So the fox says to the farmer, “Hey,
don’t fix the henhouse door — just buy more
chickens.”
That’s pretty much the same advice that you, as
Illinois voters, are about to be spoonfed.
Big business, big labor, and some “good
government” groups have teamed up to urge a no vote this November on
the constitutional-convention ballot question. They’re planning to
spend $3 million on TV and other advertising.
Illinois voters are given a choice every 20 years
about whether to call a “con-con,” and in 1988 the ballot
question was defeated.
The entire Illinois establishment was opposed to a
constitutional convention back then, including most newspapers. But 2008 is
a whole lot different than 1988, when the political world was pretty stable
here and most things were on track.
“A mess” hardly begins to describe our
state’s current political situation. Some have suggested that voters
are so fed up with our political disaster that they will vote for a
constitutional convention with the hope that something — anything
— will change.
It was obvious during a conference call with
reporters last week that “fear and loathing” will be the
message of the “no” campaign.
“If you think things are bad now, just wait
until the same people who have screwed up our government get their hands on
the constitution,” sums it up pretty well. The opponents did their
very best to make the claim that the same people who are responsible for
the gridlock and political warfare in Springfield will be the ones who will
control a constitutional convention.
However, all the powers that be in this state oppose
a convention. Why? Because they know they may not be able to control it.
They fear the controls that ordinary citizens running as convention
delegates might attempt to put on their power, and they believe that the
voters, who will have the final say over every single proposed revision or
amendment, are not to be trusted. It’s no coincidence that the groups
providing most of the cash for the “no” campaign are also
allied with the most powerful politicians in Illinois.
The well-funded convention opposition will likely do
anything to scare you away from voting yes. They claimed last week, for
instance, that a convention would cost taxpayers $100 million. That’s
far more than a recent estimate by a legislative agency, but it has a nice
round scary ring to it, so that’s what we’ll be hearing over
and over again.
And the opposition’s claim that all our
problems are political, not structural, is simply ludicrous.
“It’s the politicians, not the constitution, that are at
fault,” says the executive director of the Alliance to Protect the
Illinois Constitution, which is fronting for the interest groups.
I do not understand how the opponents can claim with
a straight face that even though a tiny number of people have accumulated
an enormous amount of power under this constitution — the House
speaker, Senate president, and governor — all we have to do is elect
new people and all our woes will suddenly disappear.
I’ve been around just since 1990, and lots and
lots of new people have been elected since then, lots of good people, even.
I would venture to say that the General Assembly as a whole has a brighter,
more diverse and thoughtful membership now than in the old days, but the
concentration of power has only gotten more pronounced. Our constitution
simply allows too much power to be concentrated in too few hands.
Also, the legislative leaders and the governor
control the drawing of the legislative district maps so tightly that
it’s unbelievably difficult to defeat an incumbent. The only way to
do it is with money supplied by those leaders, who get their campaign funds
from the very people who are now saying that this mess is purely the fault
of politicians, not the constitution.
The people arguing against change have been our
political system’s greatest enablers, and now the fox tells us that
the broken henhouse door is fine and what we ought to do is buy more
chickens.
Better to just fix the door.
Rich Miller
publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and
thecapitolfaxblog.com.
This article appears in Jul 17-23, 2008.
