Jobs and education!”
“I’ll fight for the people of this state!”
“We’ll bring honesty and integrity to the office!”
“We need to help working families!”
“Candidate X must be stopped!”
“Give me money!”
(OK, so the last plea wasn’t there yet, but give it time. )
No one’s quite certain at this point who is going to win the governor’s mansion come November, but everyone knows that we’re all going to hear these same tired slogans ad infinitum between now and the big showdown. It’s enough to make someone drown himself in Lyndon LaRouche literature. Well, almost.
Why do some still listen and cheer as if they’re rooting the Big State U. football team on to glory? We heard the same stuff four years ago. And eight years ago. And we’ll hear it four years from now. And eight years from now.
How come? Because four years from now, Illinois’ inner-city schools still will be a disaster. Honesty still will be eluding our state’s highest offices. “Working families”– quite possibly the most popular campaign phrase of the last 10 years–still will be struggling to make ends meet.
And all the while, Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, Illinois Senate President James “Pate” Philip and Illinois gubernatorial candidates Jim Ryan and Rod Blagojevich will continue to spend more, more, more of our money. They’ll do this while likely saying that they support “fiscal conservatism” (another buzzword phrase that’s becoming increasingly common, even among Democrats), but government keeps growing regardless of which party is in office.
Maybe I’m just a disillusioned ex-political science graduate student, but . . . what’s the point of it all? Why do we lambaste this political dog-and-pony show with one hand but support it with the other? Charges of public apathy rain down from the media, but some might say it’s actually irrational to care about a political process where the dialogue remains the same, problems remain unsolved and someone else continues to make off with all of our money.
Look, it’s not healthy for people to turn their back on the political process, and this isn’t a rallying cry for bizarre Nader-style alternatives. Just please, spare me the patronizing rhetoric that’s going to emerge from the mouths of our state’s two gubernatorial front-runners over the next eight months.
