Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Illinois GOP voters seek to upend political order
This article talks about how Republicans in Illinois are upset with Democratic politicians and how they are planning to unseat career politicians. It previews and provides some backgrounds on some of the candidates, like multimillionaire Bruce Rauner. Additionally, it seems that many of the Republicans in the state are in the South, whereas the Democrats are concentrated in Chicago. This is leaving many Southern-Illinois Republicans unhappy.
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We've discussed how people are always upset with the system (government and bureaucracy) and this just goes to show that. I think a lot of people are upset with politicians and every time someone campaigns as an "outsider", they promise to clean up the mess. I sometimes wonder if people understand politics or if they just yell, because if they look at patterns they will probably see the empty promises.
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with what Yarrow said about the "empty promises" that are talked about in this article. It must be frustrating to Republicans that a lot of Illinois is dominated by Democratic politicians, but trying to upend the entire political order of a state at one time seems a bit extreme. It will be difficult for them to make these changes, so I think that is why they are talking about things such as term limits. If all their plans did actually work, I don't think they would be feeling too good about these term limits when they were the ones having to abide by them.
ReplyDeleteI understand that many Illinois republicans are frustrated, but I don't know if a multimillionaire in Bruce Rauner is the right choice. I mean, how many citizens of Illinois are going to be able to relate to someone like him? I don't know if he's actually going to care much about the average citizen's problems. From my point of view none of the candidates might be the right one.
ReplyDeleteTo address what Evan said, I don't think that a candidate's wealth should be a make or break factor in the candidacy. The article certainly implies it by throwing in the adjective “multimillionaire,” but that doesn't necessarily mean that he won't “care much about the average citizen's problems.” The article's main focus is this idea of term limits, and to go deeper to what Yarrow mentioned, empty promises of politics today.
ReplyDeleteNo one is ever going to be 100 percent satisfied with their government. People are always going to want more, better, and bigger things happening. I agree with Evan's statement that many people are not going to be able to relate to a "multimillionaire", but I also agree with Maddie's point that it doesn't mean that he will not care about the average citizens problems. Anything is possible during the election period and during incumbency. Let's all wait and see.
ReplyDeleteIt's understandable why Illinois Republicans are frustrated with the current government, but as we have learned, it's impossible to make everyone happy. The idea of campaigning as outsider has shown to be successful at winning elections, but these candidates never actually do much in Washington. I agree with my classmates that Bruce Rauner is not the right choice. Evan was completely correct that the average Illinois citizen will not be able to relate to him. Rauner is just a reinforcement of how money basically runs politics and politicians. All together, the Republicans will have trouble in making such extreme changes, but it will be interesting to see how effective they are.
ReplyDeleteThe nature of our political system is that there will always be conflict and Illinois is no exception to this rule. I agree with what Yarrow said, hopefully the citizens that are talking about "breaking the system" and weakening unions are careful about who they support. Maybe Bruce Rauner is the "bull in the china shop" that many people want and maybe he isn't. Unfortunately, people can only take him for his word right now.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see how this next election turns out for Illinois. The voters are faced with a choice of some candidates who are very different from what they had in the past. I think that how they vote will reflect a lot on the subjects of term limits, the ability of candidates to relate to the average person, and other issues discussed in this article. I agree with Evan in that I think Bruce Rauner may have a hard time relating to the average person considering his wealth, but we will have to wait and see what happens based on the election results.
ReplyDeleteEvan's comment that not Bruce Rauner may have a hard time relating to the average citizen in Illinois perfectly sums up how I feel about this situation. This reminds me of 2010 when rumors were floating around that Donald Trump was thinking about running for the GOP presidential nomination for the 2012 election. People like Mr.Trump and Mr.Rauner are very successful financially, but this doesn't mean they will be successful representatives to their entire constituencies.
ReplyDeleteI would also agree that Bruce Rauner would be a poor representative. The truth of the matter is that he is not representative of Illinois. He is a part of the top percentage of Americans, and he would not be able to relate everyday Americans. Also I do not see a republican being elected in a city like Illinois that has so many union workers.
ReplyDeleteIt's true that outsiders running to "clean up washington" will never do that because at least a big part of "the mess" was purposefully created with the founding of our government. That does not mean that replacing life time congressmen isn't a good idea; but it's impossible to make everyone happy.
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