Further thoughts about the Daily Herald’s forlorn
search for a gubernatorial candidate who can “change Illinois history.” The
paper believes it found one in Bruce Rauner. As I noted in last
week’s column, Bruce Rauner cannot change Illinois history. Bruce Rauner
cannot change even Springfield. He can, however, do as he promises and, shake
up Springfield. He won’t fix it, he won’t change it, but he’ll probably shake
it up.
Rod Blagojevich shook up Springfield too, doing
grave damage to the bureaucracy, to state finances and to the reputation of the
state. Instead of a leftist populist screwing up the works, we’ll have a
rightist populist screwing up the works, but the works, friends, will be
screwed up just the same.
Shaking up Springfield is a threat, not a program. Rauner’s
chest-thumping recalls (as does so much about this campaign) the words of the
late Gov. Thomas Ford. “If the State selects bad men, or those who are
incompetent to act as its agents, the State thus abusing its power . . . ought
to suffer the consequences of its folly or want of devotion to its own
interests,” he wrote in 1856. “This doctrine, if established, will be a lesson
to the people and teach them to be considerate and careful in electing their
public servants.”
Except
that people will not learn so long as they are convinced that things are going to hell because
somebody else keeps electing bad people to run things.
This article appears in Oct 16-22, 2014.
