Politics: Stupid voters
Posted in Politics with tags blagojevich, Jim Ryan on December 11, 2008 by Billy DennisI don’t agree with the widely-held belief that Jim Edgar was squeaky clean during his tenure as governor of Illinois. I mean, sure, he shines in comparison to his predecessor, Big Jim Thompson, the man who made pin-stripe patronage what is still is today in Illinois.  He never killed anybody, which is something that George Ryan cannot say, having sold drivers licenses to unsafe drivers, including the truck driver who killed six kids.
But Edgar played the game, albeit a bit more quietly than most.
But I am going to agree with some of the points Edgar made in this interview with the Daily Eastern News:Â
Edgar said Blagojevich should resign, but concluded he probably will not quit as governor.
“I’ll be surprised if he voluntarily stepped down,” he said.
He said the voter population should have been more critical when Blagojevich was re-elected in 2006. The media did an adequate job of bringing out and discussing the ethical issues Blagojevich had prior to 2006, Edgar said. He was surprised when Blagojevich was re-elected, he added.
Folks, this is what I have been saying. We, the voting public, have to accept responsibility for Blagojevich. Sure, he ran as a reformer the first time. But by 2006, we knew he was under investigation. We knew he couldn’t govern. We suspected he was a nutcase. But we voted with our wallets. We listened to politicians say he’s still doing good things. He swallowed the lies he told on his television ads. We closed our eyes, covered out ears and hummed loudly to ourselves to convince ourselves that we weren’t seeing and hearing what was right in front of us.
We constantly complain about smarmy politicians who run on charm, good looks and lies. But we vote for them anyway because we cannot take our eyes away, and because we’ve convinced ourselves that honesty and integrity doesn’t matter as much as making sure we get a taste.
We are stupid voters.
Yesterday, the headline on the Journal Star was “State of Shame.”
Absolutely right. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves.Â
