"In several parts of Illinois, voters have come to tolerate a certain level of corruption if they're getting their streets plowed after a snow storm and getting their garbage picked up," said Mike Lawrence, a retired director at the University of Southern Illinois' Paul Simon Public Policy Institute. "Voters need to take their citizenship seriously."
Retired machinist Charles Lee, 56, said he wishes corrupt officials wouldn't keep getting elected in Illinois, but says it's not his fault.
"We don't have that good of a choice," he said. "They're all crooks."
It's not just in Illinois. Anyone who takes an oath to defend the Constitution and then uses their power and influence to flaunt it is a crook. Charles Lee is fortunate to have retired at 56 - must have had one of those union jobs with all those benefits that add so much cost to American goods which is why we buy so many products from China and Mexico. His union most likely contributed a lot of money to those corrupt politicians Charles voted for in exchange for special treatment which allowed the unions to extort Charles' exorbitant salary from his employers. So, Charles did have a choice. He could have voted for a libertarian candidate or a write-in candidate or he could have abstained from voting, thus sending a message of non-support of the status quo. Charles (and others like him) might have lost his union job but he could have made a difference.
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