Within the next day or so, a friend or family member is likely to utter some dismissive, breezy variant of a popular lie: Your vote doesn’t matter, it’s not worth the trouble, the candidates are scum.
The lie isn’t just a lie. It’s offensive. White markers line too many rows in too many of this country’s military cemeteries for the lie to be speakable. Our privilege of voting is just that, paid for in bloodbaths that secured our rights and our lifestyles. Those who’ve given the most to preserve the ballot cannot exercise the same privilege. They lie dead in all those cemeteries.
Not in many years have the kinds of questions that will be resolved Tuesday been so important.
In a nation faced with resolute enemies and the possibility of war, control of Congress hangs in the balance. In a state with terrible financial problems and a sleazy political legacy, voters will choose a new governor and all 177 members of the legislature. County races also matter, especially in Cook, where voters in the March primary began a still-unfinished overhaul of the wasteful and moribund County Board. And in judicial contests, voters can blast several truly bad judges out of their well-paid sinecures.
True, in some races you won’t find much competition on the ballot. But a handful of races cry for voters to make good choices. Illinois Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan, the Republican candidate for governor, would manage this state’s desperate finances with the steely skill that his mentor, former Gov. Jim Edgar, displayed. Democrat Rod Blagojevich, by contrast, continues to spout costly promises he cannot keep, as if to buy off voters with their own empty dreams. Blagojevich’s piled-up promises make him look clueless about the job that awaits.
Good legislative candidates, too, need help. In Chicago’s Far South Side and south suburbs, Rev. James Meeks, an ally of U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., can unseat state Sen. William “Bill” Shaw, whose shabby representation of his constituents rarely rises above political dirty tricks.
In Cook County races, the cause of reforming the County Board demands the election of Tony Peraica in a rugged west suburban race. It’s also urgent that incumbents Earlean Collins (West Side, west suburbs) and Peter Silvestri (west and northwest suburbs) return to bolster a growing coalition of commissioners who will demand change. In Downstate Illinois, Republican U.S. Rep. John Shimkus is trying to fend off Democratic U.S. Rep. David Phelps in a race that could well determine if House Speaker Dennis Hastert stays in power.
Among the county’s judges, eight need to be driven off the bench. The arrogant James T. Ryan is the most notorious of this bunch. Their names will appear again Tuesday on this page–and, yes, it is entirely legal to carry the Tribune’s recommendations into the voting booth.
First, of course, each of us must get to the voting booth. If you have kids, bring them to the polls. Teach them about those cemeteries. Teach them what it means to vote.
