Illinois inherited assets most states and nations would envy. Its GDP remains larger than all but fifteen countries of the world. More importantly, it inherited constitutional self-government.
But it’s failing.
Illinois is bankrupt. The state and many of its towns and cities sink further into insolvency each day — the facts and numbers are irrefutable. Illinois government is morally bankrupt as well. Its moral insolvency is less quantifiable but no less apparent. Graft, both legal and illegal, is exposed incessantly, usually to no end. Scandal fatigue overtook the state long ago. Numbed voters left politicians free to do little good and plenty wrong. Not a single major reform, fiscal or otherwise, is currently under serious consideration in Illinois.
How can a democracy have done this to itself?
The reasons are myriad. Many are debatable. Some are particular to Illinois. Most of the 20,000 articles we’ve linked to or written on this site are about those reasons.
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Which brings me back to my old adage: nothing good ever comes out of Illinois: Abraham Lincoln, the corruption that caused the passage of the 17th Amendment bastardizing the US Senate, Al Capone, Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Obamanation.
David DeGerolamo,
Have to agree that Illinois has produced nothing but evil and corruption.